The Disgusting English Candy Drill

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

This gets me to thinking of all the dreadful food combo
possibilities offered up in GR and the way they flower
(or projectilly vomit) during the outpouring of truly 
disgusting alliterative menu offerings from the Gross 
Suckling Infant battalion, unleashed upon the aging 
lions of industry at Stefan Utgarthaloki's little shindig 
in the last few pages of GR. This is a grotesque and 
disgusting art form, probably best contemplated in the 
sort of benign atmosphere that Sauer Bummer's Salon 
managed to cook up on a near constant basis. 

                  All of this is by way of quodlibets, 
                  a medley of unattributed allusions, 
                  as Mrs. Quoad’s name suggests. 

Jokes and Puns in Gravity’s Rainbow
by Charles Hollander

http://www.ottosell.de/pynchon/jokespuns.htm

Variation 30 Quodlibet


          This variation is based on two German folk songs, "I 
          Have So Long Been Away From You" and "Cabbage 
          and Turnips Have Driven Me Away". Bach's biographer 
          Forkel explains the Quodlibet by invoking a custom 
          observed at Bach family reunions (Bach's relatives 
          were almost all musicians):

          "As soon as they were assembled a chorale was 
          first struck up. From this devout beginning they proceeded 
          to jokes which were frequently in strong contrast. That is, 
          they then sang popular songs partly of comic and also 
          partly of indecent content, all mixed together on the spur 
          of the moment. ... This kind of improvised harmonizing 
          they called a Quodlibet, and not only could laugh over 
          it quite whole-heartedly themselves, but also aroused 
          just as hearty and irresistible laughter in all who heard 
          them."

          Forkel's anecdote (which is likely to be true, given that 
          he was able to interview Bach's sons), suggests fairly 
          clearly that Bach meant the Quodlibet to be a joke, and 
          many listeners today hear it as such.

          Some feel that the joke is in fact about the variations 
          themselves, in effect that "you" in this instance was the 
          theme, the Aria, and the quodlibet laments and anticipates 
          the return of the Aria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldberg_Variations



          Bach’s use of the quodlibet in ‘Variatio 30’ of the Goldberg 
          Variations BWV 988 in many ways does not conform to the 
          usual definition of ‘quodlibet.’ Bach, ever the innovator, 
          goes beyond the limitations of the established form and 
          function of the quodlibet and elevates it to new heights far 
          beyond the usual inane, non-sequitur combination of 
          incipits and snippets derived from popular folksongs and 
          presented as humorous entertainment. To be sure, some 
          of the folksong quotations that Bach uses here provide for 
          comic relief in a composition designed for serious study 
          and practice by musicians/composers (despite, or in 
          addition to, Bach’s claim that Klavierübung IV [this means 
          ‘Keyboard Practice’ after all] was ‘dedicated to providing 
          delight to the souls of connoisseurs 
          (non-performers/composers’ – [“Denen Liebhabern zur 
          Gemüths-Ergetzung verfertiget.”]) A closer examination of 
          the 30th variation will reveal that Bach did not intend it as 
          a final ‘throw-away,’ ‘filler’ variation simply to amuse the 
          audience with a few incongruous snippets of melody 
          seeming to have little or nothing to do with all the previous 
          variations nor, as suggested by a Bach scholar, a “Kehraus” 
          [the long, fast, final wild dance of the evening with which the 
          women swept the floor clean with their dresses.] On the 
          contrary, it serves as a quasi-summary while also functioning 
          as a bridge to what will follow or even toward a possible 
          extension of the series and it is a prime example of the 
          consummate artistry of Bach as a composer.

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/BWV988-Quodlibet%5BBraatz%5D.htm