Zappa the serious composer

This week in Concordia's Zappa class, students were introduced to the composer's more serious, classical oriented work. It was an exceptional thing to witness an almost giddy Frank Zappa on stage where the London Symphony Orchestra was to play his incredible works only days later. The class witnessed a clip of Zappa sitting back and listening to the sounds of his mind's creation being played together for the first time ever and the experience was truly satisfying; though it must have been even more satisfying for him.

All throughout Mike Pinsonneault's course, lectures have focused--at one point or another--on the desire of Zappa to be surrounded by perfection. To have the best musicians in the world around him, playing his music. With the performances by the London Symphony Orchestra, Zappa achieved the closest thing to that perfection. He had saved diligently, and with his own money he made a project that he had envisioned for years come to life. The scores he had poured over endlessly were finally--and for the first time--animated before his eyes and ears.

What lends such a satisfactory quality to the achievements of Zappa in the world of serious orchestral music is his obvious interest and devotion to it right from the beginning of his career. His first album, Freak Out!, featured a seventeen piece orchestra including piano, on top of the five Mothers. When the musicians arrived they were shocked a) to be seated in front of arranged and scored music, and b) to be conducted effortlessly by the "beatnik" Zappa.

Zappa, at that point in his career, may have continued along the path of orchestral music had it not been for money. He was able to hire such a large number of musicians because he was given an unlimited budget by the very impressed Tom Wilson. A deal like that would not happen for Zappa again for a while. He struggled financially through a large part of his career and was essentially "forced" into playing rock music to make money. Not that he didn't enjoy Rock & Roll, and of course, there was a large social-political criticism behind his rock music that he found equally important. Butl, lately I have wondered how Frank Zappa would have been remembered had he been wealthy enough (or found steady commission) to compose and have played his more serious works. Perhaps he would have been recognized as an entirely different figure.

Nonetheless, regardless of how Zappa's career played out and despite the recognition he got and the way he was perceived, in the end of his career he truly received the recognition of a serious composer for the type of music he loved most. Along with the praise of the general public, the comments of internationally renowned and respected conductor Kent Nagano solidified Zappa's position as a respected contemporary composer. Nagano compared Zappa to the most highly regarded of all 20th century composers and praised his scores as some of the most difficult yet enjoyable he had ever worked with.