Dog has its day in P.D.Q. Bach's series of spoofs

For the unlucky 13th edition of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory's Bach Cantata Series, the focus was on P.D.Q. Bach, the youngest, least and oddest of Johann Sebastian Bach's 20-odd children.

- Chang Tou Liang

CONCERT THE 'OTHER' BACH Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Conservatory Concert Hall Nov 15

That was the nom de plume of American composer and parodist Peter Schickele (1935-2024), the fictional Professor of Musical Pathology at the University of Southern North Dakota.

The persona of the errant Bach offspring was played by a bewigged Alan Bennett, head of voice studies, who in German-accented English introduced nine works of chamber and vocal music, a primer of his irreverent and anarchic sense of musical humour.

Unlike other great musical humorists, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Mozart or Dmitri Shostakovich, a little P.D.Q. goes a long, long way. More than 2 1/2 hours of slapstick schtick could drag and grate on the senses, but the full-house audience, with many children in attendance, lapped it all up.