1. Dr Paul Carr
Glamorgan University

3.  Some Basic Questions For Musicological Research
 Who Is Frank Zappa?
 Why Frank Zappa?
 Zappa and the And: Key Essays in the Contextualisation
of his Legacy
 Why is his music Semiotically Interesting?
 Basic Ontological Model
 Primary and Secondary Significations
 Examples of other artists who have employed similar
techniques.
 Conclusions and Questions

4. 1. Can music communicate anything beyond notes,
sounds and textures? How/Why/Why Not?
2. Is this ‘meaning’ universal or personal (‘Good’ or
‘Agreeable’)?
3. Is the meaning in the formal aspects of the work?
4. What ‘caused’ the music and/or meaning (the author,
society, our reception, technology, etc)? What where
the intentions/motivations?
5. What does the music inform me about the band or
composer (psychoanalysis)?
6. Does the music relate to the ‘Transcendental’?
7. Where exactly is the ontological presence of the music?

5. 1. Can we/how do we communicate this meaning to
others?
2. What voice is analysing the music (composer,
producer, performer, listener)?
3. How does the ‘theory’ we adopt impact our approach,
and how aware are we of how we use theory?
4. How aware or we of the
cultural/historical/sociological ‘gap’ between
ourselves and the music we are examining?

17. 1. (For Me) A unique case study in Inter-Textuality.
2. Represents ontological interest from a formalist and
‘extra-musical’ perspective.
3. Zappa’s work not only represents a confluence of
styles, but a prolonged and considered interchange of
musical traditions – Rare in Popular Music!
4. Bridges the gap between low and high art.
5. Work includes interesting mix of Primary and
Secondary meanings.
6. Interesting mix of ‘Intentional’ and ‘Extensional’
meaning (musical meaning in recording/ performance
process or the score?).
7. Interesting perception of time, space and place.
8. His music has low ‘convention probability’.
“Anything, anytime, for no reason at all” (Frank
Zappa)

18.  Zappa and Horror: Screamin' at the
Monster
 Zappa and his Cultural Legacy:
Authorship, Influences and Expressive
Frontiers in Frank Zappa’s Movies
 Zappa and the Razor: Editing, Sampling
and Musique Concrète
 Zappa and Religion: Music is the Best
 Zappa and Satire: From Conceptual
Absurdism to the Perversity of Politics
 Zappa and Resistance: The Pleasure
Principle
 Zappa and the Recording Studio: His
incorporation of time, space and place in
performing, composing, arranging his
music
 Zappa and the Freaks: Recording Wild
Man Fischer
 Zappa and Modernism: An extended
study of “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It”
 Zappa and the Avant-Garde: Towards a
Way-Out of 20th Century Art

19.  Object/Project
 Conceptual Continuity
 Musical Quotation
 Xenochrony
 Archetypal American Musical Icons

20.  His perceived difference between the
completed work of art in a recording and the
ongoing process of redefining it
 Many Zappa compositions are recomposed and
defined over many years.
 Joseph Grigley: Differentiates between ‘Texts’
and ‘Works’: a text is ‘constantly undergoing
continuous and discontinuous transience as it
ages’ (Textuality: Art ,Theory, and Textual
Criticism (Michigan, 1995), p. 1.
 They evolve into ‘Works’!

21.  ‘How Could I be Such a Fool’ (Freak Out (66),
Crusing with Ruben and the Jets (67)
 The Black Page (Lather (78), (YCDTOSA vol 4
(91), Make a Jazz Noise Here (91))

22.  Meridian Arts
Ensemble
 Le Concert Impromtu
 Ensemble Amrosius

23.  Musical and non musical conceptual gestures
were embedded into his entire creative output.
 For example:
 ‘Canine Conceptual Continuity’ was included
in his music and compositions - such as:
 “Dirty Love” (1974)
 “Stinkfoot” (1974)
 “The Poodle Lecture” (1974)
 “Cheepnis” (1974)
 Also extended to album covers such as -

28.  Louie Louie’,
 The Rite Of Spring, ‘
 Duke Of Earl’,
 ‘Baby Love’
 The Planets Suite,
 ‘God Bless America’,
 Petrushka, ‘
 White Christmas’
 The Soldiers Tale

29.  ‘Plastic People’ (Absolutely Free, 1967)
 ‘Amnesia Vivace’ (Absolutely Free, 1967)
 ‘Invocation and Ritual Dance of the Young
Pumpkin’ (Absolutely Free, 1967)
 ‘Uncle Bernie’s Farm’ (Absolutely Free, 1967)

30.  Fragments of this track are found throughout
his compositional portfolio.
 For example:

31.  Original Track The Kingsman

32.  Examples of Zappa’s use.
 “Plastic People” (Absolutely Free)
 “Son of Suzy Cream cheese” (Absolutely Free)
1967
 “Florentine Pogen” (One Size Fits All) 1974
 “Jesus Thinks You’re A Jerk” (Broadway The
Hard Way) 1984

33.  Zappa’s terminology for the semiotic impact of
music. Examples included short quotes to
songs such as ‘Mission Impossible’, ‘Wipe Out’
etc.
 ‘Jesus Thinks You’re Jerk’ (Broadway the
Hardway, 1988) - ‘The Twilight Zone’ (4:20),

34.  Zappa: “When a novelist invents a character. If the character is a
good one, he takes on a life of his own. Why should he get to go to
only one party?” (Zappa and Occhiogrosso, The Real Frank Zappa
Book, p. 139).
 ‘Help I’m A Rock’, The Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!. Note the
inclusion of the short segment of ‘Who Are The Brain Police’
(from the same album) between 2:02 and 2:08.
 ‘Dog Breath, In The Year Of The Plague’, The Mothers of
Invention, Uncle Meat, Rykodisc, 69741 (1969). Note the studio
manipulated extract from Zappa’s movie score ‘The Worlds
Greatest Sinner’ (1962) from 2:30.
 Civilization Phaze III which merges music from the early 1990’s
with material from Thing-Fish, The Perfect Stranger, and Lumpy
Gravy. ‘

35.  “This collection is not chronological”, - any
band from any year can be (and often is) edited
to the performance of any other band from any
other year – sometimes in the middle of a
song” (Taken from YCDTOSA Volume 4, 1988)
 Procedure that fuses music, performances and
musicians from different time, spaces and
places.

