P.D.Q. Bach - Liebeslieder Polkas

P.D.Q. Bach - Liebeslieder Polkas for mixed chorus and piano five hands (S. 2/4)
0:00 - To His Coy Mistress
2:18 - To the Virgins, to Make Much of His Time
4:01 - The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
7:04 - Why So Pale and Wane, Fond Lover?
9:00 - It Was a Lover and His Lass
11:33 - The Constant Lover
14:17 - Song to Celia
17:03 - Interlude (piano)
19:26 - Farewell, Ungrateful Traitor
22:01 - Who Is Sylvia?
The Swarthmore College Chorus
Peter Gram Swing, conductor
David Oei and Anne Epperson, piano
Professor Peter Schickele, piano fifth hand
The Liebeslieder Polkas is the first opus of P.D.Q. Bach's to be discovered in which he inflicted his music on the work of well-known poets, or even known poets, for that matter. The fact that all the poets represented are English leads one to surmise that P.D.Q.'s drinking companion Jonathan "Boozey" Hawkes had something to do with instigating the piece; Hawkes eventually married P.D.Q.'s cousin Betty-Sue Bach and returned to his native Liverpool, where the two of them spent their senility publishing most of the unmourned composer's vocal music.
As far as observing the integrity of these already-famous poems is concerned, P.D.Q.'s attitude ranges from indifference to contempt. Some of the poems are set complete, others are rather haphazardly cut, some contain completely spurious interpolations, and in one case - Ben Jonson's beloved Song To Celia - the poem has been extensively rewritten to reflect the composer's besotted Weltanschauung. Minor spurosities have been omitted from the accompanying printed text, but the two verses added to the end of Shakespeare's Who Is Sylvia? were too intrusive to ignore.
A word about the fifth hand in the piano part: When Brahms wrote his Liebeslieder Waltzes (in obvious imitation of P.D.Q. Bach, but, as usual, without giving the earlier composer any credit) he scored the accompaniment for piano four hands; by adding a third person at the piano P.D.Q. not only exapnded the range of the accom paniment, but he also made sure that there was always one hand free for turning pages, or, to look at it another way, he made life much more interesting for the page-turner.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to this music/song. All rights belong to the owner. No Copyright Infringement Intended.

[@bubbeleh33]

Brilliantly silly and refreshingly lighthearted.

[@JoshFreilich]

Eye me only with thy drink,
And I will pledge with this;
Or leave some wine but in the cup,
And I'll not look to kiss.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise ~
Doth ask a drink divine;
But if Jove's nectar I can't sip,
Some ale will do just fine.
I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much hon'ring thee
As giving it a hope that there
It could not withered be.
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
And sendst it back to me;
Since when it smells, I kid thee not,
Of pretzels and chablis.

[@maralisil]

Jokes aside, I really enjoy his music!

[@miketackabery7521]

Loving this. Hilarious!

[@bmjessep]

Anyone have the lyrics?

[@pdqbachfan]

You can find them online if you just look up the poems.

[@fly_speck_cafe]

I do, with my vinyl LP.

[@ZorenToo]

​@flyspeckcafe does the original lp include "Twelve Quite Heavenly Songs"?