... I suspect it is not a coincidence that this very piece was mentioned in the latest installment of Cross Purposes over on Twisting The Hellmouth.
Not knowing what you already know, I'm going to risk over-explaining. "Horn & Hardart" was a once-famous chain of automats in the New York and Philadelphia area. What made automats different from cafeterias is that the food was in what amounted to a giant wall-sized dispenser, with little glass doors behind which were individual items. You bought tokens and put one into a coinslot by the item you wanted, which unlocked the door.
You are correct that there is a visual aspect to this piece, in that the "Hardart" here is a joke musical instrument invented for the piece which required its... player? operator? victim? ...keep running around to the front of the device to open little glass doors and retrieve implements needed to keep playing it.
There are other jokes to this piece, such as thematic relationships to other (real) classical music which support the contention that PDQ Bach (the mythical youngest and least talented of Johann Sebastian Bach's children) was a prolific plagiarist, the use of extremely non-period instruments (in a way PDQ Bach is Spike Jones for classical music -- and yes, I know Spike Jones did classical music), and doing the whole thing with an over-the-top seriousness that goes all the way through and comes out as travesty on the other side.
Not knowing what you already know, I'm going to risk over-explaining. "Horn & Hardart" was a once-famous chain of automats in the New York and Philadelphia area. What made automats different from cafeterias is that the food was in what amounted to a giant wall-sized dispenser, with little glass doors behind which were individual items. You bought tokens and put one into a coinslot by the item you wanted, which unlocked the door.
You are correct that there is a visual aspect to this piece, in that the "Hardart" here is a joke musical instrument invented for the piece which required its... player? operator? victim? ...keep running around to the front of the device to open little glass doors and retrieve implements needed to keep playing it.
There are other jokes to this piece, such as thematic relationships to other (real) classical music which support the contention that PDQ Bach (the mythical youngest and least talented of Johann Sebastian Bach's children) was a prolific plagiarist, the use of extremely non-period instruments (in a way PDQ Bach is Spike Jones for classical music -- and yes, I know Spike Jones did classical music), and doing the whole thing with an over-the-top seriousness that goes all the way through and comes out as travesty on the other side.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....