Frank Zappa Analysis: RDNZL

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  • Опубликовано: 18 окт 2024

Комментарии • 103

  • @jagannathdasa
    @jagannathdasa 4 года назад +7

    I'm surprised anyone disliked this video. I wonder if they watched the whole thing? I don't fully understand the terms, but I love seeing the sheet music, complete with effective visual accompaniments. Thanks!

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  4 года назад +1

      They're philistines! To be fair, I think some people just don't find my format accessible, but I'm glad you were able to. Very pleased to hear you enjoyed it, thanks for taking the time comment!

    • @seanbrennan5192
      @seanbrennan5192 Год назад +1

      Zappa gets a lot of hate from stupid people that think they know better. It just goes over their head and they refuse to take it seriously. It is what it is 🤷‍♂️

  • @czgibson3086
    @czgibson3086 5 лет назад +19

    Excellent video! I've always wanted to see RDNZL analysed like this.

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад +2

      Thanks, have begun work on the next, so I'll be going into the melody in more depth very soon

  • @garymbg
    @garymbg 5 лет назад +14

    I think this is terrific. Grateful for your hard work and explanatiins

  • @connorodowd4577
    @connorodowd4577 5 лет назад +11

    this is a phenomenal analysis, please keep up the great work! subscribed!

  • @LuisSidd
    @LuisSidd 5 лет назад +6

    Incredible work! Thanks a lot! I'll be waiting for the next episode.

  • @SalamaSond
    @SalamaSond Год назад +1

    Thank you for going through this piece with us. Worth multiple plays. Cheers.

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  Год назад

      And thank you for going through the video!

  • @mikedemike5393
    @mikedemike5393 5 лет назад +2

    nice work my man...as a zappa enthusiast...and not being a musician its good to understand what zappa is doing and at the same time gain a lesson in composition...TY

  • @duster71
    @duster71 5 лет назад +20

    Music is my religion and Frank Zappa is my God.

    • @seanbrennan5192
      @seanbrennan5192 Год назад

      I see this pop up from time to time, excellent quote. Couldn’t state it better myself

    • @danaveye3977
      @danaveye3977 5 месяцев назад

      Don't worship false idols.
      - FZ (probably)

  • @seanbrennan5192
    @seanbrennan5192 Год назад +1

    Bravo! Zappa plus mixolydian equals GOD

  • @MarcelloDiLorenzo
    @MarcelloDiLorenzo Год назад +2

    Good job!
    I love Zappa, and I always try to understand what he was up to!

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  Год назад +1

      Thanks! My favourite composer to analyse, for the simple fact he's got his own language

  • @MrMonkey2732
    @MrMonkey2732 5 лет назад +2

    Please just do as much on Zappa as you can! I've been looking for a channel like this for half of this year, this is awesome! Do other songs like 'eat that question' and 'easy meat' or even 'apostrophe'.
    Would be great, keep up the good work :)

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад +4

      Thanks very much for the great feedback - you'll be glad to hear I'm currently editing a new FZ analysis and have plenty more on the cards (there's such a shortage of good FZ-related analysis on RUclips, so I'll be trying my best to plug the gap as often as possible).

    • @MrMonkey2732
      @MrMonkey2732 5 лет назад

      @@SamuelRHoward I'm trying to learn more about music theory and composition. So having you analyse Zappa really helps. Not many people go into musical themes and genre conventions of Jazz, blues and rock. Thanks for the videos :)

  • @SamuelRHoward
    @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад +6

    The sax parts in the transcription excerpts are ALL IN Bb - I forgot to transpose them to concert pitch, which I'll do in future.
    Having also discovered a scan of FZ's original keyboard score, I have learnt that he notated the 12/8 sections in 3/4 - this doesn't invalidate any of the analysis here, but it offers insight in that it indicates that Zappa thought of each beat as a bar unto itself.

    • @benvizemusic
      @benvizemusic 2 года назад

      I am right now transcribing this tune (YCDTOSA 2) version). Asides from the ludicrous vibes at the beginning, the other thing causing me to pull my hair out is how he thinks of the meter. I found the keyboard score you mentioned, but when he counts it in he's feeling the beat as if its in 4/4. Then it switches to 3 for the main melody.

