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Piano Concerto in C major (P.D.Q. Bach)

The Piano Concerto in C major, or officially "Concerto for Simply Grand Piano and Orchestra", is a piano concerto written by American composer Peter Schickele under the pseudonym P. D. Q. Bach. Pianist Jeffrey Biegel and fifteen orchestras commissioned the work from Schickele in 2015. The Colorado Symphony premiered the work in 2016 with Jeffrey Biegel at the piano. Like other works that Schickele wrote under this pseudonym, the piano concerto is noteworthy for plentiful comedic devices, including elements from non-classical genres, but also lends itself to analysis as a serious neoclassical work with Classical structure and atmosphere.

Instrumentation

Schickele scored the concerto for a typical Classical orchestra, plus piccolo and reinforcement in the brass and percussion:

• piccolo
• two flutes
• two oboes
• two clarinets
• two bassoons
• two French horns
• two trumpets
• three tenor trombones
• tambourine
• timpani in F, G, and C
• cymbal
• struck vibraphone
• woodblock
• tubular bells
• gong
• piano as soloist
• string orchestra

First movement

Prelude

The concerto opens with a typical broken triad motif (theme A), played in octaves, that recurs throughout the first movement:

The Classical atmosphere is soon subtly undermined by accents from the piccolo.

A second wistful theme (theme B) shortly makes its appearance in the strings, beginning thus:

An imitative passage played forte modulates briefly to the dominant, interposing an E minor broken chord unexpectedly after the first dominant-of-the-dominant and ending in a blues cadence. The uncharacteristically short Eingang by the soloist consists of a single G.

The orchestra continues the prelude in C major with a third theme (theme C):

The orchestra immediately echoes this theme in B-flat major. This is an atypical practice for the Common practice period, which clung to its beloved Leading-tone, but there is precedent in the slow movement of Ein musikalischer Spass.

This episode is followed by a tutti journey cycling through A minor, G major, then quickly through the circle of fifths past C to F major and anticlimactically back to C major. Strings and trombones play portamento sliding from chord to chord.

A further extended episode wanders through more remote keys and alternates between woodwinds and quiet strings. A new theme occurs here (theme D), with its exotic echo in B-flat, and the trombones further take up the motif with slides through the neighboring notes:

The prelude closes with a cadential passage where the cadences at first feature a distinctive B-flat major chord, but then only the traditional IV-V-I authentic cadence. In a subtle break from Classical practice, the IV chord gets its own timpani stroke. In a not-so-subtle break, the ultimate cadence is the blues cadence again.

Exposition

The expectation would be that the themes from the prelude should repeat, and that the soloist should now be part of the conversation. However, the strings begin repeating the broken-triad motif in F major without waiting for the soloist. The soloist interrupts and persuades the strings to return to C major to cycle through the themes a second time.

Here the themes repeat similarly to before. The piano joins in, at first with typical piano figurations, but uses unexpected extremes of compass. After the second theme occurs, the soloist introduces alterations in the passagework for a more Ragtime feel, the strings get much higher than typical for Classical music, and a conversation takes place between pitchless knocks on the piano case and the woodblock.

The classical-Ragtime hybrid modulates to a V-of-the-V (a D major orchestral hit) instead of a simple V as before. The rest of the exposition, starting with the third subject, revolves around G major instead of C major, but otherwise takes place comparably to the prelude.

Development

The development begins with the broken-triad subject (theme A) in C major and proceeds to cycle through D major, E major, and F major. Then, although developments usually stay away from the tonic, the strings return briefly to C major with material derived from theme C:

Theme D follows, and a modulation to D major, where the piano embroiders the opening broken-triad subject (theme A) in flashy broken octaves. Then the mutated theme C resumes, and theme D once more to modulate to E-flat major.

A tonally unstable showdown begins between the piano and the rest of the ensemble based on the broken-triad subject (theme A). The vibraphone speaks out for the first time over galloping piano broken octaves and the music builds to a suitably climactic return to C major.

Recapitulation

This section proceeds similarly to the exposition, but more contracted. After theme B, transitory modulation occurs to G major, as at the Eingang, where strings play a version of theme B embellished almost beyond recognition, answered by excitedly clanging cymbals and tubular bells. This leads to the blues cadence again.

The bassoons play a B-flat, the trombones impatiently correct them to C, and the music resumes with theme C much as before.

Final ritornello

In contrast to the full tutti cadences that arose from theme D originally, the orchestra builds to the traditional 6/4 chord. What is not quite so traditional is the anticipated F♯ that relapses back to E rather than resolving immediately to G in the concluding bassline:

Cadenza

Schickele wrote out cadenzas for the concerto. The cadenzas to the first and third movements begin with unusually long silences. The cadenza to the first movement begins by reflecting on the theme D that the orchestra had just finished.

Typical Mozartean elaborations and sequences follow, but in two places the music becomes progressively more dissonant in a very un-18th century fashion. This aural derailment, while interesting in itself, causes the soloist's final grandiose embellishment of the 6/4 chord, complete with exaggerated trill, to occur in B-flat major instead of C major, threatening to force the orchestra to conclude a step too low.

