Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels Comes to Life in Green Umbrella at the Walt Disney Concert Hall
Feature Blog by Chad Gorn October 15th, 2013
MXDWN.com
All That Matters In Music Games Music Television
http://www.mxdwn.com/2013/10/15/feature ... cert-hall/Excerpt
Years ago, Gail Zappa, the late Frank Zappa’s wife, sat on a floor with Todd Yvega and Ali Askin, two of Frank’s prized musical assistants, with pages and pages of music spread out across a large room. Together, they reconstructed the order of the suites in a score into what was always meant to be the orchestral work, 200 Motels. Gone was the rock and roll and other pieces that were included in 200 Motels, the 1971 concert film/psychedelic romp.
“This score is more refined and it is actually very close, if not exact, to all the notes Frank actually wrote, in the order that he wrote them,” said Mrs. Zappa, “and that’s what we’re presenting.” More recently, Kurt Morgan, the bassist for Dweezil Zappa’s project, Zappa Plays Zappa, helped bring the project to completion. “The music for 200 Motels was originally intended for a piece called Music for the Queen’s Circus,” recalled Mrs. Zappa, but when this opportunity presented itself to Zappa, he repurposed some of the music. “This is a normal way of approaching things,” explained Mrs. Zappa. “You use what you’ve got and you add to it to make a whole piece.”Yes the orchestra will be doing more..... While I have been talking of this for some time it's understandable how the 200 Motels Film and LPs could easily get a listener to think that 200 Motels has a definitive rock side to the performance. In the past I have pointed to vivid clues where FZs intentions were for 200 Motels to be far more orchestral that had appeared in Contempo 1970 and the film. Certainly Frank did some chiselling on his Orchestral Score for Contempo 70 with Zubin Meta and The LA Philharmonic. Yes that event Frank quickly assembled a "Mothers-Of-Invention-Sort-Of-Group". (
seek the path to The Real Frank Zappa Book) Simply put, a soft orchestra and a loud rock band have it's problems occupying the same tonal landscape. Sure there is a band side to 200 Motels, but I think it has always been pertinent to understand the composers intent of the orchestral score, the choral group, the soloist and character roles. This has been something I have maintained since day one of this discussion. The entire production and all the players involved. the opus is ever more-so important to the composers intent than worrying what was happening with the live Mothers blowing it out loud and live on stage over 5 years.
But for those that are looking to get as much out of the so called "Band" side of things. The article mentions a
"seven-piece rock band". Let's dig a little deeper.... "
the large stage will be practically overflowing with a 40-piece choir, twelve soloists, a seven-piece rock band and an 80-member orchestra, including an enormous percussion section" . Now this is so FZ. In the part of enormous percussion section..... All these integral musical parts, the soloist and character roles, where each have specific stage instructions that the composer wrote out. Clearly this is an opus.
"“We’re staging it, but we’re staging it because Frank had very specific instructions in the score about what he wanted the characters to be doing,” explained Smith."
All in all Chad Gorn's article is very informative. The monolith of thought should be wide open but certainly there are ???. We can still wonder what the article mentions in
"seven-piece rock band". The ZFTs publicist Mitch Schneider Organization reports in their Media Alert Kit that the band will be a 5 piece band.
http://www.msopr.com/press-releases/fra ... 00-motels/But if that were not enough some changes were made to the MXDWN article. Initially it was reported that some of the score preparation was done by Pete Griffin. That was corrected, and but also, some of the rock pieces that were mentioned as not included in the program have been omitted from the article. Maybe some things should be left as a surprise. In this large scaled production there certainly will be more surprises than anything that Broadway has ever witnessed. As far as how the Scoremeister correction came about. Scott Carter Thunes, the bands electric bass player, due noted that "Kurt Morgan, the current Zappa Plays Zappa bassist, prepared the score, not Pete Griffin (who quit a year ago)." Why thank you Mr. Thunes....
Kurt has been doing an amazing job as the ZFT Scoremeister. Folks are starting to see some of the hard work that Kurt puts into the role of Scoremeister. Let it be know that Kurt has been involved in the Scoremeister role for longer than some folks realise. Quite some time ago Kurt shared with me some audio N'Lightenment of one of FZs uncompleted orchestral works. It's not my job to reveal any surprises that lurk inside the vault but let's just say that Frank did make orchestral scores from some of his well known works. I will give an example of one completed orchestral score that folks are aware of though. Sinister Footwear is an example of such. With Sinister Footwear you have some parts that FZ originally wrote on guitar and then later scored for orchestra. The Zappa Affair, Kent Nagano conductor, The Berkeley Symphony, Sinister Footwear. FZs chiselling at the Sinister Footwear score has a long history. That too not only deserves the attention of more orchestras, and but also, a really fine recording..... I am not going to give anything away regarding what scores, and or uncompleted scores exist in the vault, but folks should be aware that scores, and or partial scores do exist. There is stuff beyond the synclavier work. Some of these scores can and have been entered into a software program that gives you a basic idea of what a score, or a partial score might sound like, and but also, this is all very much in line of what is happening NOW, which leads a path past the sleep-like-Wizzard-Of-Oz-Poppy-Fields, directly towards the Optimism-Of-The- FUTCHUM, YES you guessed right.
The Orchestra Will Be Doing More.....
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