"But for those of you who mark time by other means than your heart or your foot" - Gail Zappa.
If I first may state that I have no intent to scold anyone, put pointedly just ask folks to look at how they not only keep time in any level of appreciation or Frank Zappa's work, and but also, critically analysing, that would include comprehending how he created it. I hope that love always finds it's way into anyone's appreciation of Frank's work.
In the case with a portion of his Synclavier Compositions. Be it now in this release, or since Frank first announced he purchased the Synclavier. Many have wanted to understand how he composed on this. We can compare how he composed with notes on paper, made hand signals while conducting at a live show, or composed with a chicken and spider air sculpture with his guitar. What is clear is the ensemble of initial intent. The Synclavier itself. But how glorious it can also be when an modern ensemble performs it live.
But getting back to the Synclavier as a compositional tool and as an ensemble.
While many would like if Frank had talked at length about each and every composition on Dance Me This, it seems as if he never had a chance, time, to get into the finite details of documenting for educational purposes, each and every piece. From my perspective, in what the liner notes reveal, it's all glorious of the heart, and but also, gives us a traditional approach to tap our foot along with the music. Not that serious music ever had a tap for foot quotient but I hope folks get the drift. The liner notes collectively does this all.
While we don't have Frank literally explaining each and every composition on DMT , that's not to say that anyone can not look back on the interviews and video documentaries that show how composed with the Synclavier. Not that anyone has been asking, but I don't think the specific liner note production of DMT should be a overt history lesson or educational lesson of how FZ composod with the synclavier.
In my perspective I get allot out of these liner notes, where they are the icing on the cake so to speak. Thankfully I don't see Gail or the highly respected contributors that had a working relationship with Frank, yes all the folks that get official liner notes ink, over- analysing and stating what Frank did. What we do get it's lots of information that helps preserve the art, without overstating or misstating the composers intent.
If we could all be in the studio for a while, next to Frank when he was composing, my gut feeing is that it's a process over time more than literally in the short moment. It's clear that with this project, some aspects of the process were done in the moment with shorter lengths of traditional time, or pointedly, that some aspects of the compositions did not take long periods of time to yeild their desired effect, but please do not take this as if Frank just whipped this up like a Betty Crocker item. So much of Frank's overall body of work was chiselling away. If he had more time to chissel, it's clear that some of these compositions were intended for larger works.
Wishing all love and peace. Enjoy.
Last edited by Trendmonger on Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:49 am, edited 4 times in total.
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