''Francesco Zappa'' is a 1984 album by American musician

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

. It features synthesized arrangements of

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

by the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

composer Francesco Zappa, who composed between 1763 and 1788.

Album origins

According to recording engineer Mark Pinske, musician David Ocker introduced Francesco Zappa's music to Frank Zappa because it was popular with some college music students. Ocker discovered the music in what Pinske describes as "the Mormon library or something". The exact location where the scores were found was not specified by Pinske, but was possibly archives for the music department at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

which is owned by

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

. Frank initially thought Ocker was joking about an earlier composer who shared his name. Frank Zappa was impressed by the scores and realized they were not copyrighted, and subsequently obtained a copyright for the works of Francesco Zappa. He then programmed some of these pieces into his new

Synclavier 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 ea ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

Finding the composer's works

Frank found an entry for Francesco in the

Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and th ...

and then researched his sheet music in the library at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

. According to '' The Real Frank Zappa Book'', the two musicians are not related.

Album content

''Francesco Zappa'' was the first full album on which Frank used the

, but Synclavier pieces appeared on '' The Perfect Stranger'' earlier that year, as well as ''

Thing-Fish ''Thing-Fish'' is an album by American musician 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 pr ...

'', also released in 1984 but recorded earlier.

Track listing

All selections composed by Francesco Zappa.

Personnel

*Performed by The Barking Pumpkin Digital Gratification Consort (

, conductor) *Produced and orchestrated by Frank Zappa *Synclavier document encryption: David Ocker *Engineered by Bob Stone & Mark Pinske *Cover painting by

Donald Roller Wilson Donald Roller Wilson (born 1938) is an American artist, known for his paintings of people and anthropomorphized chimpanzees, orangutans, cats, and dogs, set in southern gothic interiors, twilight forests, and nocturnal graveyards, often amids ...

*Collage by Gabrielle Raumberger *Graphics by New Age Art

References

External links

Album details
{{Authority control 1984 albums Albums conducted by Frank Zappa Albums produced by Frank Zappa Barking Pumpkin Records albums Frank Zappa albums 1980s tribute albums 1980s covers albums Electronic albums by American artists Francesco Zappa tribute albums