THE YELLOW SHARK - EIHN: COUNTERPOINT #2

Zappa's late projects show an increasing counterpoint contribution. The late projects being the two synclavier albums from above and the succesful "The yellow shark" project featuring the Ensemble Modern from 1993. Take for instance the bass line, that plays through most of "G-spot tornado" (better audible on "Jazz from hell" then on the "The yellow shark" version; see also the fragment from the Synclavier subpage), the second half of "While you were out II" and sections of "Xmas values" and "Times beach II".

This section works in conjunction with the "Weasels ripped my flesh: counterpoint #1" section, filling in the picture with some examples from Zappa's late works.

1) Classical counterpoint.

An example of the classical use of counterpoint is included in the counterpoint #1 section.

2) Counterpoint including complementary harmony.

The first example here is a transcription of a fragment from "Strictly Genteel" (London Symphony Orchestra version, released in 1987) where two melodies are played by the bass and descant. At several points their harmonies become complementary, while at other instances they are moving more seperately. Both melodies are in a straight 3/4 time. Since there are no clear key notes here (the melodies are using notes of A, B Minor and D), the chords can better be identified unrelated to keys. In the first bar for instance, the bass and descant are playing through the D chord. In the second bar they are playing mostly through the C#m chord.

Strictly genteel, section (midi file)

Strictly genteel, section (transcription)

3-4) Counterpoint through multiple layers and counterpoint with shifting harmonies.

See also the counterpoint #1 section. Next is another example of counterpoint with shifting harmonies, where the melodic lines are playing in a different meters. It's a test for playing 4/4 and 9/8 simultaneously. The drumset plays a steady 4/4 beat, over which the marimba and celli play a 9/8 figure in the same tempo. After a while the flute and clarinet join in with arpeggio figures in 4/4. Brass instruments are playing in triplet time, while Shankar is improvising on violin. Its recording got released in 1999 on the Zappa Family Trust release "Everything is healing nicely" (see also the Ensemble Modern section of the left menu). The excerpt below is from the most dense section, when all parts are playing together.

9/8 Objects, section (midi file)
What will Rumi do?, end (midi file)
T'Mershi Duween (1991), section (midi file, tempo change not included)

9/8 Objects, section (transcription)
What will Rumi do?, end (transcription)
T'Mershi Duween (1991), section (notes/transcription)

"What will Rumi do?" is another example of such a 9/8 object over 4/4. Here the 9/8 figure is played by the piano. The composition was made up by Zappa during rehearsals by assigning melody lines to the various sections of the ensemble. It gets build up layer over layer. The fragment from above is from the end, when everybody is playing. It's going from the bottom staff of the transcription playing solo, with every few bars a new bar added bottom up. Rumi, being the percussionist Rumi Ogawa, joins in for the toms part. At the top the ultimate three bars closing melody is represented. The piece has premiered on the Ensemble Modern CD called "Greggery Peccary & other persuasions".
On "EIHN" a variant upon "What will Rumi do?" is included in "T'Mershi Duween". This latter piece was part of the 1974 band reportoire, only to appear on CD 15 years later on "YCDTOSA II". Its main melody lasts 23/16 in total. A performing difficulty lay in its reappearance halfway, to be played a tiny bit faster over a 6/4 accompanying figure, thus creating a 23:24 relationship. The transcription above includes some sections from the 1992 "EIHN" version, performed as follows:
A: The 23-tuplet bar, to be played twice.
B: A figure in 10/16, repeated various times and swelling via doubling and parallel playing. It starts just on F sharp and ends as indicated in the transcription.
C: After block B has reached its max, the ensemble moves to the "What will Rumi do?" variant C. This one also gets build up in layers, the closing melody of the top bar being played only once just at the end. Next most of the C figure goes to mezzo-piano and gets used as a vamp for the returning "T'Mershi Duween" melody.

5) Free counterpoint movements.

