Genial Outing by Schickele and Friends

It might appear that Peter Schickele is an example of the classic tortured type--in the same mold as the comedic actor who wants to play Hamlet--but that’s not really the case.

Best known as the perpetrator of the music of P.D.Q. Bach, Schickele is also a prolific composer of “serious” music. But as presented by the Armadillo String Quartet at the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena Wednesday, Schickele’s own music shares many of the same sources and aims as P.D.Q.’s.

It is allusive, lighthearted and sophisticated in craft. Though it doesn’t go for the belly laugh, it has a twinkle in its eye, and humor is never far away with movement titles like “Sore in the Saddle Again” and “Mumbo Jumbo.” Direct and tonal, the music avoids both profundity and melancholy.

The evening of Schickele’s music had its limitations--much like an evening of Satie, whose music Schickele’s at times resembles, might. But each work on its own had strengths and pleasures.

The Duo Caprice for violins creates a brilliant bustle with polyrhythmic ostinatos and short melodic motifs sliced and diced a la Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella,” a clear ancestor. The String Quartet No. 3, “The Four Seasons,” openly uses folk, blues and jazz materials to draw its evocative pictures. The Little Suite for Summer, for piano, four hands, offers slight materials and brief ideas to create musical fondness and grins.

Occasionally, it can all seem a little too slight, like warmed-over film music or an accompaniment to a pop song. The Four Sketches for String Quartet, heard in premiere, bordered on Doodleland. Overall, though, Schickele’s music is satisfyingly genial, never pretentious, easy to like. In this sixth annual event, the Armadilloans--Barry Socher, Steven Scharf, Raymond Tischer and Armen Ksajikian--gave stylish, tight and high-spirited readings, with Guy Hallman and Schickele happily busy at the piano.