This is what blows me away about Zappa. He didn't go to one of the top music conservatories in the country, or any school at all. He taught himself in a library and then went to work. I know of no other musician/composer in the modern era of music that did what he did - taught himself then went out on his own and became one of the most prolific and influential musicians of our time.
@@itconqueredtheworldsmith4053 where he took a music composition course if memory serves. But he didn't go to a music conservatory. He was self-taught.
@@itconqueredtheworldsmith4053 sounds like you've got a lot of shame yourself, and project it onto well meaning strangers on the internet in order to feel better about yourself
“You’ll be absolutely free, only if you want to be” Every now and again, some brilliant mind like Zappa comes along and just does whatever they want, and then for decades other brilliant people have to try to figure out just what the hell happened there.
I've maintained for a number of years now that Zappa was a bridge between rock, jazz, and classical. Seeing this, and seeing the clip of Zappa with Pierre Boulez, only reaffirms what I already knew
One thing that hits me about this: Those parallel chords he speaks of are very easy and idiomatic to play on the guitar. As is the seven-part harmony he mentions - six notes on six guitar strings, plus one in the bass. In other words, we're seeing one way that FZ's formal classical music reflects his experience and vocabulary as a rock musician.
@@horowizard it's a possible approach. I read somewhere that Frank did have an oddly tuned guitar with intervals of 10, 11, 3, 8 or something like that. Not sure he used weird tunings live though.
Ok. For me, it’s more about the fact that it’s the most beautiful, emotional (i know that’s not what you’re supposed to say about him or his art but I think it’s obvious), enlightened experience one could have while awake. Outrage at Valdez 😮❤❤❤❤❤😢🎉🎉🎉🎉 /zappa freak called Andreas Kleerup. Wicked video!!!
I remember seeing at least one documentary that seemed to imply that Zappa's boyhood fascination with Varèse was somehow a result of his childhood mercury exposure, as though someone would need to have something wrong with their brain to listen to that kind of music. And yet here's Zappa plainly showing us that he found Varèse interesting for creative reasons, and telling us specifically what some of those creative reasons were.
I have been watching a lot of RU-vid videos lately. I'll get an interest in a subject, then the algorithm suggests more and then I get bored of it. I'm finding lately that subjects of a more academic nature, like this, leave me feeling happier after I watch it for some reason. Frank's music has always spoke to me in a special way. It's such a treasure to find another fan that has the knowledge to decipher the master's code. It's my dream to make a RU-vid channel where I post my own experimental music, maybe this will motivate me a little. The present day composer refuses to die !
@Get Zappéd 1974 Parallel 4ths are the kind of chords you hear ALL over big band swingin' jazz like Count Basie and Buddy Rich. They sound big, thick and chunky and take up a lot of sonic space without sounding overly dissonant. What is a 4th? its the distance between C and F, or E and A, or Doh and Fa if you're a "The Sound of Music" fan and prefer Solfeggio (Doh re mi fa so la ti doh) In a Major scale (or Doh re me fa so la ti doh), the 4th degree is the "fa", the "do" the 1st. if you sing "Do" and your wife sings "Fa" at the same time you have a stacked 4th. If your son sings the "ti" then you have some parallel 4ths (a "ti" is 4 above a "fa"). what happens if your daughter sings "re"? Then we're starting to get some chunky parallel 4ths. 'Doh - Fa - Ti - Re' being harmonized and sung in that order from low to high by a voice quartet is an example of parallel 4ths. I'm guessing Zappa was listening to some wild Jungle Big Band Jazz, thought "man those chords sound phat why are them chords so chunky and thick?" he then studied some big band harmony, took this idea and ran away with it. Started experimenting like a crazed lunatic. This song is packed with parallel fourths: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fvos4cWr9RM.html You can clearly hear the influence on Zappa's work.
