I've just contacted David Ocker, whom you might know from several Frank Zappa works, and yes, he was the one who helped prepare the orchestra music - and play clarinet on one piece - of the LSO album, among others (see more details here!). While talking (through e-mails) he was kind enough to share some of his thoughts on the event, so I thought it would be nice to put it here (with his kind permission, of course). It's always interesting to meet viewpoints of someone who has a deeper knowledge of a certain thing, who was there where this pieces were born. Here you are!
(Thank you, David!)
In my perfect world
Most of the seven years (1977-1984) I worked for Frank Zappa I spent preparing music for full symphony orchestra. I was a music copyist, using pens, ink and drafting tools to draw Frank's music on paper, line by line, dot by dot. This process is called "Autography" by those who did it. Most other people called it tedious.
Obviously Frank wanted his music performed by orchestras, that wonderful, antiquated, exhilarating, infuriating massive ensemble of diverse talents and elevated egos.You can tell just how much he wanted these performances by the huge amount of money he paid us to prepare the music.When you pay copyists to make scores and parts and then they sit on a shelf for years, there's no return on your investment.(Yeah, of course Frank knew this, check out The Real Frank Zappa Book.) Besides myself, some of the other copy-workers were Richard Emmet and Art Jarvinen.
(Richard Emmet, John Steinmetz playing the bassoon, FZ, David Ocker - picture by John Livzey, 1981)
All of the scores except one received at least one performance before Frank died. That one is an arrangement of Penis Dimension and I'm Stealing the Room scored for narrators, chorus and orchestra. Still gathering dust after all these years.
But most of these pieces have gotten precious few additional performances. Yes, much of the music is challenging for the performers and for the audience. But I've always believed that they deserve wider exposure and could someday become widely programmed. A few ought to be easy to integrate into the standard repertoire for the regular orchestra audiences to enjoy. This music doesn't have to be just for Frank's fans.
When I learned (via the fine blog K.U.R.) of a concert called 100% Zappa to be performed by the MR Symphony under the direction of Adam Fischer, my first reaction was of great hope. Not knowing anything of the ensemble or particulars of the concert, I had no idea what to expect. I recognized the conductors name from classical-period recordings. That's pretty far from Frank Zappa.
The program consisted of the "reasonably difficult" Zappa orchestra pieces (as opposed to the "unreasonably difficult" ones, like Mo 'n Herb or Sinister Footwear.) But these are the ones that a regular audience should accept. I was tremendously curious what this event would be like. Would they play well? Would the music be well received? Sad to say, my resources don't allow me to up and fly to Budapest for just one concert, even of this music.
Later, K.U.R. (that's the fine blog, remember?) alerted me to the Internet radio broadcast of this concert. I was all over it. What I heard was very encouraging. I still don't know anything about the orchestra or how much rehearsal time they had, but the results were as good or better than the studio LSO recordings which Frank edited repeatedly. But these live unedited recordings were light years beyond what the LSO produced at the Barbican in 1984. Very encouraging.
The four pieces work well together. It's the same sequence of works as the second disc of the Zappa LSO CD. It seems that Envelopes is destined to always be an opening piece and Strictly Genteel will always be the finale. It could even be a sing-along. (Yeah, right.)
Pedro's Dowry is the most difficult of the four - both to play and to understand. I was very impressed with the way Adam Fischer brought out the connections between themes and enhanced the lyrical qualities. These things often get lost when the notes are so hard.
But it is Bogus Pomp that I think has the most potential for regular orchestra programs. I remember being at Frank's UMRK studio when Bob Stone was mixing the LSO recording of Bogus Pomp - he referred to it as an "epic". He was absolutely correct.
If you know the music to 200 Motels, as most Zappa fans do, Bogus Pomp is sort of a travelogue - a series of scenes all set off by fanfares. Frank chose which music to include and I orchestrated it, under his supervision, into one continuous performable piece. Hearing the MR Orchestra performance, I began to think of Bogus Pomp as a symphony in four movements. These are played without pause like many modern symphonies. Speaking of it in these terms might help non-Zappa fans appreciate it as more abstract music.
The first movement (centered around Centerville with sprechstimme trombones) is followed by the "slow" movement (the Tuna Sandwich music mostly). Or maybe it's just one long first movement. Then, about half way through Bogus Pomp, we get the "Scherzo"; I mean the word "scherzo" in the sense of a "joke". Maybe even a "parody". This is where the pomp really gets bogus, and, for me, it's the heart of the entire piece. Frank follows this with a frantic presto finale. After the climax he tosses in just a touch of deja vu - a wistful memory of the "slow movement" reminds us just how much territory we've covered. When performed well, it's a wild ride. Who is not going to like this?
Okay, to the best of my knowledge, Frank never thought of Bogus Pomp as a symphony. That's me talking. I have no clue how Frank would have reacted to my idea. If there was one thing I was ever certain about when I worked for Frank, it was the impossibility of predicting in advance how he might react to any suggestion.
Of course he would agree that Bogus Pomp ought to get more performances. I think Bogus Pomp would make a bang-up second half of an orchestra subscription concert rather than part of an all-Zappa concert. I even fantasized some pieces for the first half based on music I like. Feel free to suggest your own alternatives.
program one:
Charles Ives: Variations on America
John Adams: Violin Concerto
Frank Zappa: Bogus Pompprogram two:
Emmanuel Chabrier: Espańa Rhapsody
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Frank Zappa: Bogus Pompprogram three:
Wittold Lutoslawski: Variations on a Theme of Paganini
Igor Stravinsky: Pulchinella
Frank Zappa: Bogus Pompprogram four: (see / hear below!)
Leonard Bernstein: Overture to Candide
Darius Milhaud: La Creation du Monde
Frank Zappa: Bogus Pomp
In my perfect world this is the sort of programming that would put the composer Frank Zappa in the league where he belongs. And it's my fervent hope that concerts like 100% Zappa are stepping stones to that perfect world.
David Ocker
*
See also:
The David Ocker Internet Interview - by Bill Lantz;
David Ocker's blog - Mixed Meters;
The True Story of the LSO - by David Ocker;
John Steinmetz's homepage
Two amateur videos of the event: Evelopes, Bogus Pomp (part)
Autumn Festival, Budapest, 2007
balint on 2007, December 20 - 00:54.
