ONE SIZE FITS ALL: THROUGH-COMPOSED MELODIES

With these band members, the third line up of The Mothers of Invention, the next 1975 albums "One size fits all" and "Bongo Fury" were recorded, while more live recordings with this band appeared in 1988 as "You can't do that on stage anymore, vol. II". When after the 1975 tour most band members decided to go on with their own career, Zappa stopped using the name Mothers of Invention and went on just as Zappa on the next "Zoot Allures" album.
From the "One size fits all" album I would like to give the lengthy theme of "Florentine Pogen" as an example of a melodic line set throughout. Most pop music as well as classical music has a thematic structure, where the music can be divided into two or more themes, that alternate each other, in pop music normally without the elaborate variations of the themes, that can be found in classical music. A clear example of the regular pop music two theme structure is "Camarillo Brillo" from "Overnite sensation":

- 0:00 Instrumental intro
- 0:18 Theme A ("She had that camarillo brillo...")
- 1:05 Theme B ("She had a snake for a pet...")
- 1:25 Theme A
- 2:12 Theme B
- 2:33 Theme A (Fading out instrumentally)

Zappa is also using other forms like variation forms where one motif or a melody is played several times with variations and compositions with a continuing melody, that have no clear division into seperate themes. In early classical music pieces with continuing melodies were sometimes called fantasies or toccatas. In the 19th century, when this method of composing became applied in songs and opera's, the words "through-composed" or "set throughout" were introduced to describe it. The "Uncle meat main title" theme from above is an example of a melody set throughout. It is true that this melody can be divided into sections, but the melody as a whole is not formed by alternations of these sections. On the "Uncle Meat" album, as well as on the chamber orchestra version on "The yellow shark", the theme is played several times with slight variations, ending with a coda, in this way becoming a variation piece.

Right: Ruth Underwood and Chester Thompson playing "Florentine Pogen". Source: Dub room special DVD.

The theme from "Florentine Pogen" is by itself just as the "Uncle meat main title" theme through-composed. "Florentine Pogen" as a whole is a variation piece, with the theme repeated several times with lyrics and many alternative bars. The descant melody of the main theme as played at the opening is given beneath in it's whole length. A base guitar and a synthesizer bass are playing parallel with it at varying interval distances. When the structure of such a melody cannot be described as something like A-B-A, there have to be other structure building elements, if the piece sounds coherent. In this case such elements are:
- The key is E Minor (aeolian) during the first half of the theme. In the second half changes to related keys are made.
- The returning use of strings of eighth notes.
- The frequent accenting on the E note.
- The instruments and vocalists are playing and singing the whole melody either unisono or in parallels.

Very intentionally this pattern is broken in the two bars with sixteenth notes. The first one has a figure using notes of A flat. The figure is repeated a second lower in the second bar using notes of G flat. These two figures have nothing in common with the other parts of the melody. Zappa loved to add such pattern breaking or opposing figures to his melodies.

Florentine Pogen theme (midi file).

Florentine Pogen theme (transcription).

"One size fits all" contains more melodies that are set througout, like the themes from "Inca roads", "Sofa" and "Evelyn". The fluid melody of "Inca roads" gets broken more sharp and abrupt than the "Florentine Pogen" theme from above, namely at the section between 0:57 and 1:10 (included below). It's problably this interruption that made George Duke complain to Zappa in a Frank Scheffer documentary (see also the What's next section) saying "This is such a beautiful melody, do you have to mess it up". But then Frank would simply reply "Yeah, but it needs some messing up" (quoted from memory). The interrupting bars are indeed weird. Their only purpose is to break the melody completely and cause confusion. On the other hand, when you've listened to "Inca roads" often, you get thus used to their presence that removing them would be strange as well.

Right: George Duke during his keyboard solo in "Inca roads". Source: Dub room special DVD.

Inca roads, opening theme (midi file).

Inca roads, opening theme (transcription).

The melody from "Evelyn" is a speech influenced example of a through composed melody. It follows the syllables of the words, here all strictly divided over eighth notes. The accent syllables of the words determine the here notated metres, except for the instrumental bars 9 and 10, that are regular 4/4. The melody is about always using the smaller intervals, the majority are seconds movements. You might call "Evelyn" a poem set to music, engendering a belletristic and eloquent application of English, that can stultify non-native English babblers like myself.

Evelyn, a modified dog, first half (midi file).

Evelyn, a modified dog, first half (transcription).

Zappa used melodies, that are composed throughout, most often for his instrumental music, for instance the above mentioned jazz albums and the London Symphony Orchestra recordings. We'll get to some more examples taken from instrumental pieces in the following sections.

"San Ber'dino" is an example of a song with an unconventional structure. It has one short central theme, that gets varied upon, various side themes and passages, as well as solo bars:

Block I
- 0:00 Instrumental opening #1 in country and western style.
- 0:08 Main theme, "She lives in a ...", with as basic characteristic a melody going up and down again.
- 0:14 Instrumental passage #1, following the idea of a melody going up and down again, now with larger intervals.
- 0:18 Main theme, "His name is ...".
- 0:22 Instrumental passage #1.
- 0:27 Instrumental passage #2.
- 0:34 Main theme, "She's in love ..." plus a vocal variation.
- 0:44 Instrumental passage #3. This is a pattern breaking riff with biting quintuplets.
Block II, mostly following block I
- 0:50 Instrumental opening #2, used during the song to reintroduce the main theme.
- 0:59 Main theme, "He got stubbering ...".
- 1:03 Instrumental passage #1.
- 1:07 Main theme, "They gave him ...".
- 1:12 Instrumental passage #1.
- 1:16 Instrumental passage #2.
- 1:24 Main theme, "Well there's 44 ..." plus a vocal variation. Here the transcribed section below is taking off (bars 1-4).

San Ber'dino, section (midi file).

San Ber'dino, section (transcription).

- 1:33 Instrumental passage #3 (bars 5-7).
Block III
- 1:39 Instrumental opening #2 (bars 8-11).
- 1:48 Sequence of vocal variations upon the main theme (bars 12-19).
- 2:05 Side theme #1, "They don't care.". Modulation from E Myxolydian (bars 16-19) to F# Minor (Aeolian) (bars 20-23). Thus far the transcription.
- 2:14 Instrumental passage #4 followed by soloing with the bass continuing the riff of the first bar of this passage.
- 2:55 Sequence of vocal variations upon the main theme.
- 3:12 Side theme #2, "Real good deal-o.".
Block IV
- 3:25 Instrumental opening #2.
- 3:33 Outro with Johnny Guitar Watson improvising lyrics and the others improvising over a bass variation upon the main theme.
- 5:42 Closing bars.
- 5:56 End of the song.