mt.st. mary's orchestra
the liner notes to "the lost episodes"
*** this music, as fz told don menn in the 1992 "zappa!"
tribute magazine
(published by keyboard and guitar player magazines) is part of the very first
zappa-led performance of the composer's so-called "serious," or
orchestral music. it took place in 1963 at, of all pastoral places, lovely mount
st. mary's
college, a private catholic institution perched in the lush santa monica
mountains above west los angeles. zappa
spent $300 from his own pocket, organized a "college orchestra," and
"put on this little concert." it
was taped and broadcast by los angeles public radio station kpfk, but fz did not
hear the
tape until 1991, after a fan in england mailed him a cassette. although the
concert was much longer than this tiny fragment*, this excerpt of what fz
described as "oddball, textured weirdo stuff" is still a minor
treasure. the composer's musical
personality and skill are suprisingly mature; it is easy to
detect stylistic hints fo the future, more elaborate work. the
music's level of accomplishment and ambition, in fact, is a jarring reminder
that, as fz told menn, "by the time i graduated from high school in 1958, i
still hadn't written any rock and roll songs... i didn't write any rock and roll
stuff until i was in
my twenties. all the music writing
i was doing was either chamber music or orchestral, and none of it ever got
played until this concert..." the
program included a piece called "opus 5," aleatoric works that
required some
improvisation, a piece for orchestra and taped electronic music, with
accompanying visuals in the form of fz's own experimental 8mm films.
euclid
james 'motorhead' sherwood described one such film depicting the
los angeles county fair carnival, double exposed with passing telephone poles). it
is also worth pointing out that fz's elaborate conducting technique of
improvising music through pre-arranged
hand signals and body gestures was employed at this concert (san francisco
chronicle columnist ralph j. gleason wrote in 1968 that "zappa's
conducting style is worth a column all by itself") and that his ease and
charm with audiences was already in evidence.
*fz
said "not much tape survives" of the concert (indeed, it is not in
the kpfk archives), but collectors report the existence of a 69-minute
recording of this event. ***
regarding experimental 8mm films: check frank zappa's "video from
hell" for footage of this film, used as music visuals the song
nite school.