The Hermeneutic Circle

I have become very interested in the nature of the hermeneutic circle recently, in particularly how it enables us to learn about music. There has been a great deal of literature from both philosophy  (For example Georg Gadamer) and musicicology (For example Lenard Mayer) that discusses how we understand texts through relating individual parts to an emerging whole. Basically, as we take on and understand more parts, our perception of the whole changes. So, as opposed to writing about music retrospectively, I thought I would document some thoughts when listening to some music for the first time. I chose the recent album from Australian film composer Lisa Gerard, who I have never heard before, but seen her name yesterday when watching the film Whalerider. Anyway, I am going to play the album and try to document something while it is playing. I am giving myself 15 mins, so after that I will stop. I  will probably skip across to some of her other work in order to contextualise it further, and this is something that Spotify is ideally suited to.

The first thing I would like to consider  is my conception of what a ‘part’ is. I know she is a film composer and writes atmospheric music (she co wrote the score for Gladiator, and has lots of other films to her name). So – I am thinking schooled musician, orchestral training, artistic (I have no proof for this). The album commences with an orchestrated piece with accompanying classical style voice, so I am presuming the ‘Whole’ ranges from the entire track and album being orchestral and atmospheric in nature. Beyond this, the ‘whole’ probably involves her using a score to document music, a copyist, and also technology to both formulate demos and finished products (Being born in 1961, I am presuming she is within the generation to make the most of technologies such as this). A 2nd piece uses a lot of reverb and close mic techniques (very breathy) and it ties in with the previous track in terms of atmosphere, although uses more technology and less ‘real instruments’. All of these descriptions thus far are very formalistic (ie they concern the music itself), so in terms of the emotional impact on me – words such as disturbing, esoteric, indigenous and ‘brilliant’ come to mind, and this is the result of factors such the choice of musical textures, the lack of harmonic rhythm, vocal sounds etc.  It is possible to predict what is happening in ‘Tel It From The Mountain’ as it has predictable bar lengths and melody structures, but the other tracks on the album are more difficult to 2^nd guess. Taking the ‘whole’ outside of this album, I would be interested in knowing what her influences are. I have a limited knowledge of this type of music, but elements of it remind me of Karl Jenkins and even my old Phd supervisor Gavin Bryars. Spotify cross references her to James Horner, Hans Zimmer, Enya and a few more film composers, inc  John Williams. Dipping into tracks on other albums reveal the general atmosphere is similar, so the whole looks to be fairly consistant in terms of style. She is however very prolific – so I would need to spend much more research on finding out about her other projects.

Ok – that’s my 15 minutes. Will now spend some time listening to this really talented composer without writing anything. Makes me realise I have so much more to learn about music. Here is a You Tube video where she discusses some of her influences.

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Frank Zappa: December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993

On the anniversary of Frank Zappa’s death, I thought it appropriate for me to write my own tribute to him.  As a young person growing up in the 1970′s, I was introduced to Zappa’s music at around the age of 14. The album was Apostr0phe, and the first thing I remember latching on to was his humour – this guy was so intelligent and funny! As I had only just started playing the guitar at that point it took a couple of months to get his guitar playing. As he moved outside of the predictable blues riffs of many of his contemporaries, the angular rhythmic approach of his playing initially took some getting used to – but once I did – Amazing.

In the years that followed Zappa was a constant but peripheral part of my musical landscape, as I continued to be impressed by his irreverent approach to the establishment, something that seemed to appeal to my generation, as it had to the generations before. Although I heard fragments of albums such as the London Symphony orchestra recordings, I have to admit I initially thought his experiments with ‘classical music’ were a gimmick. However, I WAS WRONG! When revisiting his music over the last several years with more mature ears, and listening intently to all of his orchestral material (in addition to all those albums recorded before my time), I realise that not only was he a quick witted satirist, a brilliant guitarist, and a talented songwriter, but also an outstanding composer. What other ‘rock’ musician had his music accepted and recorded by Pierre Boulez?