This is a test, bars 1-2 (midi file)
This is a test, bars 9-13 (midi file)

This is a test (transcription)

"This is a test" was handed over to the Ensemble Modern the first day of rehearsals in 1992 because it's easy to perform and fit for sight reading. Zappa didn't intend this composition to be officially released. It's a relaxed easy going miniature though and its recording also landed on "Everything is healing nicely". It's a variation piece, where the theme is presented in the first two bars. Then this melody gets varied upon till the end, leading it through all kind of diatonic scales. The base part is blowing chromatic counterpoint notes through it to season it.

6) Counterpoint in an atonal field.

The 1993 "The yellow shark" CD is a sort of a suite for an ensemble, though not written with that intention, with pieces that are highly diverse in their instrumentation, form and accessability. The release contains some of Zappa's most difficult music, written for wind sextet and string quintet, as well as easier pieces to listen to like "Outrage at Valdez". Three concerts were held in Germany and Austria. To the right a still from the ZDF tv registration with Zappa and Peter Rundel during applause in front of the Ensemble Modern. On the program were also some rearrangements of earlier pieces. From the counterpoint point of view the final version of "Pound for a brown" (first appearance on the "Uncle Meat" album) is very interesting because of the differents sorts of counterpoint in it: motifs played against a melody at the beginning, bass and descant playing against each other in the middle section and repeating melodies at the end going from one melody to two and three part counterpoint in layers.

"Ruth is sleeping" is the first composition Zappa started with on the synclavier in 1982-3. Rather than beginning with something easy, he immediately went ahead exploring what a machine could do what would be difficult for humans. At the time it could operate with sampled sounds, he chose it to become a piano movement and started reworking upon the score. Technically the score below can be played on a single piano, but than it would become a circus act. It would mean that you would have to keep two to four balls in the air with each hand. The balls in this case are the four to eight melodic lines, that for performing purposes are divided over two piano parts of two staffs. Each staff is doing sometimes one, sometimes two melodic movements. The meter in these opening bars is 3/4 with the melodic lines moving through irregularly. There are just as much notes on beat, off beat, before beat and after beat. The meter then only serves for a time unit, there is no downbeat. The formation is such that there about two sequences of two 16th notes per bar, whereas the other sequences are slower. It's going from piano to forte, at the end a bit faster. Here it's completely free atonal music. The piece changes in character however frequently. There are for instance sections that sound like a modern jazz improvisation and sections with larger sequences, where the melodic lines are imitating each other.

Ruth is sleeping, opening bars (midi file).

Ruth is sleeping, opening bars (score).

I'm getting near the end this study with two sections from one of Zappa's most inaccessable pieces, the sextet "Times Beach" from "The Yellow shark". The members of the Ensemble Modern, who are playing it, first thought of it as just another modern atonal piece, but started to appreciate it in the long run.
The first example contains two bars from the second movement, that comprehend flute and clarinet (untransposed "C-clarinet" notation) playing in counterpoint. This fragment is too short to give an idea of the piece as a whole but on a microscale the second bar gives a variation on the movement in the first bar. The other example stems from the third movement. It's one of the fast passages in this mostly adagio movement. See "Igor's boogie" and "Greggery Peccary" for other such examples in this study.

Times Beach II, fragment (midi file).
Times Beach III, fragment (midi file, tempo change not included).

Times Beach II, fragment (transcription).
Times Beach III, fragment (transcription).

Zappa: ""Times Beach" was commissioned by the Aspen Wind Quintet, and it was in five movements, one of which seemed to be unplayable at the time that they gave their pemiere performance in Alice Tulley Hall in 1985. Nobody has played it (in full) since they tried it. The title refers to our special little toxic town-you know, Time's Beach, the dioxin-infested town that was the first major U.S. environmental disaster where they had to remove everybody out because of the dioxin." Peter Rundel, conducting the Ensemble Modern: "We had already prerared other pieces, but we needed something more. The musicians opposed it, but I said maybe we should try that again. Frank said, "Why not, let's do it", and it became very clear how to play it. It had no dynamics, no articulation-just plain notes. Frank sang the phrases for us. Suddenly it became very lively, and the character of the music came out. It was not an abstract kind of music anymore" (CD Booklet).