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I never listened to Frank Zappa's music, but I know he was friendly with Nicholas Slonimsky toward the end of the latter's long life. Slonimsky was related to V. V. Vengerov, the celebrated Pushkinist, who is alluded to in Nabokov's "Ada."
Other Slonimsky relatives included an Russian inventor of the telegraph, who never bothered to patent it, which gave Samuel F. B. Morse his victory by default, as well as another relative who died in the Great Patriotic War (World War II) and who was, on his non-Slonimsky side, the last descendant of Pushkin. Such information, and much more, can be found in Slonimsky's constantly amusing "Perfect Pitch." I have also inhaled, in short but intense doses, Slonimsky's anthology of damning reviews, at their first or early performances, of composers and performers, an anthology called "The Lexicon of Musical Invective." There was a particularly funny one about a Russian critic's response to Tchaikovsky, but now I've forgotten it. It's not easy being 98.
Anyway, my original point, before the deliberate decision was taken to engage in deliberate digression, was, and remains, this: that if Frank Zappa was friendly with Nicholas Slonimsky (they were brought together initially by a shared admiration for Varese) and if Zappa's life was music, he could not possibly have been a Muslim, that is, one who is likely inculcated with the idea that music is a bad thing, not to mention the fact that to Muslims, Slonimskys are also a bad thing. The very idea is absurd.
Yes, I know what you are going to say. What about Yusuf Islam, ne Cat Stevens, ne something else more in the Aegean vein? Well, Yusuf Islam is still, after all these years, unaware of the Islamic doctrine concerning music. He's funny that way -- and alas, not only in that way.
I realize that in a posting fourteen months ago, a reply to another post, I mentioned Nicholas Slonimsky. Here is that posting:
As for those Serapion Brothers, all such groups, even if individual members at the time or later on show talent, are always silly seeming, and embarrassing for all concerned. But especially when they have some stupid manifesto or motto, something about changing literature or art or stuff like that. If, as I suspect, the Serapion Brothers were boosters of "non-conformist art," and since so many of them turned out to be Soviet conformists when they had the misfortune to live long lives as members of the Union of Soviet Writers (meeting this month of remaining members to be held in Dom Druzhby, the former Morozov mansion, for an evening of reminiscence and vodka and zakuski), I suspect they did programmatically begin as "non-conformists." Then I wouldn't touch it all with a ten-foot pole. On the other hand, Viktor Shklovsky was a member. Then there was that man named Vladimir Pozner. Remember back in the late 1980s, when the then-Soviet now-brave-new-something journalist Vladimir Pozner was on American television? All I could think of was "Serapion Brothers, Serapion Brothers.” Could he be the son, grandson? Well, I told myself, it's a common name, a name like Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov, or more likely Mikhail Levin.
Most interesting to me in the list of Serapion Brothers is the name of Mikhail Slonimsky, but only because I read a few months ago his brother Nicholas Slonimsky's "Perfect Pitch." Nicholas Slonimsky, the famous musicologist and the author of "A History of Musical Invective," was related to all kinds of people -- to the true first-in-time inventor of the telegraph, before Morse, a man who didn't bother to publicly announce his achievement, much less try to get a patent (yes, I know the Soviets, the Bolshaya Sovetyskaya Entsiklopedia, was always claiming credit for Russian inventors, but in this case the story is not merely verisimilar but convincing, and true -- la pura, sacrosancta verita), and also to Vengerov, the famous Pushkinist mentioned in "Ada," the one who compiled that useful list of documents "Pushkin v zhizni" that...oops, sorry, no that was Veresaev, forget that, and also to the Polish poet Antoni Slonimski, who was much more famous in Poland than was Mikhail Slonimsky in the Soviet Union, and who died in a ridiculous and quite unnecessary automobile accident when the car he was not driving but riding in hit a pole, or another car, or something.
What the Serapion Brothers have to do with me I haven't the faintest.
Oh, and by the way, did you know that the Bey of Algiers has a wart under his nose?
Posted by Hugh at November 23, 2007 5:43 AM
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They invented nil and mixed that up with zero.
Posted by: FreeSpeech![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 23, 2007 6:29 AM
Muslims did not invent zero.
It was a concept developed in India or Babylon.
Posted by: zaphodbrx at November 23, 2007 7:21 AM
Hugh,
Slonimsky sounds like a particularly lethal vodka that's bound to Zappa the unwary Thanksgiving celebrator.
Cheers!
at November 23, 2007 8:47 AM
Fitzgerald: Frank Zappa a Muslim?
I never listened to Frank Zappa's music....
Ever eaten any 'yellow snow' Fitz? ;o)
at November 23, 2007 8:48 AM
Frank Zappa was of Sicilian ancestry. Also, he detested all forms of organized religion--I don't think he mentioned islam in his memoirs, but I'm sure he would have ridiculed it at least as much as he ridiculed christianity.