36.  “Friendly Little Finger” (Zoot Allures 1974) Bass
and guitar recorded together, and combined
with drums from another track (“The Ocean Is
The Ultimate Solution” from Sleep Dirt 1979)

37. 11/4 bass part extracted from a
performance in Gothenburg in
1974, with a 4/4 drum part
recorded in 1976 in studio
conditions

38.  Results in obvious Genre Synecdoche's and..
 More ‘obtuse’ relationships between signifier
and signified.....
 What Barthes described as ‘The Third
Meaning’...
 “I do not know what it’s signified is, at least I
am unable to give it a name, but I can see
clearly the traits, the signifying accidents of
which this – consequently incomplete – sign is
composed.” (Barthes, Image Music Text, p. 53).

39. Basic Musicological Model
Poietic Immanent Ethesic
Intended
‘message’ Emitter Music Receiver ‘adequate’
response
(channel)
Primary Secondary

40.  Middleton believes Primary Signification to be
rare in popular music: Indicative examples
given include ‘animal noises’ in the Beatles
‘Good Morning’ or motor bike noises in The
Shangri-Las ‘Leader of the Pack’.
 Provides 3 types of PS - Quotation, Stylistic
Allusion and Parody
 Quotation already covered with Zappa – but
what about Stylistic Allusion and Parody?

41.  Crusing with Ruben and the Jets and Burnt Weeny
Sandwich - overt influences of Do-wop and his hero’s
such as Varèse and Stravinsky.
 ‘Love of My Life’
 ‘Igors Boogie’

42.  Middleton regards , Destructive Parody to be
very rare but ‘fundamental to the work of
Frank Zappa’, (Middleton, Studying Popular
Music, p. 220).
 Zappa influenced by Spike Jones, would
‘destructively’ allude to musicians such as Bob
Dylan (‘Flakes’, Sheik Yerbouti) or Al Di Meola,
(‘Peaches III’, on Tinseltown Rebellion)
 Or politicians such as Richard Nixon (‘Dickie’s
Such An Asshole’, Broadway the Hardway).

45.  His ‘Rock Star’ persona
played a substantial
part in informing his
audience how to
categorise his work
 Utilised the archetypal
clichés of the Rock
tradition to
compartmentalise his
work into as lucrative a
direction as possible.
For Example:

46.  ‘Hog Heaven’

50.  Mo ‘N Herbs
Vacation, First
Movement (London
Symphony Orchestra
vol 1 & 2)

52.  ‘The The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet’ and
 ‘It Can’t Happen Here’. (Freak Out, 1966)

59.  Conducting band since  Peaches and Regalia
mid 1950’s – entitled it
‘Conduction’
 Combined
Conducting
 Gave instructions
(specific and
improvisatory) to band
and sometimes
audiences!
 Alluded subliminal
messages regarding his
dominant hierarchical
position and musical
merit

60.  Is the music Rock,
Jazz or Classical?
 High or low art?
 Controlled or open?
 Improvisatory or
notated?
 Serious or frivolous?
 Complex or simple?
 Elitist or vernacular?

61.  Rock founded style/genre usually present, but his
constant interface with other styles and genres
make describing his music unusually problematic.
 Can be described with Bakhtin’s notion of centripetal
and centrifugal forces.

63.  In Zappa’s case, Rock is the centripetal force,
with other other sub styles/traditions (Doo-
wop, Reggae, Blues, etc) acting as centrifugal
“destabilising forces”.
 However - Zappa’s use of music, and
involvement with music outside of the tradition
has a more profound effect on the stylistic
balance and ultimate reception of his music.
 Zappa’s long-term relationship with
contemporary classical music represents not
just a juxtaposition of style, but a confluence of
traditions

64.  Zappa’s long term incorporation of classical
music was intentionally progressive – he stated
in 1968:
 “Stravinsky in rock n’ roll is like a get-
acquainted offer… It’s a gradual progression to
bring in my own ‘serious’ music”
 Explicitly but subtly integrated classical
gestures into his early portfolio, gradually
increasing the propensity of the statements in
individual compositions, and eventually
albums

65.  Song For My Father (Horace
Silver)

66.  Ricky Don’t Lose That
Number

67.  Monteverdi - incorporating material from L’Orfeo
in the 1610 Vespers
 Prokoviev’s 3rd Symphony - instrumental version of
his opera Fiery Angel
 Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Save The Life Of My
Child’ (Bookends 1968) - ‘samples’ part of ‘The
Sound of Silence’
 Buffalo Springfield’s live version of ‘Broken
Arrow’ incorporates a direct recording of their ‘Mr
Soul’
 Charles Ives
 Sampling of other artists’ work pervasive
throughout Hip Hop and some dance music.

83. Dr Paul Carr
Glamorgan University