Day 122: Frank Zappa rocks Vienna
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
122 — Frank Zappa rocks Vienna
02-December-1971
(Thur.)
TRANSCRIPT
Another first today. Today, in that same beautiful
and large concert hall, the Konzerthaus, in which I
saw my first Vienna concert of Mahler’s 8th, with the
stage was filled by hundreds of singers, the Vienna
Boys’ Choir, organist, soloist, and 100-piece
orchestra, another concert took place. This time the
stage was also filled completely. However, there were
only a few players this time—Frank Zappa and The
Mothers of Invention. They made about 5x the sound
that the Mahler 8th produced. (What do you expect
with a 16-gigantic-multi-speaker P.A.?) I basically
enjoyed it a lot—I liked the mood and involvement.
Some of their music was interesting. But after a
while it was less interesting and the sound got to
me. What was wild was that the whole placed was
filled with hippies (real long hair). I think Vienna
has more long-hairs than back home. It was funny,
that in the beginning, it was so hard to get in, even
with tickets, because there was a tremendous crowd
and certain hippie elements were pushing to try and
crash in—some made it. I like the way Frank Zappa
conducts, it was really funny.
All in all, this whole scene seemed and felt pretty
weird, occurring in the world-famous and plush
Viennese Konzerthaus.
I got a reward today—300s for the money I found.
REFLECTIONS
Opening picture is that of our first 2007
mini-snowfall. (Taken with iPhone)
I apologize for the lack of posting these last two
weeks. I needed some time off and some time to try
and get my computer and hard drives in order. I will
make an effort to post on a daily basis from now on.
Frank
Zappa Rocks Vienna. Here it
is, I’m in the world-famous Vienna Konzerthaus
listening to Frank
Zappa and the Mother’s of
Invention. It was
interesting to see a rock concert in the same hall as
symphonic concerts. [In 1971, I found that unusual,
although today it is a little less so.] I enjoyed the
music, perhaps not the extra-loud volume. Just seeing
live music is exciting. Frank Zappa’s career spanned
many musical genres. Not only did he play rock guitar
in The Mothers of Invention, he was a songwriter,
producer, and filmmaker. Later in life, he moved to
“serious composing,” writing very difficult-to-play
music in a contemporary and avant-garde musical
style; first on his famous Synclavier, one of the
very first high-end computer-based musical
synthesizers, and then for performance ensembles and
orchestras. Zappa was an outspoken critic of
authority and of education, and a defender of free
speech and thinking. A
Wikipedia article
has a
good overview of his career.
Zappa
speaks at Ohio State University. The world
is small, in both time and place. Many years later,
in the 1980s, Frank Zappa was invited to be the
keynote speaker at the annual convention of the
American Society of University Composers (ASUC) at
Ohio State University. He was invited by my teacher
and advisor, Dr. Thomas Wells, composer, pianist,
director of the electronic music lab, and head of
ASUC that year, I believe. At the time, I was a
doctoral candidate* and teaching associate in music
composition at Ohio State University in Columbus,
under Dr. Wells. Zappa gave his keynote address to a
room filled with university composers (remember his
disdain of formal education and authority). I don’t
remember the exact content but I remember it was very
interesting. Frank Zappa was a highly intelligent
man. As part of the conference, a few of Zappa’s
works were performed by the Ohio State ensembles. I
performed in one of them—from what I remember, it was
extremely technically challenging; difficult to
perform. The conference was exciting and Zappa was
indeed, a serious composer.
[*Although
I finished the majority of my coursework, I never
completed the degree due to my leaving to go home to
attend to my mother’s last stages of cancer. After
that, it was difficult to return and complete the
degree. Maybe, one day.]
300s
Reward. Do you
remember that day when I found 3,000s cash on the
bus? Well, today, I receive a reward of 300 Austrian
schillings. That means someone claimed the money.
That was nice. I didn’t think much of it. Wait, this
story is not over.
John
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