Peter Schickele

American composer and bassoonist (born July 17, 1935 in Ames, Iowa, died January 16, 2024 in Bearsville, New York).
Schickele graduated from the Juilliard School with an M.S. in musical composition. He is most famous for his alter-ego composer 'P.D.Q. Bach'. He performs under the name 'Very Full Professor Peter Schickele', who allegedly is a tenured professor in musicology and 'musical pathology' at 'University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople'. In reality an accomplished composer, arranger and bassoonist, he is best known for his work as PDQ Bach, and for creating such whimsical instruments as the 'Hardart' (a variety of tone-generating devices mounted on the frame of an Automat (a coin-operated food dispenser)), the dill piccolo (for playing sour notes), the left-handed sewer flute, the tromboon, the lasso d'amore, the double-reed slide music stand, the tuba mirum (a flexible tube filled with wine), and the pastaphone (an uncooked tube of manicotti pasta played as a horn).