Serenude

The Serenude, like the Sinfonia Concertante, is actually a cross between the late-eighteenth-century serenade and the early-eighteenth-century concerto grosso, employing as it does a whole raft of unusual solo instruments. P.D.Q. used these same instruments in his oratorio The Seasonings, evidently hoping against hope that the addition of voices would make them sound better. More experienced composers could have told him, had they been on speaking terms with him, that any attempt to make the instruments listed above sound better would be doomed to failure, although P.D.Q. probably wouldn?t have listened to them anyway, since he wasn?t on listening terms with them either. The Serenude was first performed in the back room of the Sign of the Bull tavern in Wein-am-Rhein to an audience who couldn?t tell the difference.