@@smelltheglove2038 Think of Brian May, Tom Morello or the dude from Muse. They use harmonizer pedals, whammy pedals and octave pedals, stuff that auto stacks notes on top of other notes. Imagine you program your Whammy-Pedal to have an interval of a 5th, a power chord, so when you play an individual note, the whammy pedal automatically plays a power-chord harmony. We're gonna fret the 2 on the E string. Now get ANOTHER whammy pedal, and program for that to harmonize a 5th, over the top of the first whammy-pedal. This is a Sus-2 chord, but auto-harmonized by whammy pedals playing individual note. You can play it on your guitar going; D-6- A-4- E-2- but we're just playing an F# on the 2nd fret of the low E string and the whammy pedals are auto doing the harmonies for us automatically Now get a third whammy pedal, and program that to harmonize another 5th on top of the second whammy pedal We could play this manually like in the tab below, but the whammy pedals are doing the hard work for us, cos we're just fretting the 2 fret on the E string. G-8- D-6- A-4- E-2- These are parallel 5ths. Keep going to infinity if you enjoy. Parallel 4ths are an interesting point to jump from because they sound phkucing phat and you hear them alot in big band harmony. That's the guts of all this stuff. It's just harmony. The numbering stuff, like where you see 1 11 3 5 8 is referring to the semitone distance between the harmonic intervals stacked above the previous note. I'm gonna write the famous piano chopsticks using a tab notation that writes only the baseline but the harmonic interval (in semitones) as a number next to it. So C12 means play a C with an octave above, F2 means, play F + a note which is 2 semitones higher (ie G). Play in 6/8 or waltz time- F2-F2-F2-F2-F2-F2-|E3-E3-E3-E3-E3-E3-|D9-D9-D9-D9-D7-D9-|C12-C12-C12-C12-D9-E5|Repeat If you can follow along with that, you'll see the written note is the bassline of chopsticks and the neighbouring number is where to harmonize, written in a semitone interval next to it. It may not be the most elegant tab notation to follow but you could write a symphony with that notation if you and your performers have the patience to use it. If I write C#1 11 3 5 8, that means play a chord that has a C#, with 1 semitone above that note = C#+D, then 11 semitones above the last note = C#+D+C#, then 3 semitones above the last note = C#+D+C#+E, then 5 semitones above the last note = C#+D+C#+E+A etc. Why would someone torture themself with this type of notation? I think Berg and Schoenberg the serialists were the first to use it, but I'm not 100% on that. It's just interesting to use non-conventional ideas. They peak my interest and sound more interesting than overused cookie-cutter diatonic I-vi-IV-V (ie the blink 182 progression) type of contemporary pop harmony that is the vast majority of white-bread contemporary pop songs. I find that pop music sounds cooler with jazzy flavours like neo-funk or Quincy Jones or Stevie Wonder with 9 chords and #9 style Hendrix Chords, that stuff going on. This shit is just running away with this idea of chord extensions but getting real deep into it.
This is so impressive, the presentation clear and concise. I'm a Zappa wannabe trying to learn how to play his music and this has simplified what seemed like the most incomprehensible into a relatively simple repeating pattern rooted in different places over time to create ebb and flow. Simply astonishing.
Great insight! I should mention that a lot of the parallel harmony maneuvers were because a) you could retune the oscillators on the Minimoog (etc.) to create parallel harmonies (probably what was done on Pound for a Brown) and b) he would have people play along with a tape at different speeds so that, when sped back up, your could get those harmonizations (probably what he did on Roxy and Elsewhere)
There was also a keyboard (the EML Polybox) that Tommy Mars used (like on Alien Orifice '81) that would do parallel harmonies for voltage controlled synthesizers.
Yeah, it’s probably Eddie Jobsons part in Pound for a brown!? But still you hear the French school of avantgarde music in this approach (Varese, Messiaen, Boulez). Fascinating analysis! 👏👏👏🙏
With that voice, those strange sounding chords and the talk of 'repeating structures' and the like, this video had the feeling of a 70s space documentary, so I guess, who you jiving with that cosmic debris, Mr H? Excellent video, 10/10
Thanks for this video. It explains why, in his more orchestrated pieces, I often had trouble determining a specific key. Usually, one can determine a key by finding the fourth to the tonic since it is usually avoided when playing the I chord. Zappa seemed to have set harmony in order to avoid having to avoid notes like the 4th against the tonic. Playing along, I could always play the entire scale, or two scales an interval apart. Thanks for explaining how he did it!👍
Years ago I read some guy’s doctoral thesis on Varez where he analyzed his music as relying on vertical symmetry. Some time later I discovered Witold Lutoslawski and found that he used a similar technique for pitch derivation in his music. Although Lutoslawski’s music was quasi-tonal you (or at least I) could hear the mathematical resolution in it.
