While not an expert on this era of Zappa, here's what I know: he started using it around 1984, first on either Francesco Zappa (pieces by the supposed Italian baroque-era composer) or The Perfect Stranger which also featured Pierre Boulez's ensemble. Thereafter, the Synclavier appeared on virtually every one of Zappa's "serious music" records: Meets the Mothers of Prevention to some extent, but most prominently on Jazz From Hell in 1986 through his last record, Civilization Phaze III, which was released posthumously. It seems to have become his main compositional tool, from which most of his latter-period orchestral pieces originated (for further research, see The Yellow Shark), though he also re-scored older pieces on the machine (such as "The Black Page #1" which was released on a flexidisk for Keyboard Magazine).
I'm most familiar with Jazz From Hell, which vascillates stylistically between pop and contemporary classical, and Civilization Phaze III, a concept album using outtakes from Uncle Meat sessions which I own but have never been able to make it all the way through. Francesco Zappa is somewhat pointless -- either weakly ironic or ironically weak.
One wonders how much Zappa's fascination with the Synclavier came out of his frustration with live players and their ability to realize what he was hearing in his head. In particular, I have read that the LSO record in 1983 was both hugely expensive, difficult from a musical perspective and a logistical nightmare. Though I enjoy that record (particularly opener "Sad Jane"), replacing all that with a computer has its advantages, I suppose.
That said, the results seem, at best, a mixed bag. While the compositions are as rhythmically complex and loaded with Zappa's signature polytonal melodic lines as one could imagine, as performed on the Synclavier (on Jazz From Hell in particular), they're sterile and just horribly lacking in dynamics. With the exception of the musique concrete of "Porn Wars" (12 minutes of mid-80s Senate hearings from Meets the Mothers of Prevention) and the dark "Jonestown" from Perfect Stranger, much of the music sounds meticulously composed but carelessly arranged -- almost as if Frank had just haphazardly plugged scores into the machine, using factory preset sounds, pressed "Run" and left the room for a smoke while the tape ran.
Perhaps most damningly, I have yet to have heard a single piece of his that sounded better performed on the Synclavier than it did by live musicians. And it's a shame, as some of the music he wrote in this era is really outstanding and might have benefited from a great electronic arrangement. Unfortunately, it's often the reverse; for instance, if your only experience with the brilliant and sly "G-Spot Tornado" in its original and almost unlistenably strident incarnation on Jazz From Hell (as opposed to the rendition on The Yellow Shark with the Ensemble Modern), you would never know it was one of the best pieces of music Zappa ever wrote. You might even think it was one of the worst.
I understand his music is difficult, and in more than a simply "musical sense" -- I myself still occasionally struggle with it (that is, when I even bother). But am I missing something when it comes to his Synclavier music? Or did the instrument play not to Zappa's strengths as a composer--his singular voice, almost Monk-ish sense of humor, etc.--but rather his autocratic weaknesses? Discuss...
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 11:24 (nineteen years ago)
In it, he compares a live band working, with Synclavier working, and in conclusion, states that he just prefers the band.
http://www.snopes.com/sources/music/graphics/zappa.jpg
― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 12:32 (nineteen years ago)
I would also say the same about the keyboard parts (Synclavier?) for the tricky section of "Alien Orifice" (another amazing piece) on...well, I can't remember the original studio album right now (Meets the Mothers of Prevention, I want to say). Those same lines when tackled by the horn section/rest of the band on Make a Jazz Noise Here sound much better.
― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 13:27 (nineteen years ago)
Anyway, yeah ? it's interesting. I need to dig out Civilzation one more time. Also, I'm interested in knowing how much the machine changed his orchestral composition process ? b/c you can seriously churn shit out...
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 20:35 (nineteen years ago)
― Matt Olken (Moodles), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 00:10 (nineteen years ago)
By the Synclavier years (actually, by 1975) his best work as a composer was behind him, but "G-Spot Tornado" is a good piece. There's a great version on by the Ensemble Ambrosius on Zappa on Baroque Instruments.
― The Bearnaise-Stain Bears (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 00:34 (nineteen years ago)
I think the guitar solo on "St Etienne" (from Jazz From Hell) is terrific, up there with "Black Napkins," "Inca Roads," "Watermelon in Easter Hay," etc. Deep cut!
I wonder if this was done using his 'xenochrony' technique. I would definitely believe it, based on the rhythm of the solo against the drums, but every once in a while it's so dead-on I think it was probably recorded in the more traditional style (ie hearing the backing track and playing along). There's one point where the drums and guitar begin playing sixteenth notes at the same time, which, if it wasn't intentional, would have to have been a very fortunate coincidence.
― Wimmels, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 16:03 (nine years ago)
i think st. etienne was straight live. there's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf4bjByMcvE
― increasingly bonkers (rushomancy), Tuesday, 13 December 2016 16:06 (nine years ago)
Oh, cool! I might've known you'd be the guy to ask about this, rushomancy!
(obviously I'm still on my big Zappa kick. I've managed to read both Barry Miles' terrible book, Zappa's just-ok-mostly-pointless autobiography, and Ben Watson's Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play, which I enjoyed quite a bit in spite of myself once I got into it)
― Wimmels, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 16:25 (nine years ago)
Dance Me This is quite accessible compared to his other Synclavier-albums. The reason why is because it´s melodious rather than atonal. A Dutch critic wrote that he finally found his own voice as a composer on DMT. I think it's an interesting album as it combines real instruments and voices with synclavier sounds (CPIII disc 2 also has real instruments on it).
In the early 80s his Synclavier pieces were quite long, up to an lp side (check "Feeding the Monkies at Ma Maison"), but circa "Jazz from Hell" they got shorter.
Perhaps most damningly, I have yet to have heard a single piece of his that sounded better performed on the Synclavier than it did by live musicians.
Amnerica: Synclavier > Ensemble Modern
― EvR, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 16:31 (nine years ago)
i think i've complained about this before, but while zappa had a pretty good grasp of composition, he didn't really do so good with electronic instruments. i mean a guy who kept putting out records where he prominently noted that there were no overdubs was not someone who necessarily had a mindset to make the most of digital technology. his experiments with the synclavier didn't seem to go beyond "the girl in the magnesium dress's" messing around with metadata-as-data, which just about everybody who's used a computer has tried at some point. he seemed to primarily use it as a very high-tech player piano, doing experiments like "navanax" which simply were not playable by humans. honestly, i do not rate his synclavier work as highly as i rate nancarrow's player piano work, because of zappa's disinterest in the technological possibilities afforded by machinery (technological possibilities which were being quite well explored on much more primitive equipment by the time of zappa's death). i believe that many of the pieces on "civilization phase iii" could have turned out a lot better than they did had he taken a greater interest in this aspect of sound.
― increasingly bonkers (rushomancy), Tuesday, 13 December 2016 16:41 (nine years ago)
The recent Zappa doc inspired me to look up Jazz From Hell, which is way more fun than advertised. It sounds like Aphex Twin in places:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opXiEutUIzU
― dinnerboat, Wednesday, 15 February 2017 20:24 (nine years ago)
still my favourite IDM reckid
― massaman gai, Wednesday, 15 February 2017 21:13 (nine years ago)