Frank Zappa and the Enterprise of Serious Contemporary Music
Zappa [is] an extremely creative and highly proficient composer and performer of truly serious contemporary music, whose musical and artistic perception clearly transcends the narrowly defined limits of pop and whose breadth of musical experience outstrips the boundaries of all forms of American music, not simply pop.
By "serious," I mean a learned and studied writer of music; one who has studied the traditional techniques of theory, harmony, counterpoint, and composition; one who is aware of the history of Western Music especially and who can both appreciate and appraise contemporary music and its materials; one who has both a personal vision and aesthetic and who has the training to be, in Charles Ives' terms, "communicative," "melodious" and "expressive;" one whose work is what is done, not what has to be done; one who insists on the primacy of the creative imagination and is completely open to it both in himself/herself and in others; and, above all, one who passionately loves music.
By "serious music" is meant that music of the Academy, studied in and approved by the Academy. (pp. 36-7)
The point of this essay is to suggest that Frank Zappa is indeed a very serious musician whose music and musical ideas, of themselves, are very much a part of serious contemporary music, and that he may, in fact, have already provided, through his musical ideas, several possible solutions to the crises facing the American Music Academy and its products. He is an innovative musician rather than a revolutionary. But his is also a necessary musical daring, a refusal, in Varèse's terms, to submit himself "only to sounds that have already been heard." He is not a Varèse nor a Stravinsky. He is himself and has retained "the courage of his own artistic vision." He is, in Stravinsky's words, an "inventor of music."…
Zappa's synthesis of theater and music, and his efforts to reach the Gesamtkunstwerk (union of the arts) of Richard Wagner, frequently overshadows the virtuosity of his composition and its highly technical and musical nature.
Like one of his principal musical interests, Igor Stravinsky, Zappa is, on one level, a neo-classicist. (p. 37)
Purity of form is the first concern of the classicist; the control of the form, is the second concern. The classicist strives to achieve a "oneness" of form and content.
One has only to consider the earliest Zappa albums with his Mothers of Invention to understand the "oneness" of his music. The 4th side of Freak Out including the now legendary "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" is an example of such fusion. Or, the entire We're Only In It For The Money, one of the first "total concept" albums, is not unlike an orchestral suite. But perhaps the most striking example of Zappa's classicism is his album, Lumpy Gravy, with the Abnuceals Emuukha Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. It is a very serious effort at synthesis, but not simply of form and content, for within the form and within the content are materials of many kinds and many dimensions which themselves are shaped and synthesized. The album reflects the breadth of Zappa's "schooling" for he comfortably works not only with Stravinsky but with Varèse and John Cage and such an unlikely composer as Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. There is improvisation, both dialogue and music, within a written-out structure. (p. 38)
The first striking element about Zappa's melodies is that they are in fact real melodies, with the elements of sound melodic construction…. Vocally, many of Zappa's melodies are difficult, not only to execute but to listen to; but they remain imaginative. He allows the melodic line freedom by deriving its rhythm and movement from the lyrics themselves. (p. 40)
Perhaps the finest melodic statement of Frank Zappa remains the entire album (two sides), We're Only In It For The Money. [It] is a "total concept" album, beautifully orchestrated both in form and content…. This album illustrates the composer's dependence on the melodic developments of serious contemporary music. The melodies of We're Only In It For The Money are wide-ranging, asymmetrical, economic and deliberately structured, angular and set within unusual rhythms, harmonies and textures…. They are demanding melodies, as demanding as the lyrics they support. And these melodies are suggestive of the direction of melody in serious contemporary music: expansion, innovation and, to some degree, revolution. (pp. 40-1)
Hot Rats, Waka Jawaka, and The Grand Wazoo reflect quite clearly the harmonies associated with jazz composition and orchestration, particularly in the ensemble writing for brass and reeds. Zappa moves freely and comfortably through all kinds of harmonic progressions and is completely at home with what the ordinary listener would think to be harmonic dissonance.
Zappa has very clearly extended the harmonic constructions of pop music. These constructions are of unusual complexity and it is because of his use of these dissonances that some people find his music unpleasant to the ear. (p. 42)
The middle set of Zappa albums (1968–1971), especially Burnt Weenie Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, are particularly striking for their varied and innovative uses of tonality….
One must not think that Zappa's music is, as a whole, in any way "atonal."… Zappa always returns to a tonal center (a key) and brings what might seem to be cacophony to an unaffected resolution. (p. 43)
Zappa's rhythmic constructions are truly contemporary. Since he bases so many of his melodies on the rhythms and movement of his lyrics, the rhythms are irregular and "nonsymmetrical."…
Again, we must not say that Zappa is revolutionary. But surely he is an innovator of the first order especially with the musical material of rhythm. (p. 44)
What is so exceptional about the polyphonic textures in Frank Zappa's music is their variety. (p. 45)
Frank Zappa is a master orchestrator because he functions as a neo-classicist. He is, in Stravinsky's terms both a creator and a performer; both an interpreter and an executant. And he brings these qualities to his orchestration. (pp. 46-7)
It is important to note too that improvisation is indigenous to Zappa's orchestration. As much as one can possibly control or guide improvisation, Zappa will "orchestrate" it within the textures of a given piece. Live and on his recordings he will "conduct" the performances, including improvisations, and for his recordings he will, not infrequently, splice and dub an orchestration together.
"Fifty-Fifty" from Over-Nite Sensation, Zappa's 1973 album is perhaps one of the finest examples of the over-all superb quality and brillance of his orchestration and those astonishing webs of orchestral textures that he so often creates…. The lyrics of the tune are quite "musical" in their own right, but Zappa has set them to a splendidly, nonsymmetrical melodic line, through which he weaves, note for note with the melody, an ensemble harmonic accompaniment. (p. 47)
Lastly, a word should be said about form and the interest in not only what is done but how it is done. Zappa's own achievements in fashioning new forms within his area of pop far overshadow the changes in musical form within serious contemporary music…. But though alone in his search for new forms Zappa has had success in creating them. His first album, Freak Out remains one of the most esoteric and creative attempts to reach new musical forms….
Zappa seems to aim for the collage which might direct one to think that he lacks form within which and from which to proceed. But such is not the case, for Zappa is quite deliberate and precise about form. Everything is a whole, again, the "oneness" of form and content. Freak Out is a synthesis of form(s) and, on a sheerly musical level, ahead of its time. It has a place among serious contemporary music. (p. 48)
Frank Zappa is a synthesizer and this quality is precisely the extraordinary value of what he does musically. He is always a student and he is curious and aware. He sees that, at this point in time, the culture—and its music—does not really need more discovery as much as it needs the ability to absorb and synthesize what it has already discovered.
Frank Zappa deserves to be considered and respected as an important and serious musical force in the 20th century. If, as [Pierre] Boulez suggests, ours is to be a generation of musical synthesis, acknowledgment and acceptance of Frank Zappa will be a crucial element in the synthesis. (p. 50)
Peter Kountz, "Frank Zappa and the Enterprise of Serious Contemporary Music," in Popular Music & Society (copyright © 1975 by R. Serge Denisoff), Vol. IV, No. 1, 1975, pp. 36-51.
Get Ahead with eNotes
Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.
Already a member? Log in here.