Posted by: dr. mabuse at November 23, 2007 9:02 AM
Posted by: dr. mabuse
I don't think he mentioned islam in his memoirs, but I'm sure he would have ridiculed it at least as much as he ridiculed christianity.
http://illustratedpig.blogspot.com/2006/12/2-great-musical-sheiks.html
Posted by: shiva at November 23, 2007 9:54 AM
ZAPPA QUOTE FOR THE DAY:
"Defense Money should be put into manpower and equipment appropriate to the kinds of conflicts we are really going to encounter in the next quarter-century. The manpower should be dedicated, the equipment should be easy to operate and maintain, and the management of military assets should be streamlined. Let's say we have to make some 'show of force.' The most common scenarios involve small guerilla or terrorist groups. Nuclear retaliation? It has been suggested by others that Aerosol Pork
Grenades would be a better deterrent--Islamic Martyrs are denied entrance to heaven if they show up at the gate smelling like a pig. Denial of The Big Payoff removes a certain cachet from acts of voluntary self-destruction." - Frank Zappa, "The Real Frank Zappa Book" - 1989"
at November 23, 2007 10:01 AM
Just google "Frank Zappa atheist". You'll get tons of examples of his non-belief.
Posted by: kevin at November 23, 2007 11:13 AM
I stand corrected--it's been a long time since I read the book. Thanks.
Posted by: dr. mabuse at November 23, 2007 12:18 PM
Frank Zappa a Muslim? I've never heard THAT one before. If anything, I had him pegged as an atheist, or at the very least an agnostic.
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 23, 2007 2:46 PM
Just out of curiosity: is Hugh Russian? He often mentions Russian writers/artists in his posts. (I only ask because I'm of Russian origin myself)
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 23, 2007 2:47 PM
I knew that before he died of prostate cancer, he was very anti-Christian. I don't think he endorsed any religion because he hated religion. Frank being a Muslim does not fit his style.
Posted by: The Resistance at November 23, 2007 3:39 PM
Here is his profile on NNDB
http://www.nndb.com/people/737/000024665/
at November 23, 2007 3:42 PM
RoobartSbunsar
I think you should check out this site:
Posted by: The Resistance at November 23, 2007 3:44 PM
"RoobartSbunsar
I think you should check out this site:
Haha, good stuff--I'm surprised I'd never stumbled across that website before!
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 23, 2007 3:46 PM
"Hugh,
Slonimsky sounds like a particularly lethal vodka that's bound to Zappa the unwary Thanksgiving celebrator.
Cheers!"
...I could go for some lethal Russian vodka right about now. Alas, booze is prohibitively expensive here in London. That's one of the few things I miss about Egypt: dirt-cheap liquor.
at November 23, 2007 6:14 PM
"The Lexicon of Musical Invective."
So glad to hear you've enjoyed it-- it's a favorite of mine, too. The index of terms alone is side-splitting.
Posted by: MarisolJW at November 23, 2007 6:29 PM
Hugh-
You need to listen to Frank Zappa's classical ancestor (same name) that Frank rediscovered and promoted.
And lots of Zappa's own modern music is classic post-Edgar Varese experimentalism, with a funky sardonic spine. Busby Berkley meets Les Paul meets William Burroughs.
Viz:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tXbVD45CrM
He mocked "Sheik Yerbouti", and all religious pomposity.
He would have been a Moonie before a Muslim.
(Plus, he named his daughter Moon Unit.)
Posted by: profitsbeard at November 24, 2007 12:18 AM
It's not easy being 98.
If that's your age, Hugh, you rock. You remember more than I expect I'll ever learn. I hope I have as much energy to give antijihadwise in a few decades when I reach that level of ripeness.
Posted by: Archimedes2 at November 24, 2007 12:42 AM
And if it is not my age, do I cease to rock?
Posted by: Hugh at November 24, 2007 2:13 AM
Just out of curiosity: is Hugh Russian? He often mentions Russian writers/artists in his posts. (I only ask because I'm of Russian origin myself)
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar [TypeKey Profile Page] at
November 23, 2007 2:47 PM
=======
Hugh's name is Alsacienne, and he seems to have an affinity for the French aspects of France. But my money is on Hugh being American. He mentions a lot about Russia just like he mentions a lot about a lot of stuff. He's doubtless a lot of things, but I doubt one of them as being Russian.
at November 24, 2007 2:41 AM
"an affinity for the French aspects of France..."
Yes, it's those damn Dutch and Albanian and Patagonian aspects of France I just can't seem to appreciate. It's only those French aspects of France I seem to like. Call me narrow-minded.
Posted by: Hugh at November 24, 2007 3:36 AM
Who said that Frank Zappa was a Muslim?
Posted by: alexon at November 24, 2007 5:15 AM
""an affinity for the French aspects of France..."
Yes, it's those damn Dutch and Albanian and Patagonian aspects of France I just can't seem to appreciate. It's only those French aspects of France I seem to like. Call me narrow-minded."
hahahahahahah
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 24, 2007 6:42 AM
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