Zappa learned music through reading other people's scores. When you are training to be a conductor, score reading and analysation is emphasized and taught.
Gotta love how his musical brilliance was accompanied by a penchant for coming up with hilariously eccentric titles, such as "The Rejected Mexican Pope Leaves The Stage"!
@@JamminClemmons I believe Watermelon In Easter Hay refers to the Easter baskets given to kids containing candies hidden in the "hay"(from my recollection some kind of shredded plastic sheeting or mylar), one type of which was a hard candy wrapped in cellophane printed to look like watermelon, which was watermelon flavored.
That's awesome about Watermelon and is plausible. I like also that Zappa didn't take himself TOO seriously. But if what if he did take a more serious approach? How many more people would know his name and music today? Or maybe less?
A superb video. Thanks a lot. I always loved and admired Frank’s complex harmonic material, although the rock and humorous excursions never did much for me. Each to their own.
A very personal way of composing, and a good method, which is important to have when you want to think of composing seriously. There's similarities to Hindemith here and serialism, in the sense that you can order a series of notes vertically to make a particular chord and use it as a basis for your piece.
Thank you for these great explanations! May I ask where you obtained these PDF examples that you used in this video? Thank you, it would be really great to follow along while also having the benefit of a higher resolution document than that of video.
Thanks for this video! What I learned from it is the following: that (1) Zappa liked to maintain a similar harmonic density throughout a phrase, and to do so, took an easy shortcut: massive parallelism between instruments (or voices); (2) He preferred to never double a voice at its octaves; (3) He liked to build a chord from an entire diatonic scale sounding simultaneously but at different densities depending on its voicing. Does the above list miss anything important? Also, would it be fair to say that his chord choices were tactical and textural, rather than strategic and gestural?
I know this is about chords, but the 'scale' E-F-A-C-D-G-B is quite beautiful and opens up a whole new world. Just scramble any scale & play those notes in upward sequence across as many octaves as necessary to keep going up. You can even build chords on that re-arranged scale. There will be some clunkers, but so is the major scales' diminished triad.
I'm just wondering about the stacked fifths. If a mayor scale is a half circle on the circle of fifths, why not just call CEBF#GDA a selection out of G mayor? The magic lies in the 7maj. Very interesting video. Please write a book.
Fascinating. Personally I think it sounds like Shostakovich / elbows on the keyboard so not my choice to listen to but utterly fascinating just like its composer.
Was any of this actually released in print form, other than the finished compositions themselves, or did you just figure it out? Did he intend to release this as a book or theoretical paper at any point, or did he intend it to stay a secret?
I find it interesting that Boulez had reservations about Frank's serious music. I guess this was due to him being essentially self taught. Excellent video mate. How have I only just become aware of your chanel?
Boulez was a heavy-weight poser, well-trained of course, but his music is intellectual, forcing us to wonder what effect music 'has' to have on us, in one way. I find this intellectualism dry and unlistenable, unless it's there just to be analysed. Then by whom? Others of his ilk, slapping each other on the back, or stabbing each other in the back. Thankfully PB's attitude mattered not to Zappa. Boulez and his serial systematics was a cul-de-sac in musical history. Only worth the paper it was written on.
@@spikymuck3280 12-tone serial music is, indeed, a cul-de-sac. I hate it. The justification given for it was that the traditional tonal system was "arbitrary," so why not just impose another arbitrary structure? As for the "arbitrariness" of tonal music, try playing some Bach for songbirds. They will start singing their hearts out. Put on some Schoenberg and they'll fly away in terror.
@@acbulgin2 The general reaction of birds to Bach is extraordinary. You should try it sometime. I used to own budgies. They also loved big-band jazz, Tammy Wynette, and Locatelli (and Baroque string music in general), but not hard rock or dissonant jazz.
