King of Prussia, PA — Theodore Presser Company is excited to announce the publication of a new choral work from the seminal classical parodist, P.D.Q. Bach, the wacky alter-ego of composer Peter Schickele. Long Live the King (312-41856 • $1.65) is a hilarious and satirical ode to the King of France, who was beheaded during the French Revolution, complete with sound effects. Voiced for a cappella SAB chorus (or SATB Chorus or STB Soli), Long Live the King is featured on a popular P.D.Q. Bach CD: P.D.Q. Bach and Peter Schickele: The Jekyll and Hyde Tour (Telarc CD-80666), and its historical tie-in makes it especially appropriate for high school choirs. The program notes have a fictitious story about how the composer found an old manuscript written by his departed uncle, with a note - “I have just composed a major choral work in honor of the recent revolution in France, called Long Live the King; the title, I hasten to assure you, is meant to be ironic – my sympathies are always with the people, especially the people who run taverns. The invention of the guillotine gives, I think you will agree, new meaning to the term “head of state.”

In his well-known other role as perpetrator of the oeuvre of the now classic P.D.Q. Bach, Peter Schickele is acknowledged as one of the great satirists of the 20th century. In testimony, Vanguard has released 11 albums of the fabled genius's works; six have been released by Telarc. Random House has published eleven editions of The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach (which has also been translated into German, and is available as an audio book from the HighBridge Company); Theodore Presser has printed innumerable scores; and VideoArts International has produced a cassette of P.D.Q. Bach's only full-length opera, The Abduction of Figaro.

Composer, musician, author, satirist -- Peter Schickele is internationally recognized as one of the most versatile artists in the field of music. His works, now well in excess of 100 for symphony orchestras, choral groups, chamber ensembles, voice, movies and television, have given him "a leading role in the ever-more-prominent school of American composers who unselfconsciously blend all levels of American music" (John Rockwell, The New York Times).

Theodore Presser Company is a full-range music publisher and distributes the music of over 30 publishers from around the globe, with a combined sales catalog that features over 60,000 available works. For more information about new publications from Theodore Presser Company or to locate a dealer near you, log on to www.presser.com or e-mail us at sales@presser.com. For a review copy of the publication listed in this release, please contact Heidi Vanderlee at (212) 777-0900, ext. 230 or send an e-mail to hvanderlee@presser.com.