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Nicolas SlonimskyNicolas Slonimsky Speaks about Frank Zappa (May 3, 1983)

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In these recorded comments by Slonimsky, his musical world (classical/avant garde) and that of Frank Zappa (popular/avant garde) came together primarily due to the publication of a book by Slonimsky on scales and harmonies that attracted Zappas attention. Slonimsky recounts his acceptance of an invitation by Zappa to play with his Rock Band. He also recounts how amazed he was when he observed Zappas scores for classical music which looked far out like something Edgar Varese would write, a composer who was admired by both Slonimsky and Zappa.

Recorded at Slonimsky's home in Los Angeles by Charles Amirkhanian.


This audio is part of the collection: Other Minds Archive

Artist/Composer: Nicolas Slonimsky
Date: 1983-05-03 00:00:00
Source: Other Minds
Label / Recorded by: Charles Amirkhanian

Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial

Notes

All Other Minds programs available, with additional print and photo materials, at http://www.radiOM.org.

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Reviewer: MusicLover - - January 18, 2004
Subject: Slonimsky on Zappa
One of the warmest and sharpest composer and musician, Slonimsky was a delight to be around and during his life conducted premieres of works by many 20th century composers including Stravinksy. In this recording, he refers to his book, "The Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns", which nowadays can be found in paperback. Slonimsky was the only person I knew personally that was born in the 19th century and recognized both Ives (he made the first recording of Ives in 1934 and was conducting Ives as early as 1930) and Zappa as great musical geniuses. Hopefully, this recording can convey to those that had never been fortunate to spend time with this man, some of the amazing characteristics of his wondeful personality.