Of late my work has given me the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Ben Watson and a select group of others, and examine Zappa from an academic perspective. In fact I am currently awaiting on a decision from Ashgate publishers to give the green light to set in motion an edited collection of essays on him – something that I hope will contribute to the understanding of one of the greatest composers of this age.

After finishing this post, I am going to raise a glass to Frank Vincent Zappa and thank him for the jaw dropping joy he has given me over the last 30 years. I will be listening to his music with a particular sadness this week, as like legends such as Hendrix, I can’t help but wonder where his musical genius would have taken him if he were around today. However, he did pack an incredible amount into the years he was with us, so there is only one thing to say – THANK YOU

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Pat Metheny – Part Two

My last post on Pat Metheny has made me think about a book chapter I had published recently on the impact of jazz guitarists on the Jazz canon. Out of all electric guitarists, I would suggest that Metheny has done more than anyone to redefine the jazz aesthetic. Almost from his first album in the mid 1970′s, his music not only portrayed a totally identifiable and original guitar style, but also an open mindedness regarding what jazz can be. I have always been fascinated about the way that he (and other musicians) uses technology to formulate his music both in the studio and live, but his ‘Orchestration’ album takes this process to a new level’. Not only is he able to perform alongside himself in the ‘virtual’ manner he achieved on Watercolours  (1977) New Chautauqua (1979), but this time alongside a more embodied version of himself. Building on the work of guitarists such as John Mclaughlin and Larry Coryell, Metheny’s music and image has created not only a new definition for what jazz can sound like, but also the processes regarding its construction and visuals. To my mind he has to be considered one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time, and I can only plead with the people who consider and construct the histories of jazz to give him the great respect he deserves. If anyone is interested in my book chapter let me know – I will forward a copy or upload it.

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An Autocratic Approach to Music Copyright?:A Frank Zappa case study

I have been aware for a number of years that there has been a legal battle between Gail Zappa, head of the ‘Zappa Family Trust’, and the so called ‘tribute’ bands that are determined to continue performing his music live. As some of you may know, there are numerous Frank Zappa tribute bands on the circuit at the moment that not only pay homage to Zappa, but also keep his memory alive. This is achieved by not only appeasing his current fans’ appetite of listening to this fantastic music live, but by spreading the word to a younger generation who are simply not aware of him. The most famous of these bands is called ‘Zappa Plays Zappa, and has the unusual credit of being legally sanctified to perform the great man’s music. This legality of course is no coincidence, as the band is headed up by Zappa’s son Dweezil (on guitar), and features the ‘Vault Master’ responsible for compiling all of the legal releases heralding from the Zappa Family Trust – Joe Travers on drums. The work that the Zappa Family Trust has implemented over the last 14 years deserves great respect, as it has unearthed numerous recordings that would otherwise not have been available to the general public. This is a laborious labor of love, and it is important that this process is quality controlled to avoid posthumous substandard releases that are associated with artists such as Jimi Hendrix for example. However, although I agree that copyright control of recorded music needs to be very carefully controlled, it is a different matter with live music. Bands such as Project/Object, The Muffin Men, Ugly Radio Rebellion, Bogus Pomp (which features guests such as Napoleon Murphy Brock and Jimmy Carl Black),The Band From Utopia, Frank Zappa Memorial Pancake Breakfast (amazing Finish band), The Zappatistas (UK) and a host of others have all performed Zappa’s music with great aplomb over many years. Indeed many of these artists come together to celebrate Zappa’s music at the Zappanale festival in Bad Doberan, Germany, which has itself been subject to the Zappa Family Trust’s legal force.  Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to witness an excellent Zappa tribute band in Cardiff called ‘The Grandmothers Of Invention‘. This band featured as far as I am concerned some of the legendary musicians who played with Zappa during the 1960′s – 1970′s, including Don Preston on Keyboards, Roy Estrada on bass (both of whom played on Zappa’s first album ‘Freak Out’), and Napoleon Murphy Brock on vocals on Saxophone. This was a fabulous opportunity for someone such as myself, who never saw Zappa live, and more importantly was too young when these musicians played with Zappa in the 60′s – early 70′s. The irony of the Zappa Family Trust’s attempt to ban bands from performing Zappa’s music is that fact that Zappa was a keen protagonist of linking current ‘projects’ with past ‘objects‘ and to me many of these cover bands represent a perfect representation of what he entitled ‘conceptual continuity” . Zappa used this process to continuously reshape his past compositional portfolio, even using it to ‘virtually’ create utopian concerts and performances that included the best aspects of various gigs, songs and recordings over the years (Check out the ”You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore’ series for an example of this). This process however also involved Zappa using aspects of other composers’ music. For an example of this process in a single song, listen to ‘Wipe Out’ (2.54), Nite Owl (3.38) and allusions to The Beatles Sergeant Peppers (2.00) on the title track of “Joe’s Garage”. On the same album we can hear Richard Strauss’s ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ (2.33) and his own ‘Mo ‘n Herbs Vacation’ (2.11) in ‘Fembot in a Wet T Shirt’ . Zappa labeled some of these extracts ‘Archetypal American Musical Icons’, and would use them as a means to get audiences to associate his music and live performances with the cultural memories associated with these works. I therefore find it difficult to believe that Zappa himself would advocate the hard-line approach his trusties are imposing on the very musicians who are attempting to honor him.