Codetta

The orchestra enters in C major as expected, exposing the seam. The woodwind section initially revolts, returning to B-flat, but the tutti shouts it down with a clangor of tubular bells. A conservative ending is spoiled by the mischievous blues cadence and over prominent double-basses.

Second movement

A section

The second movement is a mixture of pathos, sunshine, and exaggerations of each.

The principal theme begins in F major with a quotation from Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 before indulging in quasi-Classical sentiment complete with cloying portamento strings.

The cadence at the end of the second sentence is foreshortened (a fourth of the expected length) and repeated strangely high, followed by a foreboding gong.

As the strings repeat the theme, the flutes imitate throughout. The final cadence falters with a parallel fifth, and the bassoon plays a leading B natural to lead to C major.

The piano introduces an inexact inversion of the opening theme in C major:

On the second statement of the first sentence, a high piano melody begins to soar through A minor and E minor to G major with string backing. Unfortunately, G major is not convenient to F major and needs to be reinterpreted as G minor to transition back.

Safely back in F, the orchestra repeats the opening theme, the piano interjecting high additional imitations after the flutes.

B section

The second theme, based in F minor but beginning in the Classically unexpected key of B-flat minor, is a quotation from Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 17, but the foreshortened cadence is back, and the portamento-prone trombones.

As Schickele develops the theme and varies the accompaniment with strings and woodwind, tension becomes apparent between the somber character of the theme (occasionally embellished with exaggerated mandolin-like tremolo) and an irresistible urge to play boogie style.

The boogie flares up into a roar of boisterous celebration, led by the piano against scarcely audible woodwinds. At this juncture the orchestra, desperate to return to the calm atmosphere from before, interrupts with a 6/4 cadence to short-circuit to the cadenza without first returning to the A section.

Beginning at the startling 6/4 chord itself, the musical fabric is warped into E major instead of F major. The pianist takes the chord at face value and begins the purported improvisation.

Cadenza

The cadenza is a dark moment. The soloist begins with two runs to the extremes of the keyboard, each run ending with a note at the other extreme. A run in thirds follows, a trill in thirds, and some pungent dissonance. The trill, dissonances, and knocks on the piano alternate.

The soloist then moves to wrap up the cadenza. Another run follows to the bass of the keyboard, with the mysterious vibraphone interrupting before the final note of the run. An irritable timpani roll prompts contrary motion runs from the extremes to the middle of the piano keyboard, ending in a semitone and a silence.

Then, a lonely trill slowly builds and then loses steam, ending on a hesitant F♯ and more silence.

Recapitulation of the A section

The warp ends. The pianist plays the F just in time as the orchestra resumes the opening theme, this time punctuated with the cymbal as well as the gong.

Coda

The section starts with a subdominant chord, as though to round off the movement straightforwardly as in Mozart's 17th piano sonata.

Then the music takes a dark turn into F minor, then to the relative A-flat major. From here the journey back to F major is a bit rocky, going through G first. Once safely returned, the music rocks back and forth between two inversions of the F major chord in various instrument families, including at the extreme ends of the orchestra's range.

The final cadence is played by the sliding trombones with the last chord based on the tritone.

Third movement

The perpetuum mobile third movement in ABA or abbreviated rondò form broadly recalls classical music but for the most part does not cultivate an 18th-century atmosphere in particular.

The rondò theme is a tarantella, in C major but somewhat rhythmically reminiscent of Schubert's Piano Sonata in C minor even down to the chromatic runs. Its harmonization is noticeable for its relatively modern use of the iii chord, and the rhythm is relentless. Once again, ragtime influences the passagework and infiltrates the mock solemnity of the tuttis.

The first, A minor episode is notable for its oboe-woodblock duet. A little further, Schickele inserts a momentary quotation from Light Cavalry Overture.

One of the most memorable episodes is a whole-tone scale theme, played by the strings in octaves with the basses playing in parallel thirds several octaves below:

The piano embellishes the theme against bowed violins a third below, then with sweet high broken chords against a pizzicato background, and finally against loud bowed violins again with woodblock in the background. A lush passage follows with tutti and sweeping broken chords on the piano to transition back to C major, and the principal theme returns for a second and final time.

A dominant-tonic motion in the bass sets the stage for the familiar chord-progression leading to the 6/4 chord for the cadenza. The only problem is, the soloist seems dead-set against playing another cadenza, and defiant silence follows. The orchestra repeats the final cadence much more emphatically, and silence follows again.

When the orchestra finally makes the pianist blink, the piano mutates the orchestra's last cadence into a wind-accompanied jazzy free-for-all. The strings do not wait for a final trill but work to wrap up the concerto, gathering the rest of the orchestra with them. The winds and piano hijack the ending with a foreign chord, requiring a second attempt at conclusion to enforce the home key.

See also

• Performance from commissioning pianist Jeffrey Biegel's official channel (Julia Tai conducts Philharmonia Northwest)