# Frank Zappa on Music Schools



## PresenTense (May 7, 2016)

"The foundations that provide grant money for people engaged in these pursuits occasionally decide to stop funding one style of music after becoming entranced with another. For instance, it used to be that they would fund only boop-beep stuff (serial and/or electronic composition). Now they're funding only minimalism (simplistic, repetitive composition, easy to rehearse and, therefore, cost-effective). So what gets taught in school? Minimalism. Why? Because it can be FUNDED. Net cultural result? Monochromonotony.
In order to gain status at the university, a professor or composer in residence has to be plugged into something that's really hot -- something FUNDABLE, and, as of this writing, the secret word is MINIMALISM. So, after a busy semester grading the papers of their minimalist trainees, they adjust their berets and fill out the request forms for 'foundation assistance.' Students and instructors alike compete annually for pieces of this pie.
One day, these cultural institutions are going to stop funding minimalist music and fund something else, and the Serious Music Landscape will be littered with the shriveled remains of 'expert graduate minimalists."

- Frank Zappa


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## Magnum Miserium (Aug 15, 2016)

He's right, but Steve Reich is still a better composer than he is.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I'd have to disagree. Going to music school for composition taught me a lot that I probably wouldn't have figured out on my own.


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

A composer's success surely isn't determined by their tuition course?


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

Magnum Miserium said:


> He's right, but Steve Reich is still a better composer than he is.


Do you know how successful Reich is? It would be interesting to know.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

violadude said:


> I'd have to disagree. Going to music school for composition taught me a lot that I probably wouldn't have figured out on my own.


Zappa was no doubt talking about conditions several decades before your studies and perhaps before your birth.  Studying with someone who understands where you want to go and who is a good critic can make all the difference. I had a teacher who made an impression on my thinking by challenging my assumptions and making the simplest of suggestions. Like: "Why do you have an introduction there? Why don't you just start the damned thing with the main idea?" Or sometimes he would say something like: "You should listen to such and such - he handles these kind of transitions very well."


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## Torkelburger (Jan 14, 2014)

I have a degree in composition. I utilize it by composing music each and every day. Some of it gets performed and recorded. I also have a roof over my head, food for my family, and a full time job just like everyone else. Not so sure what Zappa's so worried about for me.

My instructors never spoke about funding. They never stressed writing any style or type of music. We just studied everything equally.

And why all the emphasis on Zappa's opinions and musings? Is he god or something?


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Zappa is just say what he always said, he was just pissed off that he had to do it the hard way- which he did very hard including time in cell bock D. I think what he was saying is that the privileged few get the opportunity to study composition but those the have the talent like him had to do it the hard way................

I would say that Zappa would have been a much better composer if he had have had more formal training but he might have lost his quirky edge...


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

The following is my opinion:

The people who for the most part own our schools, churches and media have waged a war on wisdom and human consciousness. 
Does this mean that one cannot learn anything useful from school, church or the media? No. But there are subtle lies embedded.
The people that own our educational institutions are highly intelligent and essentially ancient psychologists who have hoarded the true history and knowledge of humanity and kept it from the masses in order to create a power differential. I understand this information is scary and uncomfortable but people need to really wake up and look at this and do something about it if humanity is ever going to experience freedom.


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

tdc said:


> The following is my opinion:
> 
> The people who for the most part own our schools, churches and media have waged a war on wisdom and human consciousness.
> Does this mean that one cannot learn anything useful from school, church or the media? No. But there are subtle lies embedded.
> The people that own our educational institutions are highly intelligent and essentially ancient psychologists who have hoarded the true history and knowledge of humanity and kept it from the masses in order to create a power differential. I understand this information is scary and uncomfortable but people need to really wake up and look at this and do something about it if humanity is ever going to experience freedom.


This is so because...?


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

tdc said:


> The following is my opinion:
> 
> The people who for the most part own our schools, churches and media have waged a war on wisdom and human consciousness.
> Does this mean that one cannot learn anything useful from school, church or the media? No. But there are subtle lies embedded.
> The people that own our educational institutions are highly intelligent and essentially ancient psychologists who have hoarded the true history and knowledge of humanity and kept it from the masses in order to create a power differential. I understand this information is scary and uncomfortable but people need to really wake up and look at this and do something about it if humanity is ever going to experience freedom.