    • @benvizemusic
      @benvizemusic 2 года назад

      As I wrote this i happened to have paused right on the 'vibraphone flourishes' - your transcription is virtually the same as mine! But I'm certain I can hear quite a few double notes in the actual part (as in the same note twice in succession)

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  2 года назад +1

      @@benvizemusic for that version, I think he’s actually counting a fast 3/4 - “1(23)1(23)1(23)1(23)”, etc. when it switches to the melody, he adopts a whole bar of fast 3/4 as one quarter note in the new slow 3/4, so “1(23)1(23)1(23)” becomes “1(and a)2(and a)3(and a)”. If that makes sense!
      As for the vibes flourishes, I’d have to listen again, but if memory serves, I suspect Ruth is just not getting the line robotically perfect every time due to the ludicrous tempo. Some of those repeated notes you’re hearing aren’t always the same across versions I think, so I listened to a few and tried to write a version of the line I thought made sense (since I thought it was supposed to be a big multi-octave arpeggio, I avoided repeated notes assuming them to be little accidents)

  • @raykingstonmusic
    @raykingstonmusic 5 лет назад +2

    Really astounding work. Nice job!

  • @magn8195
    @magn8195 5 лет назад +9

    This is great please continue. Good you do some more ethnomusicological videos as well

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад +1

      Thanks for the words of encouragement. I definitely have some more stuff like that planned too - my next non-analysis project will be tackling novel approaches to designing musical form

  • @andybrown2006
    @andybrown2006 5 лет назад +1

    Great job! I'll look for more episodes in the future.

  • @philmore1871
    @philmore1871 5 лет назад +2

    Well done! Looking forward to more

  • @vivalapsych
    @vivalapsych 5 лет назад +1

    Fantastic! Awesome video! And what a great voice you have 👍

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад +2

      Thank you very much! And I'm inclined to agree, I find it to be a highly seductive Yorkshire drawl...

  • @alexanderkalinchenko4038
    @alexanderkalinchenko4038 5 лет назад +2

    Jesus Christ, hombre! Your work is amazi g and woul have heen appreciated by Frank 4 sure!!!

  • @spikeybaby1735
    @spikeybaby1735 5 лет назад +6

    Waaaay over my head ( like all Zappa stuff) but I doooo love it/him

  • @thehotyounggrandpas8207
    @thehotyounggrandpas8207 5 лет назад

    Enjoyed ever so much. Very nice work.

  • @martinquinn5971
    @martinquinn5971 5 лет назад +1

    Heya Sam \o/ Nice job! looking forward to the next ones. ;)

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      Cheers Martin - I dare say they'll be the highlight of your year.

    • @martinquinn5971
      @martinquinn5971 5 лет назад +1

      @@SamuelRHoward Haha! we'll see ;P

  • @LateNightProductionsYT
    @LateNightProductionsYT 5 лет назад +1

    Brilliant work, thank you!

  • @planetzebulon21
    @planetzebulon21 5 лет назад +7

    On Ruth!

  • @ornleifs
    @ornleifs 5 лет назад +1

    Thanks for this - very interesting indeed.

  • @deanzig
    @deanzig 5 лет назад

    Absolutely fantastic

  • @dimitri2576
    @dimitri2576 5 лет назад

    Very good analysis! Thanks a million.

  • @shred5
    @shred5 5 лет назад +1

    Nice analysis. It would have been nice to also include the 80s versions, like the '82 live version on YCDTOSA Vol. 5 (there's another great 1982 version on RUclips as well)

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      Thanks - you might like my video "How Did Zappa Write Melodies", since I go into the main melody in more depth there. I still only used the '74 version as my reference (as there are small differences between that and the '80s version of the melody), though, so the changes that happened to the piece over time still go unacknowledged, but this is something I might rectify in the future.

  • @frankaviza6362
    @frankaviza6362 Год назад

    Much appreciated, brother!

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  Год назад

      As are you! Thanks for taking the time for watch.

  • @hanfordreach6849
    @hanfordreach6849 5 лет назад +2

    this video is great

  • @slowmosaic369
    @slowmosaic369 3 года назад

    Well done. Thank you

  • @Analogkidd
    @Analogkidd 5 лет назад

    Awesome stuff man! Keep it up

  • @brandom1953
    @brandom1953 Год назад

    Fantastic analysis, I'd love to hear Frank's thoughts on it.