@@acbulgin2 No need to be so snide. My scholarship concerns mostly modern poetry, Italian and French, and a bit of medieval as well. I've also translated a fair amount of same, along with prose fiction. And I write and publish poetry as well. My interest in music comes from playing the guitar (but only as an amateur), and from a lifetime of listening. I can attest that I have witnessed birds' reaction to Bach first-hand. In a calm enough setting, they will also come out of the trees and draw near when I play the guitar outside (not electric, naturally).
At 4:55 shouldn't the 5th beat of bar 4 be an E# and not an F in order to maintain the intervalic spacing of a Perfect Fourth between the two voices and the uniform Melodic jumps of a Major Seventh in both lines?
@@ABrooksGraphics you were just given an example of why one might spell a certain way. Also, while this gets off focus a bit, an F in a sharp key, F# is literally a misnomer, or B lydian where E# is its a xact fourth. Leaving alone intonation on instruments not stuck on 12 tET.
I admire Frank Zappa's faithfulness to his own vision of things. He seemed unerringly true to himself and learned voraciously from those around him, be it blues, jazz, serialism or whatever. Plus he makes me laugh and have some truly fascinating interviews on artistic-cultural life in general. As a largely self taught composer and musician the genius is palpable.
I was thinking the same thing! There are DEFINITELY some strong harmonic similarities. Some of these chords and harmonies also make me think of Alberto Ginastera's roiling, turbulent Piano Concerto (1961), with its jarring splashes of dissonance.
i remember the first time i heard a zappa album. it was overnight sensation. between the really strange cover and the strange arrangements, i felt this sort of mechanical feeling. amazing FZ didnt do drugs because that album seemed like some kind of lsd experience to me. But that sound and those alien arrangements made an impression. i followed FZ afterwards and i even got to see him live 1 time. for a while there, it seemed like he had a new album out every month, no way to keep up being a broke kid. this video explains some of that "feel" that a great part of FZ's music has in it and why nobody sounds like FZ. this was an interesting watch, and actually has given me a few insights on HOW to explore the scales in my own compositional endeavors to keep making something new and interesting
In an alternate universe Allan Holdsworth Joined Frank Zappa's band in the mid to late 1970s and a black hole formed and the whole world imploded onto itself
Emotionally bewildering... Some stirring moments lost in a thicket of randomness. I do think it is possible to generate art through a formulaic process. But i feel that zappa had p̶o̶o̶r̶ uneven* taste in what things SOUNDED like... This is the musical equivalent of a randomly-generated wallpaper that hurts to look at. If anyone can suggest a piece of music by Zappa you found genuinely beautiful or moving, I would be curious to listen. *Edit
@@ClintLock1 Yeah Frank was all over the place . A rare pretty one. I would call some of his instrumentals like Zoot Allurs or Peaches En Regalia worthy of that personally, but a lot of his material was very mathematical sounding and got less and less accessible. I am sometimes even down with hearing him do a modal jam on guitar for ten minutes, and other guitarists not so much.
But does all this produce something that I would want to listen to? I’ve enjoyed Zappa for 45 years. I’m not sure I would enjoy the theoretical stuff talked about here.
Many thanks Jerry. What I’m trying to illustrate in the video is that Zappa had very specific ideas about chord construction and that the intervallic spacing between the notes were the result of careful consideration and experimentation over many years. You’d be forgiven for assuming that it is planing because of the way I present examples from his work. However, it is a presentation that sheds light on only part of his compositional process, one must watch the video with that in mind. In addition, it affords the opportunity to see some continuity in his methodology which at times can be very difficult to ascertain from a music analysis perspective.
@@ChananHanspal I find your analysis fascinating. You’re convincing me that Frank was far more intentional than I’d realized. I’m binging your series. 😉 While serialism still takes a certain mood for me to enjoy, I find that Frank’s humor makes it more accessible. Reminds me of Monk, who’s angular solos always make me smile. By the way, I don’t think that lack of absolute pitch equals ‘tone deaf’. 😁
