In Memoriam Schickele Mix
mikeg...@gmail.com
eclectic show, a staple of remopte university public radio stations to
this day, has finally left the air for good. (Well, until the whole
business of radio goes on-demand or something.) Here's the
announcement on the Schickele site:
"For over 15 years, Schickele Mix explored Duke Ellington's maxim that
"if it sounds good, it is good", in more than 175 episodes, combining
such seemingly diverse music as Ravel, the Beach Boys, Willie Nelson,
and Cole Porter into suites that demonstrate how these pieces
unexpectedly share a similar musical technique or idea such as, in
this example, glissandos. The highly regarded Schickele Mix,
distributed by Public Radio International, won the ASCAP Deems Taylor
Award in 1993 and also received the Gold Award for Programming
Excellence from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that same
year.
"The first episodes of Schickele Mix were broadcast in January of
1992. Mr. Schickele first introduced his concept with a suite of
music by Gershwin, Webern, and Mozart, followed by a suite of music by
Philip Glass, Lenny Tristano, and Frédéric Chopin. The first year of
programs covered music from patter songs to melismas, techniques such
as parallel motion and singing in the cracks, and song topics from
birthdays to death, all illustrated with different types of music from
all over the map and Mr. Schickele's unique and insightful commentary.
"The program was originally produced with funding provided by the
American Public Radio Program Fund, whose contributors included the
Ford Foundation. Such funding is designed to be gradually replaced by
contributions from corporate sponsors, but obtaining sponsorship for
the program proved difficult, and ultimately it became impossible to
produce new programs after funding ran out in the late 1990's. Public
Radio International continued distributing the program, allowing the
episodes to be rebroadcast in order to reach new listeners.
Considering that there was only a limited number of programs available
to be rebroadcast, PRI kept distributing Schickele Mix for an
impressively long time, even as some public radio stations stopped
broadcasting the program figuring that after repeating some episodes
five times that most of their listeners must have already heard them.
It became necessary for PRI to stop distributing the program in June
of 2007 after 169 different programs, 12 listener support specials,
and 810 weekly broadcasts.
"Over the years, many listeners have asked about obtaining CD's or
podcasts of this program. Unfortunately, this has not been possible
because of the large amount of copyrighted music used on the program,
which is much more difficult and expensive to license for use in
recordings than for radio broadcasts. Other listeners have followed
the instructions at the end of the program to write for a playlist
giving information about all of the music on the program "with record
numbers and everything," or have found the information in this Web
site's searchable database. The Schickele Mix playlist database is
still available using the links below-the database might be much less
useful with the program no longer on the air, but it can still serve
as a scholarly resource or a lasting tribute to the program that
coined the phrase it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain
je ne sais quoi."
* * *
I know I'm not the only one who saved episodes during their long run
in reruns, and thanks to streaming audio and Audio Hijack, I managed
to amass a complete collection of the reboradcasts (which however
omitted about 40 of the shows, even after a few were added back in to
reruns as "The Lost Episodes"), featuring intros from stations from
Maine to Interlochen to Idaho. I discovered a lot of great music
through the show, from Lou Harrison to Dana Suess to Earl Taylor, and
I don't think any show ever did a better job of balancing (often very
silly) entertainment with a learned and enthusiastic appreciation for
music in all its forms. Imagine the bastard child of Karl Hass and
Dr. Demento, and you have Schickele Mix and a big part of why I
enjoyed it.
Farewell, Schickele Mix, and thanks Peter Schickele, Tom Voegeli
Productions, PRI and all the stations online which gave it one of the
longest post-mortem lives in classical radio history.
Peter T. Daniels
> I don't think any show ever did a better job of balancing (often very
> silly) entertainment with a learned and enthusiastic appreciation for
> music in all its forms. Imagine the bastard child of Karl Hass and
> Dr. Demento, and you have Schickele Mix and a big part of why I
> enjoyed it.
He sometimes had something illuminating to say about the music, but
how could you stand the corny jokes (pause for laughs that were
unlikely to come)? Every time I chanced on the program (I don't recall
it being regularly broadcast in Chicago), I wondered how it could
still be on the air.
mikeg...@gmail.com
It was on WNIB for a number of years, briefly on WFMT after WNIB died,
but you're right, not on in Chicago in recent years.
Peter T. Daniels
> Yeah, that's what I liked about it!
What, the corny jokes? Or the desperate silences hoping for a laugh?
(Didn't he notice that there was neither a studio audience nor a laugh
track?)
I still go to P D Q Bach every two or three years, even though he
hasn't come up with anything terribly entertaining in a very long time
-- he's been at that for nearly _fifty years_ now!!
> It was on WNIB for a number of years, briefly on WFMT after WNIB died,
> but you're right, not on in Chicago in recent years.
I rarely listened to 'NIB (except for Chuck Schaden -- what happened
to him when they folded? During his WWII programming, 1991-95, I
wished I knew how to nominate someone for a Peabody). I guess I was a
radio snob.
mikeg...@gmail.com
> I rarely listened to 'NIB (except for Chuck Schaden -- what happened
> to him when they folded? During his WWII programming, 1991-95, I
> wished I knew how to nominate someone for a Peabody). I guess I was a
> radio snob.
Schaden's show (Those Were The Days, an old-time radio program that
was on classical station WNIB) is now on WDCB, the College of DuPage
station:
http://www.nostalgiadigest.com/Those%20Were%20The%20Days.htm
Interesting that you still enjoy PDQ Bach but not Schickele Mix-- I'm
the opposite; I could take his humor in the more informative context
of Schickele Mix but somebody gave me one of the more recent PDQ Bach
cds and I just winced. Oh well, it was funny when I was a 12-year-old
culture vulture, I suppose that's what matters. (And reminding me of
my 12-year-old self is probably part of why I can't take it now!)
Peter T. Daniels
> On Jul 1, 9:45 pm, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@verizon.net> wrote:
>
> > I rarely listened to 'NIB (except for Chuck Schaden -- what happened
> > to him when they folded? During his WWII programming, 1991-95, I
> > wished I knew how to nominate someone for a Peabody). I guess I was a
> > radio snob.
>
> Schaden's show (Those Were The Days, an old-time radio program that
> was on classical station WNIB) is now on WDCB, the College of DuPage
> station:
Then I probably wouldn't have been able to receive it in Andersonville
anyway.
> http://www.nostalgiadigest.com/Those%20Were%20The%20Days.htm
>
> Interesting that you still enjoy PDQ Bach but not Schickele Mix-- I'm
I said I went once in a while _despite_ the lack of inspiration any
more.
> the opposite; I could take his humor in the more informative context
> of Schickele Mix but somebody gave me one of the more recent PDQ Bach
> cds and I just winced. Oh well, it was funny when I was a 12-year-old
> culture vulture, I suppose that's what matters. (And reminding me of
> my 12-year-old self is probably part of why I can't take it now!)
I haven't bought even any of the classic CDs because they simply put a
40-minute LP on one disk and charged more than full price.
Soundfield
stations that they don't want anythong to do with smart announcers who
know about music. Baroque music lasting 12 minutes, introed by
giggling, relaxed idiots from American Public Media and the Classical
Public Radio Network are just fine -- especially when they don't
bother to fully back-announce performers.
dd
On Jul 1, 12:21 pm, mikegeb...@gmail.com wrote:
> [...]