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  Год назад

      Thank you for the kind words. I would be curious to see just how much Zappa disagreed with what I get from the piece! I have a feeling he might be sceptical of this sort of line of enquiry more generally

  • @SpencerBoatkey
    @SpencerBoatkey 5 лет назад

    Filip Fjellström brought me here... Cool video man!

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      Thanks. Fjellstrom is the man! Looking forward to the next Kronan EP, I liked the first one a lot.

    • @SpencerBoatkey
      @SpencerBoatkey 5 лет назад

      Yeah he’s pretty cool! :) I saw that your video was mentioned at www.idiotbastard.com!
      Cool! We are slowly working on it.. One song might come pretty soon!

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      Andrew is clearly a man of good taste! And fantastic, I'll be anticipating it

  • @nicktardifbass7
    @nicktardifbass7 5 лет назад

    Digging this channel, man.

    • @nicktardifbass7
      @nicktardifbass7 5 лет назад

      P.S.- Piquantique version of this is my personal favorite!

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      @@nicktardifbass7 Thanks a lot - and yeah, that version's great, the whole Stockholm concert is one of the best (Duke's solo is on fire, and Ralph's snare/kick placement during it is perfect - such a shame Tom very slightly fluffs the bass-line on the exit out of that section!)

  • @nealgoldstein4578
    @nealgoldstein4578 5 лет назад

    awesome, thank you.

  • @johnm3152
    @johnm3152 5 лет назад +1

    "A lot of this went over my head" -- carlos santana. Rzzzzzzz!

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      Hope you found some of it interesting regardless -- thanks for watching!

  • @smorrow
    @smorrow 4 года назад +2

    I understood some of those words.

  • @jonlee2623
    @jonlee2623 4 года назад

    Top notch .

  • @lymntria
    @lymntria 8 месяцев назад

    3:45 I just wanted to ask, did you edit ruth’s part from You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore at a higher speed atop the Roxy by Proxy version? Or is there a version without Bruce Fowlers solo where it is performed in 16th notes instead of 8ths?
    Thanks for the great video.

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  8 месяцев назад

      No edit! That is from this version: ruclips.net/video/wpYN4FSFYF8/видео.html
      And thanks for taking the time to watch!

  • @Gusrikh1
    @Gusrikh1 5 лет назад

    Very interesting

  • @heckler73
    @heckler73 5 лет назад

    This is great. I like this approach to analysis of FZ.
    It's really terse (to my tiny noggin) but focused more on the compositional questions. Worth watching over and over until it makes complete sense.
    Any chance of Pekka Pohjola being analyzed? ☺

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      Thanks for this feedback - I think the theory of FZ's music is fairly accessible since it rarely (if ever) depends on typical functional harmony, so despite its surface complexity, once you get a sense of how to look at it, it's not too challenging ot grasp, so I'm glad you're finding these videos useful entrances to FZ's music theory.
      I think I've actually only heard about 20 minutes of Pekka's music, but I wouldn't totally rule it out, because I remember enjoying it quite a bit - I'll have to delve back into that musical universe and get reacquainted first though!

    • @heckler73
      @heckler73 5 лет назад

      @@SamuelRHoward Wow, so you are familiar with Pekka, at least. His first album, Pihkasilmä Kaarnakorva, has a lot of Zappa qualities to it (according to my ear).

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      @@heckler73 I look forwards to listening to that album, thank you very much for reminding me he exists!

  • @ronfrey6639
    @ronfrey6639 4 года назад

    You sir rule You transcribed the drum parts ?? Im sorely lacking in those skills I was looking at how they were written though as if..
    Now that I see what alto is for middle c it would be fun to transcribe the trombone parts to see what that other fowler brother is doing..
    and try to learn the bass parts ... This is very helpful to those who want to learn to read.. thank you.

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  4 года назад

      Thanks a lot! I love transcribing kit parts - it's interesting to see how different drummers approach a situation. I love Ralph on this tune, he's a great big band drummer and really breathes life into the music.

  • @bazingacurta2567
    @bazingacurta2567 2 года назад

    Excellent. How did you transcribe this?

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  2 года назад

      A lot of listening and rewinding! I focused on one particular version, mainly the recording featured on "Roxy By Proxy", but referred to other arrangements from the same period, like the drum set recording in "The Lost Episodes", as I didn't see the point in writing out both Ralph and Chester's parts (on the Lost Episodes version, there is only Ralph). Worth noting that my transcription differs from Zappa's own score, which he notated in fast 3/4. I still think it is totally valid to feel this tune as a compound 12/8 time, though.
      In terms of process, first thing I did was determine the rhyhmic structure, by taking down the bass, then filling in the melody after. For simpler tunes, I do the melody first, then the bass, but often I find Zappa's rhythm section spells out the actual meters a bit less ambiguously than his lead parts usually do. Last thing was detail - harmony, marimba runs, etc.

    • @bazingacurta2567
      @bazingacurta2567 2 года назад

      @@SamuelRHoward Thank you! You mentioned Zappa's own score; where can I find it?

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  2 года назад

      @@bazingacurta2567 found it one day while googling. It was on this site, but I think I found a slightly higher res copy. Still, this one I just found is at least slightly legible… www.zappa-analysis.com/studio-tan.htm

  • @AvantjerTube
    @AvantjerTube 5 лет назад

    What is that version of Cucamonga at the beginning? Sounds like an instrumental version, but I’ve never heard it before. Looked for it on RUclips.

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      From some rehearsals in Sydney (ruclips.net/video/IIxuBz4MY0A/видео.html). It's the last part of the "Farther Oblivion" medley, there are good recordings of it on "Imaginary Diseases" and "Road Tapes #2"

  • @johntabacco
    @johntabacco 5 лет назад +1

    7th in the bass!

  • @BobbyJCFHvLichtenstein
    @BobbyJCFHvLichtenstein 5 лет назад +1

    In my music theory class, my teacher told us that for our transcription project, no one do anything Zappa...
    I immediately thought of doing something Zappa

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад +2

      I'm sorry to say that I have to diagnose your teacher as a philistine.

  • @andrewhoran7088
    @andrewhoran7088 4 года назад

    The stars ain't shining cause the sky is too tight

  • @Quesuperchido
    @Quesuperchido 5 лет назад

    OMG, you sound like Frank Zappa

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      Maybe if he was from deepest Yorkshire!

  • @TheRetroPerspective
    @TheRetroPerspective 5 лет назад

    It's not quite Billy the Mountain.

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      But what is? "Billy" is the "Iliad" of the 20th Century.

  • @jayrajshelar3243
    @jayrajshelar3243 10 месяцев назад

    Tobacco Enthusiast? Nah, Vegetable Connoisseur

  • @Frankincensedjb123
    @Frankincensedjb123 2 года назад

    That's all fine and dandy, but most important of all, what does the name of the song mean? Anyone who gets it right, gets a free tank of gas, now valued at $2,000

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  2 года назад

      I remember Dweezil explaining it at a concert years back - a portmanteau regarding a close family member of FZ's and their tendency to repeat themselves. The spelling "Redunzel" provides more of a hint - I wonder if someone else can get it?

    • @Frankincensedjb123
      @Frankincensedjb123 2 года назад +2

      Yes, ballpark. I spoke to someone (I think Gail) about 18 years ago on the 818-PUMPKIN line. During the conversation I asked “what does R-D-N-Z-L stand for?” She said "It’s Redunzel" which is a nickname Frank used for her. (I think he was still around at the time). Redunzel, Redunzel, lay down your golden hair.

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  2 года назад +1

      Sounds pretty much what Dweezil relayed too - "redunzel" supposedly being a pun on "redundant"/"rapunzel", apparently relating to Gail's tendency to repeat herself a little bit!

  • @ralphmunn1685
    @ralphmunn1685 4 года назад

    What?

  • @Astromyxin
    @Astromyxin 5 лет назад

    @11:39 What's a marimber?

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      An idiophone percussion instrument made from wood - similar to a xylophone, but with a larger range, about 4 or 5 octaves depending on the instrument.

    • @Astromyxin
      @Astromyxin 5 лет назад

      @@SamuelRHoward Thought that was called a Marimba. The more you know.

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      @@Astromyxin It is. I said "marimba run".
      There's nothing anyone loves more than a pedant, by the way.

    • @Astromyxin
      @Astromyxin 5 лет назад

      @@SamuelRHoward I was just making fun of your accent, meant no harm.

    • @SamuelRHoward
      @SamuelRHoward  5 лет назад

      @@Astromyxin To be fair, I'm flattered it took you nearly 12 minutes to find something worth making fun of