FZ on Varèse

Frank ZappaFrank Zappa 

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Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, singer-songwriter, guitarist, recording engineer, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band The Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical composers such as Edgard Varèse, Igor Stravinsky, and Anton Webern along with 1950s rhythm and blues music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands… more »

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Well, the fact of the matter is
That if I had a power
Trio and just a wall of
Marshall amplifiers and a minimal
PA system that all you put
Through was the vocals, and we
Traveled around in limousines and lived
In first-class hotels forever
I could still make 10 times the
Amount of money that I
Make on tour right now but
That's not the reason I
Tour, I like to play music
And I like to hear music come
Out as good as possible for
The largest number of people
And so if I earn a
Profit from doing concerts or
Making records
A large portion of that is reinvested into
The equipmеnt that produces the sound onstage
Or to usе extra amounts of studio time to
Try and get a better performance both
Technically from the musicians' standpoint
And from the
Audio standpoint of the music that
I write and I think Varèse would
Have done the same thing

He was hampered by composing at a time
When the electronic facilities to make his
Ideas a reality were not readily available
To him i have that luxury
And I don't think I should sit back on
My butt and just let it go along

I started writing so-called "serious
Music" or non-rock-and-roll
Music about the time I was 14
And I didn't write anything
That even resembled
Rock and roll or rhythm and
Blues until I was 20 i rejected most
Of 20th-century music i made quite a
Study of it i'd buy every record
That was available on new pieces
And most of them are horrible
They don't have any musicality to 'em
They're intellectual exercises that
Don't do anything
For me and I liked Varèse's
Music from the minute that I heard
It it was beautiful and
I couldn't understand it when
My mother started screaming
At me to take it in the
Other room 'cause it bothered her while she
Was ironing you know, I'd say
"But listen to the siren in this! Listen to
The drums!" She wouldn't get off on that
And I found that I would bring
People home from school and say, "Have
I got a record for you" And
I would play that for 'em
And they would look
At me like I was crazy but I
Insisted that what he was writing was
Really beautiful and I would
Tell everybody about it when I got a chance
And in putting that little quote
On the first few albums
That "that present day composer
Refuses to die, " by putting his name on the
Albums, I led a lot of people
In the direction of his music
And people still come up to me and
Say that they're glad I put that on there
'cause they heard the music
And they really got
Off on it and I think if you get
A chance, you oughta check it out, too

The works I like the best is the performance
Of the Arcana by the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
And there's a good record on
Nonesuch that has some interesting
Recording techniques and good performances of
Some of his pieces

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