| Francesco Zappa | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 21, 1984 [1] | |||
| Recorded | February – April 1984 | |||
| Studio | UMRK (Los Angeles) | |||
| Genre | Chamber music, electronic | |||
| Length | 37:46 | |||
| Label | Barking Pumpkin | |||
| Producer | Frank Zappa | |||
| Frank Zappa chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [2] |
Francesco Zappa is a 1984 album by Frank Zappa. It features synthesized arrangements of chamber music by the Italian composer Francesco Zappa, who composed between 1763 and 1788.
David Ocker played a piece of Francesco Zappa's music for Frank Zappa because it was popular with some college music students. Because Francesco's music was not published and could only be found in the Mormon library, Frank decided to publish it. He then programmed some of these pieces into his new Synclavier synthesizer. [3]
Frank found an entry for Francesco in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and then researched his sheet music in the library at UC Berkeley. According to The Real Frank Zappa Book , the two musicians are not related.
Francesco Zappa was the first full album on which Frank used the Synclavier, [4] but Synclavier pieces appeared on The Perfect Stranger earlier that year, as well as Thing-Fish , also released in 1984 but recorded earlier.
All selections composed by Francesco Zappa.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Opus I: No. 1 1st Movement: Andante" | 3:32 |
| 2. | "Opus I: No. 1 2nd Movement: Allegro con brio" | 1:27 |
| 3. | "Opus I: No. 2 1st Movement: Andantino" | 2:14 |
| 4. | "Opus I: No. 2 2nd Movement: Minuetto grazioso" | 2:04 |
| 5. | "Opus I: No. 3 1st Movement: Andantino" | 1:52 |
| 6. | "Opus I: No. 3 2nd Movement: Presto" | 1:50 |
| 7. | "Opus I: No. 4 1st Movement: Andante" | 2:20 |
| 8. | "Opus I: No. 4 2nd Movement: Allegro" | 3:04 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 9. | "Opus I: No. 5 2nd Movement: Minuetto grazioso" | 2:29 |
| 10. | "Opus I: No. 6 1st Movement: Largo" | 2:08 |
| 11. | "Opus I: No. 6 2nd Movement: Minuet" | 2:03 |
| 12. | "Opus IV: No. 1 1st Movement: Andantino" | 2:47 |
| 13. | "Opus IV: No. 1 2nd Movement: Allegro assai" | 2:02 |
| 14. | "Opus IV: No. 2 2nd Movement: Allegro assai" | 1:20 |
| 15. | "Opus IV: No. 3 1st Movement: Andante" | 2:24 |
| 16. | "Opus IV: No. 3 2nd Movement: Tempo di minuetto" | 2:00 |
| 17. | "Opus IV: No. 4 1st Movement: Minuetto" | 2:10 |
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works; he also produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. His work is characterized by nonconformity, improvisation sound experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation.
The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the early 1990s. The instrument has been used by prominent musicians.
Sheik Yerbouti is a double album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in March 1979 as the first release on Zappa Records, distributed by Phonogram Inc. in the United States and Canada. The album was released in other countries by CBS Records. It is mostly made up of live material recorded in 1977 and 1978, with extensive overdubs added in the studio. In an October 1978 interview, Zappa gave the working album title as Martian Love Secrets. It was later released on a single CD.
Civilization Phaze III is the sixty-third album by Frank Zappa, released posthumously as a double album on October 31, 1994. It was the first studio album of new material from Zappa since 1986's Jazz from Hell. The album marks the third part of a conceptual continuity that started with We're Only in It for the Money (1968), with the second part being a re-edited version of Zappa's 1967 album Lumpy Gravy. Zappa described the album as a "two-act opera", but in lieu of traditional recitatives and arias, it alternates brief spoken word passages with musical numbers created on a Synclavier using a combination of sampled and synthesized sounds. Much of the sampled material in the second half of the album was originally recorded by Ensemble Modern and other musicians to Zappa's specifications.
Them or Us is an album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in October 1984 by Barking Pumpkin Records.
Lumpy Gravy is a 1968 solo album by Frank Zappa, written by Zappa and performed by a group of session players he dubbed the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. Zappa conducted the orchestra but did not perform on the album. It is his fourth album overall: his previous releases had been under the name of his group, the Mothers of Invention.
Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch is an album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in May 1982 and digitally remastered in 1991. It features five tracks composed by Zappa, and one song, "Valley Girl", co-written with his then-14 year old daughter Moon Zappa, who provided the spoken monologue mocking Valley girls, including phrases like "Gag me with a spoon!".
Jazz from Hell is an instrumental album whose selections were all composed and recorded by American musician Frank Zappa. It was released on November 15, 1986, by Barking Pumpkin Records on vinyl and cassette, and in 1987 by Rykodisc on CD.
The Yellow Shark is an album of orchestral music by American musician Frank Zappa. Released in November 1993, it was the last album Zappa released in his lifetime, almost exactly a month before he died of the cancer from which he had suffered for several years. It features live recordings from the Ensemble Modern's 1992 performances of Zappa's compositions. In the album's notes, Zappa describes The Yellow Shark as one of the most fulfilling projects of his career, and as the best representation of his orchestral works.
Thing-Fish is an album by Frank Zappa, originally released as a triple album box set on Barking Pumpkin Records in 1984. It was billed as a cast recording for a proposed musical of the same name, which was ultimately not produced by Zappa, but later performed partially in 2003, ten years after his death.
Francesco Zappa was an Italian cellist and composer who lived most of his adult life in The Hague, the Dutch Republic.
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3 is a double disc live album by Frank Zappa, spanning from December 10, 1971, to December 23, 1984. It was released in 1989.
Does Humor Belong in Music? is a live album by Frank Zappa.
London Symphony Orchestra is a pair of albums by Frank Zappa, featuring his original symphonic compositions conducted by Kent Nagano. They were recorded at the same sessions in January 1983, and originally released as London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I in 1983, London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. II, in 1987, and later combined and reissued on a Rykodisc CD as London Symphony Orchestra Vol. I & II in 1995.
The Perfect Stranger is a 1984 album featuring the music of Frank Zappa, conducted in part by Pierre Boulez. It was originally issued on vinyl in 1984 and on CD in 1985 by Angel, and then in remixed and resequenced form on CD by Barking Pumpkin in 1992. Later reissues were by Rykodisc in 1995 and Zappa/Universal in 2012.
Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention is a 1985 album by American musician Frank Zappa. The album was originally released in two slightly different versions in the US and Europe.
As an icon of counterculture and underground rock the American rock musician and composer Frank Zappa has been featured and referenced in various different media.
Tinsel Town Rebellion is a double live album released by Frank Zappa in May 1981. The album was conceived by Zappa after he scrapped the planned albums Warts and All and Crush All Boxes, and contains tracks that were intended for those albums.
You Are What You Is is a 1981 double album by American musician Frank Zappa. His 34th album, it consists of three musical suites which encompass pop, doo-wop, jazz, hard rock, reggae, soul, blues, new wave and country. The album's lyrics satirize a number of topics, including hippies, socialites, fashion, narcotics use, cultural appropriation, religion, televangelists and the military draft.
Feeding the Monkies at Ma Maison is an album by Frank Zappa, which was released posthumously in 2011 by The Zappa Family Trust on Zappa Records.