I read an article with Dweezel recently that almost seemed to claim that musicians’ outside of the ‘circle of trust’ were not capable of understanding the intricacies of Zappa’s music, and for this reason should refrain from playing it. As alluded above, this is a process that Zappa implemented to great aplomb, his music being a mixture of Do wop, Varese, Stravinsky, Musique concrète, big band jazz (although he would never admit it), rock, as well as non musical influences such as Spike Jones, cheap science fiction movies, Amos and Andy, etc etc.

Dweezel stated: “Frank’s music is much more like classical compositions than standard rock fare, The cover bands that attempt to do it don’t do it well because they’re changing things in the music to avoid the difficult parts. Most guitar players have a pattern-oriented mentality, and there’s nothing about Frank’s music that is pattern-oriented. It’s really hard to learn, especially if you’re learning things on guitar that were never meant to be played on guitar, like ‘Inca Roads’ and ‘St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast,’ things that were written to be played on marimba and keyboards, instruments that are laid out very differently than guitar. It required a complete physical transformation in terms of what I was capable of. I had to change my picking technique. It’s sort of like training for the Olympics.”

Performing Zappa’s music proficiently is indeed equivalent to competing at an Olympic games, but to me this statement represents a patronising slant on what many of these tribute bands are attempting to do. How would Zappa himself have learnt his trade if his heroes Varese and Stravinsky had asked him to stop appropriating their music into the popular music canon? How can musical ability and indeed our culture grow if we are not allowed to experience from the inside what the great masters have already done? Zappa was outspoken about this very process, as typified by the Central Scrutinizer character in “Joes Garage”. His much publicised confrontation with the ‘Parents Music Resource Centre’ also allude to his disdain for government control over musical content. It seems to me that The Zappa Family Trust is attempting to implement precisely what Zappa despised, and in doing so doing his memory a disservice.

After the result of a legal battle in the late 1970’s (I think), Zappa’s music ceased to be covered by ASCAP/BMI blanket licensing (the equivalent to the UK’s PRS/MCPS). Does this mean they can forbid other people performing their music? I ask this because I don’t know what the legal position is. I am a PRS member, but how could I stop other people playing cover versions of my music I have not registered? More importantly – would I want to? As opposed to attempting to sue these well intending venues and artists, is it not more appropriate to attempt a more amicable approach, possibly by investigating ways that live performance publishing royalties can be secured through independent publishing means? Indeed I would be really interested if anyone has examples of this procedure in practice. Alternatively, is this just a consequence of independent publishing??

There is an on-line petition for anyone interested in opposing this autocratic approach to music publishing. It can be found at http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ZFT/

- I suggest you sign it.

PS: For other excellent blogs about this subject area – please refer here and here

For a list of other bands playing Zappa’s music, please refer here.

Also check out the legal ‘jam band’ album tribute to Zappa here

Other tribute albums: Strictly Off Limits – Music Of Frank Zappa & Tommy Fortman

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