Thurber's Dogs. Suite for Orchestra after Drawings by James Thurber. Movement VI: Hunting Hounds. Autograph musical manuscript sketches in condensed score of almost the entire final movement of the work, consisting of music for sections B-N, i.e., pp. 111-137 of the published full score

Folio (ca. 356 x 278 mm.). Unbound. 9 leaves notated in pencil on one side of each leaf of 18-stave AZTEC C-18 music manuscript paper. A working manuscript, with erasures, alterations and cancellations.

Together with:
A copy of the published full score of the movement, i.e., pp. 107-138, and a 1-1/2 page printed commentary by the composer discussing the background of the work and briefly describing the music:

"I should say, however, that as I was working on the last movement, I found myself thinking as much about the fox as about the hunting hounds. This, coupled with the fact that I recently acquired a recording of background music from the old movie serials that I used to go to as a kid, probably accounts for the quite ungentlemanly, almost lurid quality of the chase music." "Thurber's Dogs was commissioned for the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus and the Thurber House to commemorate the 100th birthday anniversary of author James Thurber. It was completed on August 13, 1994. The first performances took place on December 2 and 4, 1994; the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus was conducted, respectively, by the composer and Timothy Russell, the orchestra's Music Director. The work has been recorded by the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus for release in the fall of 1995." - Mr. Schickele's commentary accompanying the manuscript

A composition student of Roy Harris, Darius Milhaud, Persichetti and Bergsma, "Schickele has become the leading American musical satirist, giving concerts throughout the USA in which he lectures, sings, conducts and plays as guest soloist with symphony orchestras or with his own ensemble. The humorous compositions range from outrageous parodies, such as the cantata Iphigenia in Brooklyn, to ingenious combinations of antithetical styles, as in Blaues Gras (Bluegrass Cantata), and are full of surprising violations of familiar styles, musical forms and phrase structures, harmonic conventions and orchestration. Schickele's commentaries and his mock-scholarly The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach... juxtapose incongruities from contemporary culture with relatively austere academic and classical canons, and are reflective of the eclectic musical menu of the modern American public. One of the most widely performed and published of contemporary composers working in many different styles ..." Deane L. Root in Grove Music Online

Thurber (1894-1961), one of the foremost American humorists of the 20th century, had a great love of dogs and included them in many of his drawings, calling them "sound creatures in a crazy world." - Thurber House website.