Analysis Of Frank Zappa, John Cage, And Pamela Z

Throughout this course, the composers we studied all had different approached to creating music, and that is why many of them are well known today. The three most notable composers who combine unusual elements with their music were Frank Zappa, John Cage, and Pamela Z.

Frank Zappa was an American artist who had no desire to fit into a single style of music, and he had no interest in creating music for cultural conventions. He created music in the manners he saw fit. His music shows influence from rock, pop, modern classical, and jazz music, but his pieces are far from fitting into one of those labels. The most notable album Frank Zappa created that was Jazz From Hell. This album was highly unique because all the pieces on this album were performed

Pamela Z, although trained in classical performance, wanted to find a way to perform contemporary music. In order to perform contemporary music, Pamela Z bought a delay unit and began creating loops using her voice. Z was able to think about her voice in the areas of texture and rhythm, the influence of outside texts, and how she could vary her vocal technique. One of Pamela Z’s most notable pieces that integrates the unusual elements of looping and layer is Gaijin. Gaijin is the Japanese word for foreigner and this piece came about when Z was living in Japan. This interdisciplinary piece involves electroacoustic texts, screens of large projects and traditional Japanese dance. Gaijin features Pamela Z as the primary performer. She uses her voice, processors, and samples to create her vocal musical. While she is performing, she connected to a machine called a body synth. A body synth is a control that transmits body movement, gestures, and other physical efforts into sounds. Pamela Z created a whole-body performance experience. Pamela Z successfully demonstrated that one does not need a story and can have highly unique elements, and still have a piece that moves many