| A Little Nightmare Music | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | P. D. Q. Bach (Peter Schickele) |
| Cover: | A little nightmare music.jpg |
| Released: | 1983 |
| Label: | Vanguard Records |
| Prev Title: | Music You Can't Get Out of Your Head |
| Prev Year: | 1982 |
| Next Title: | 1712 Overture and Other Musical Assaults |
| Next Year: | 1989 |
A Little Nightmare Music is an opera in "one irrevocable act" by Peter Schickele under the pseudonym he uses for parodies and comical works P. D. Q. Bach. The title of the work refers to the English translation of Mozart's famous Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music). The opera is described as being "based on a dream he had December 4, 1791, the night that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died and Antonio Salieri didn't." The opera was "newly exhumed" (a.k.a. premiered) at Carnegie Hall on December 27, 1982.[1] It was later recorded with the premiere cast and released on CD by Vanguard Records in 1983. The album also includes two other works by P. D. Q. Bach: an octet (Octoot for wind instruments) and a parody of Handel's Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks, Royal Firewater Musick.
A recording of the original cast of the opera was made. Since the opera is short, the recording also includes two other works by P.D.Q. Bach, Octoot for wind instruments, S. 8 and Royal Firewater Musick, for bottles and orchestra (original version), S. 1/5. The track listing is as follows: