Collagen eines Schelms
Zum ästhetischen Stil des Francis Vincent Zappa
This article attemtps to establish the "oeuvre nature" of Francis Vincent (Frank) Zappa's as of date published work, released on authorized LP records. This claim is mainly supported by an analysis of composition techniques which is undertaken via epistemological means. From this analysis it can be determined that Zappa's characteristic aesthetic production style is essentially based on the principle of a collage. Zappa's work definitely transcends the arbitrary borders of Rock music, and embraces the modern Jazz genre, as well as the "modern classic" (especially in the sense of Varese, Ives and Strawinsky). Zappa's originality and "strength" lie in parody, in the unconventionally funny working up and working out of divergent harmonic and rhythmic elements. Zappa was never a "revolutionary", neither as a musician and certainly not as a social critic. He was and is as a composer, a successor, in reference to certain traditions, and his concept of the American life style is that of a - thoroughly "market oriented" - cynic and satirist. But he is, at the same time, also a focus concentrating heterogeneous elements and envisioning new "synthetic" horizons. His style is possibly prototypical for a life form of detached unseriousness, representing a "different" strategy for surviving under the socially structured conditions of modern society. The article consists of an account of his characteristic style, of specific musical and biographical background information, composition technique, with the comic as a key component, the dimensions of a medium, and finally, a critical synopsis of this artistic knave's deduced facets.