It's a shame Frank never lived longer as he could have wrote a cool horror movie score! I loved his scores for "Run Home Slow" and to a lesser extent "World's Greatest Sinner".
It is one composition. You hear over and over again--sometimes in its original form, sometimes in varied forms--rhythmic, melodic, lyrical themes cropping up again and again in Zappa's music. It's ingenious, that Zappa would mix and match anything at anytime. Of course, how many ever listened to John Cage? Most artist feel inhibited to do as such, for the sake of appearing to lack creative skills or ability. You CAN'T! repeat yourself. NO! Genius.
Can one hear a correlation that Zappa used to be drummer first? Like any young kid want`s to have a drum kit Zappa chose an instrument with more melodic possibilty: the guitar. With his creativity he must have been glad with the invention of the synclavir. One can "hit it up" play anything you like or create anything that make`s sense. But the sound is there independently with or without the choice of an instrument. If you hear it in your head you can make it. A synclavir helps to do that. Or a guitar for that matter......piano, sax, or Ruthy? (lol)
Zapp was the man. besides being a very very imporant 20th century modern composer, he was a major game changer in pop culture.... hes an enlightened soul. Its funny he was so much misunderstood during his lifetime especially in his own country. one have to dig lil deeper to enjoy his immense catalogs , his music is not for lazy, people hahaha......
This movie has been linked to from the new Zappa website. I love this movie and have watched it many times. Maybe we can see a CLEANER COPY???? Hello Ahmet Zappa, you MOOK.
An excellent film with Frank on fine form. I don't think music would feature much if he was still alive. He was interested in running for president in the 60's. That was perhaps a clue to where he was heading. As a fan of his 60's and 70's music I felt that after that, with the exception of Jazz from Hell, it was lacking the spark that set him apart from everyone else. Just my opinion.
I don't know if Frank ever understood or accepted that "imperfect" notes, often are what lend music its character. If every note could be performed perfectly, it would very likely end up sounding clinical and impersonal. Not saying that's a bad thing, but if all music sounded that way, it would be pretty depressing.
I don't think he was looking for 'perfection' in the sense you mean. He even says that he'd never want to compose exclusively for the synthesizer, and he wanted to use all methods of composition at his disposal. At the same time the Synclavier gave him the opportunity to hear his music in its purest form. I can understand why he took advantage of it.
Zappa’s idea of perfection includes all of what you would think of as “the human element”! Perfection to FZ isn’t every note being “on the square” or “quantised to death”! The man was a genius. What you would think of as “imperfect”, he would have analysed to a quantum level! And included it in the composition.
@@terrypussypower That's not how Frank put it in "The Real Frank Zappa Book". He disliked having to work with "real" musicians because they couldn't consistently play the right notes, or the right notes the right way, every night and on every recording session. The very first thing he did with every musician he auditioned was to find out exactly how far he could push their abilities. And although he used their abilities very well, he also felt limited by what they could do. His sense of artistic freedom made him want to compose music that no human being could ever perform, so the first chance he got, he bought the Synclavier and manually sampled every note of every instrument he could find, played to perfection by the best musicians. And then he spent the last years of his life composing and recording perfectly played machine music. He stopped touring and all collaborations with real musicians and dedicated all his time to writing impossible pieces for computers to play. No, my son. Frank didn't give a fuck about using imperfections. He had to endure them for most of his career, and then he discarded them as soon as he was able to.
Frank just didn't want to pay musicians (whom he compared to sea slugs in laziness) the full value of their labour. His fulfilled dream of a machine to replace them produced some of the most soulless music on the planet. Synclavier music = putrescence.
@@SpaceCattttt Fuq you “my son”, I’m old enough to be your grandad. I’ve been a Zappa fanatic since the late 60’s, I’ve forgotten more than you’ll ever know. And you’ve totally misunderstood what FZ was saying in TRFZB. There’s all the difference in the world between lazy orchestral players, and pros who give it their all and play with feeling, and it was the former he had the biggest problem with, and the latter he loved playing with! Zappa loved jamming out with top players! You only have to listen to his recorded output to see that..the majority of his albums were recorded in concert and edited and overdubbed in the studio. He had two bugbears in his musical life…lazy, overpayed orchestral players, and the occasional ass hat professionals who made his life a misery on the road, especially in the last tour, which was the reason he quit touring. IF they hadn’t caused him so much grief, he would’ve finished the ‘88 tour, and would definitely have toured again! And the reason he quit had NOTHING to do with the lack of playing ability of the last band…far from it! He loved that band! It was the constant arguing and egotistical head butting of a few in that band, that finally got to him. And THAT is the main reason he concentrated on his Synclavier!
I love Zappa but I disagree. If i csn Musicians to just want to learn them and play them. I learned from Ornette Coleman each performance Is unique perfectly correct or not. Sometimes it's better played wrong. I wrote "Threnody for Frank Zappa " To honour his art.
I like Frank and this film but feel intimidated by both. I bet he was extra crusty because of the attack and injuries along with the flare gun incident. He probably got jaded. He couldn't even trust the audience.
Improvisation is NOT composition. It is music, but unless you have it planned out ahead of time, it's not composing. Now, it seems this music was created on the spot to demonstrate the SynClavier. No problem with that, of course. How much of Jazz from Hell was planned, and how much was improvised to a sequencer, as is shown here? I wonder? MBB
Michael B-B You’re incorrect. Improvisation can be/is planned out to a degree at the discretion of the spontaneous composer. Therefore an improvisation is a composition. It isn’t as cut and dry as you want to make it, but it’s easily understood.
It depends on the music . . [categorically] classical compositions are notated specifically to be played *exactly* according to the score . . Jazz may be notated . . but [without exception] will involve improvised solos in the body of the performance. . Rock usually is not notated . . but can be played *exactly as if* it were scored *and also* involve improvised solos as well. .
That may be your opinion, but I know there are thousands and thousands of musicians who'd disagree, many but not all of them coming from the jazz world. Improvisation absolutely IS a method of composition.
I like it all but I like at least about the mechanical synclavier is that he is onto breaking some interesting creative boundaries that I can understand a bit better sometimes than earlier, I don't think like that (composer like), perhaps I should work back ,: 0
u know frank was breaking all the rules back in the 70's in melodies n composing, I can get some things, the brilliant colourful merging of humour classical composition n rock, funk n other styles, but each melody doing whatever contrast harmonically 2 the other was a little 2 deep ,: 0
I can get oh he played the instrument like this, or... he had unique style or new rhythm possibilities but the changing from lydian 2 invert or whatever melodies having lives is a little 2 deep n I have 2 work back 2 that ,: 0
I get Beefheart a lot, a get zappa quite a bit but seem 2 be missing on what quite how a lot of people see it, like I am getting closer but I have some time 2 go before I really get it n things click ,: 0
