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Beethoven and zappa both have some pritty awsome songs. I am just wondering what you guys prefer.

Zappa. He actually wrote for tuba.

d

i don't feel that zappa's larger ensemble outings (and in a similar sense his largely instrumental albums, such as the grand wazoo or hot rats) were "flukes" because everything zappa did he did with nitpicky precision. it is said that he wrote every solo he played. frankly each did quite a bit for their "genre", although over time i'm sure beethoven has influenced more composers. it's really a hard comparison to make.

You must be kidding. Zappa couldn't even polish Beethoven's shoes.

Of course if we are talking who could come up with the wackiest names for his children then Zappa wins in a cakewalk or should we say in a Moon Unit

Who's music will be remembered more as time goes on?

Voice of the Beehive, of course. Why is something so obvious being discussed?

Somehow I just can't imagine Ludwig composing something as ahead of it's time as Dynamo Hum...

Beethoven or Zappa - that's like asking who's the best golfer Tiger Woods or me. Well, folks, I don't have any green jackets, yet.

More people on this planet recognize Beethoven's name then they do Jesus' name. That might say a little something about him....

Roll over Frank Zappa,
Tell Stockhausen the news!

"Tell Stockhausen the news!"

Excellent!!

....or more to the point.... Edgar Varese.


But I like the way Stockhausen sounds in the song better!!

Cassie wrote:More people on this planet recognize Beethoven's name then they do Jesus' name. That might say a little something about him....

This sounds interesting alone from a demographic point of view.

Do you have any links to valid references?

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

The lack of recognition is understandable. I was unfamiliar with the name until I looked it up. Here, I've saved you the trouble.

http://www.jesusjones.zao.net/uktour/

Cassie wrote:More people on this planet recognize Beethoven's name then they do Jesus' name.

That might say something about Charles Shultz's fans...

I watched a biography on Beethoven and the narrator said his name was more recognized in the world than Jesus'. His explaination was the fact not everybody on the planet is christian, but classical western music has seeped into all civilizations on the globe...or most of them (because of radios). Christians are still spreading (or in the last few years have spread) the word where radio has been for a long time.
I don't mean to insult anybody who is christian, I was just posting information I heard. It may be wrong, it was in a history channel biography.

I never knew that big dog wrote music......

Leisesturm wrote:...will study Zappa in music conservertories ...

Our college never studied Zappa, but the guys I hung around with all knew about him. His music demonstrated that "20th century" didn't have to be as patently unlistenable as the stuff we heard in the last semester of Music Theory.

A good introductory album, especially for college-aged males, was Joe's Garage -- comedy, rock, reggae, and some seriously wacked mixed-meter sections (particularly in the bridge of the song Catholic Girls; who knew that 11/16 could groove?).

He certainly experimented, though, sometimes a hit, sometimes a miss. One of the things he wanted to do with live performance was to have a hoop of microphones, each panned around quadrophonic (or more) speaker channels, then carry it around onstage, sometimes even putting it over & surrounding a soloist, thereby putting the audience "inside" that instrument's sound.

It's interesting. He was right there to see rock try to branch out, and he was on the edge when the electronic music started to kick in with sampling, computer-controlled composition & playback, and who knows what else. He would compose & record electronically because he didn't like having to spend time teaching his incredibly difficult ideas to live players only to hear them mess it up later; but he was still amazed when an ensemble, on their own, could actually figure out what he wrote and perform it live.

I don't think that comparisons of composers hundreds of years apart are valid. We don't even directly compare Beethoven to Bach because we know they're different.

Leland wrote:I don't think that comparisons of composers hundreds of years apart are valid.

Dig that. I love 'em both!! ........most days I might rather listen to FZ, but all of these guys...Bach, Beethoven, FZ ....were able to translate emotion into music. The music connects. Bach wrote intense music for the glory and celebration of God. FZ wrote music for among other uses...social comentary, humor, and "slice of life".

Check out "Outrage at Valdez" among others off of the Yellow Shark. .........Powerful stuff.

Fun FZ quotes:

"Never stop until your good becomes better, and your better becomes the best."

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring
production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."

"A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting
air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians."

"Information is not knowledge.
Knowledge is not wisdom.
Wisdom is not truth.
Truth is not beauty.
Beauty is not love.
Love is not music.
Music is THE BEST ..."
Or so says the voice of Joe's vision of Mary in "Packard Goose" from Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage Act III.

Zappa

then again, he's strictly commercial