Last night I attended the studio recital of Darel and Georgine Stark, in which their two children (my organ students) played the third movement of P.D.Q. Bach’s “Toot Suite,” an organ duet.

A word of explanation: First of all, P.D.Q. Bach is a fictional character invented by Peter Schickele, which you can read about on the official PDQ website:

In the 17th and 18th centuries the name Bach was synonymous with fine musicmaking:  Johann Sebastian, certainly the biggest twig on the family tree, was both preceded and followed by many accomplished and well known musicians, some of whom were in the service of royalty.  It is easy to understand, therefore, why the Bach clan was loath to admit the existence of a member who was called a “pimple on the face of music,” “the worst musician ever to have trod organ pedals,” “the most dangerous musician since Nero,” and other things not quite so complimentary.  They even started a rumor that P.D.Q. Bach, without a doubt Johann Sebastian’s last and least offspring, was not really a member of the Bach family—the implication being that he was illegitimate, or, even better, an imposter.  Although P.D.Q. Bach was born on April 1, 1742 and died on May 5, 1807, the dates on his first tombstone (before he was moved to an unmarked pauper’s grave) were inscribed “1807-1742” in a transparent attempt to make it appear that he could not have been the son of J.S., who died in 1750.  Nice try, Bach family—close, but no cigar:  some of us, or at least one of us, are not fooled, or at least, is not fooled. 

The “Toot Suite,” is a play on the French words, tout de suite, meaning “right now,” and the last movement, particularly, has a number of “toots,” reminiscent of a train whistle. Here’s how some people interpreted the “toot” as seen in this Youtube video.

You see, playing the organ is mostly a solitary activity, and whenever you get to play an actual duet, it’s a laugh riot! (You see, I’m just preparing the hype for my upcoming organ duet and trio concert in October! More on this later.)

In addition, there is a special bond between siblings when they are studying music. Just in the last few days, my cousin Helen posted a video snippet of her father, my uncle, playing the second movement of Beethoven’s famous “Moonlight Sonata.”

Yes, I knew that I have a musical family—as far as I know, every single one of my uncles and aunts, (on both sides of the family) played the piano. However, it was just yesterday that I found out that my uncle Wai Man was the only one who had lessons and taught the other six brothers and two sisters; in essence they were all basically self-taught! 

My cousin Amy wrote:

My mom used to say Uncle Wai Man taught all the siblings to play piano. He is a tough and demanding task master but got the job done as you see, most of my uncles can play well. Uncle Kenneth being the youngest got taught by my mom but he also took lessons later in life.

What I could get from the short video excerpt was that it was a fine performance, prompting the following comments:

“wow! dad is serious piano player. impressive. that’s so nice.”
阿公的钢琴弹的棒极了👍👏!!!!!! Gong’s piano play is awesome 👍👏!!!!!!

And my sister Doris wrote, “Isn’t it amazing how well all the Au brothers play/ed piano, considering they were self-taught?”

Speaking of siblings making music, I am here reposting our performance on Youtube of Albert Lavignac’s “Galop-Marche” with my two sisters and cousin Mary. (It is not a perfect performance but the emphasis was on fun, not notes!)