| Francesco Zappa | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 21, 1984[1] | |||
| Recorded | February – April 1984 | |||
| Studio | UMRK (Los Angeles) | |||
| Genre | Chamber music,electronic | |||
| Length | 37:46 | |||
| Label | Barking Pumpkin | |||
| Producer | Frank Zappa | |||
| Frank Zappa chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [2] |
Francesco Zappa is a 1984 album by American musicianFrank Zappa. It features synthesized arrangements ofchamber music byItalian composerFrancesco Zappa, who composed between 1763 and 1788.
According to recording engineer Mark Pinske, musician David Ocker introduced Francesco Zappa's music to Frank Zappa because it was popular with some college music students.[3] Ocker discovered the music in what Pinske describes as "the Mormon library or something". The exact location where the scores were found was not specified by Pinske, but was possibly archives for the music department atBrigham Young University which is owned bythe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (popularly known as Mormons). Frank initially thought Ocker was joking about an earlier composer who shared his name.[3]
Frank Zappa was impressed by the scores and realized they were not copyrighted, and subsequently obtained a copyright for the works of Francesco Zappa. He then programmed some of these pieces into his newSynclaviersynthesizer.[3]
Frank found an entry for Francesco in theGrove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and then researched his sheet music in the library atUC Berkeley. While Frank and Francesco have similar first names and share the same surname, according toThe Real Frank Zappa Book, the two musicians are not related.
Francesco Zappa was the first full album on which Frank used theSynclavier,[4] but Synclavier pieces appeared onThe Perfect Stranger earlier that year, as well asThing-Fish, also released in 1984 but recorded earlier.
All tracks are written by Francesco Zappa.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Opus I: No. 1 1st Movement: Andante" | 3:32 |
| 2. | "Opus I: No. 1 2nd Movement: Allegro con brio" | 1:27 |
| 3. | "Opus I: No. 2 1st Movement: Andantino" | 2:14 |
| 4. | "Opus I: No. 2 2nd Movement: Minuetto grazioso" | 2:04 |
| 5. | "Opus I: No. 3 1st Movement: Andantino" | 1:52 |
| 6. | "Opus I: No. 3 2nd Movement: Presto" | 1:50 |
| 7. | "Opus I: No. 4 1st Movement: Andante" | 2:20 |
| 8. | "Opus I: No. 4 2nd Movement: Allegro" | 3:04 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 9. | "Opus I: No. 5 2nd Movement: Minuetto grazioso" | 2:29 |
| 10. | "Opus I: No. 6 1st Movement: Largo" | 2:08 |
| 11. | "Opus I: No. 6 2nd Movement: Minuet" | 2:03 |
| 12. | "Opus IV: No. 1 1st Movement: Andantino" | 2:47 |
| 13. | "Opus IV: No. 1 2nd Movement: Allegro assai" | 2:02 |
| 14. | "Opus IV: No. 2 2nd Movement: Allegro assai" | 1:20 |
| 15. | "Opus IV: No. 3 1st Movement: Andante" | 2:24 |
| 16. | "Opus IV: No. 3 2nd Movement: Tempo di minuetto" | 2:00 |
| 17. | "Opus IV: No. 4 1st Movement: Minuetto" | 2:10 |
