But that’s Not music, I just don’t understand the Hype of the number…itˋs just difficult to Play. But what is it good for? Don’t get me wrong you did a Fine Job…but for me it would be a Waste of Time…sorry frank!
I think this ist the Kind of Humour from frank…to Write a piece of music which no one can understand or like…as frank Himself Said…all you drummers keep grooving, playing, playing Songs, enjoy the music and dońt make it just for mathematics…Not for the Head, do it for the Heart and the stomac and the legs…we have to Feel it! Emotions!
the issue is whether it is the rhythmic complexity or whether it's the solo drums makes this piece inaccesible, even though it's in 4/4. The Black Page #2 (the disco version) has the same rhythmic complexity but is easily on the ears because of the western melody. People are not used to the "melody" of the drums. They mostly respond to loud and fast passages in drum solo's. So basically, even without any rhythmic complexity, any drum solo is very abstract and inaccesible to most people due to the absence of a "normal" melody. I mean, even Varese's Ionisation, respected as a very important piece of music, is not very popular. It didn't make it into the charts, ... with a bullet 🙂. I won't start about melodies and rhythms from non-western countries with different tonal scales and quarter notes etc. or additive rhythms instead of western divisive rhythms. Which are quite inaccesible (unless you let Robert Fripp do his thing). Basically, I dislike the run of the mill drumsolos, fast and load. But it's difficult to play a drum solo, improvised or composed. It requires musicality from the drummer than to merely hit the skins and the cymbals. I do like the Black Page #1 and #2, I played it several times in concerts (way back), with positive responses from the audiences. But it doen't need to be everyone's cup of tea. Bit it's still music, even though it started out as sort of a joke for FZ. As for different versions of the Black Page, listen to the 1988 version, it's amazing.
This is the drum part of a fully orchestrated piece. The melody and the harmonies it has are pretty catchy indeed. Of course it is a music for the mind, not the feet. Yet for everyone who prefer being able to dance to it, Zappa also composed a part 2 for this which has a disco beat. So I do disagree.