Love your post. :tiphat:


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

The more I hear about Zappa's opinion on music, the more I realize that I like his music much more than his opinions


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## Norma Skock (Mar 18, 2017)

tdc said:


> The following is my opinion:
> 
> The people who for the most part own our schools, churches and media have waged a war on wisdom and human consciousness.
> Does this mean that one cannot learn anything useful from school, church or the media? No. But there are subtle lies embedded.
> The people that own our educational institutions are highly intelligent and essentially ancient psychologists who have hoarded the true history and knowledge of humanity and kept it from the masses in order to create a power differential. I understand this information is scary and uncomfortable but people need to really wake up and look at this and do something about it if humanity is ever going to experience freedom.


Many people will agree with you. But dare you not try to spell out what that held information might be, you'll be met with fierce opposition, even on these wise forums.


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## Magnum Miserium (Aug 15, 2016)

Norma Skock said:


> Many people will agree with you. But dare you not try to spell out what that held information might be, you'll be met with fierce opposition, even on these wise forums.


Oh dear God, is this all about crypto anti-Semitism?


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## Norma Skock (Mar 18, 2017)

Magnum Miserium said:


> Oh dear God, is this all about crypto anti-Semitism?


I never suggested that.


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## Magnum Miserium (Aug 15, 2016)

"I never suggested that." Good.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

EdwardBast said:


> Zappa was no doubt talking about conditions several decades before your studies and perhaps before your birth.  Studying with someone who understands where you want to go and who is a good critic can make all the difference. I had a teacher who made an impression on my thinking by challenging my assumptions and making the simplest of suggestions. Like: "Why do you have an introduction there? Why don't you just start the damned thing with the main idea?" Or sometimes he would say something like: "You should listen to such and such - he handles these kind of transitions very well."


It is not clear from the OP whether Zappa had it against training in composition in general, or just against colleges providing such training. If the former, he's silly - off the top of my head I can hardly think of any of the great composers who did not sooner or later get lessons in composition. If the latter, he may well have more of a point - colleges do tend to go through fads, with lots of subjects. It might not be a bad idea to return to a sort of apprentice system.



TwoFlutesOneTrumpet said:


> The more I hear about Zappa's opinion on music, the more I realize that I like his music much more than his opinions


With me it's the other way round: I find his opinions interesting and/or amusing, but I fear his music doesn't do a thing for me.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I'm in the luxury position that I can both enjoy his music and his (exaggerated but hey...) opinions


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

Norma Skock said:


> I never suggested that.


What are the reasons for such a view then?


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

tdc said:


> The following is my opinion:
> 
> The people who for the most part own our schools, churches and media have waged a war on wisdom and human consciousness.
> Does this mean that one cannot learn anything useful from school, church or the media? No. But there are subtle lies embedded.
> The people that own our educational institutions are highly intelligent and essentially ancient psychologists who have hoarded the true history and knowledge of humanity and kept it from the masses in order to create a power differential. I understand this information is scary and uncomfortable but people need to really wake up and look at this and do something about it if humanity is ever going to experience freedom.


My experience is that the world is so mismanaged, so chaotic, so irrationally "organized", so disfunctional for the most part, that claims that dark and hidden powers and forces are at the controls are very hard to swallow. Sure, there are pockets of centralized or once-centralized but now fraying authority that hold or held sway in certain places and times, but they come and go. Nowadays, the knowledge about the world is all there, intermixed with true and false knowledge about every other thing--nuggets of gold intermixed with all the sediment of the world. The key is to be cold-eyed and stringent in the sorts of things one is to believe, and to pay close attention to who are to be your guides and mentors and what their methods and techniques are for determining what is true and what is to be done.


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## Magnum Miserium (Aug 15, 2016)

Strange Magic said:


> My experience is that the world is so mismanaged, so chaotic, so irrationally "organized", so disfunctional for the most part, that claims that dark and hidden powers and forces are at the controls are very hard to swallow.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor


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