JOHN ZORN ON HIS MUSIC
...Whether we like it or not, the era of the composer as autonomous musical mind has
just about come to an end. At this point in musical history, the relevant question is,
"What exactly does a composer do?" Over the past 40 years, many of the great
composers have worked with collaborators. Ellington had Billy Strayhorn as well as his
amazing band. John Cage had David Tudor and Takehisa Kosugi. Stockhausen has
depended on the Kontarsky brothers, Harold Boje, his son Markus, and Susanne
Stephens, among others. Mauricio Kagel's group included Vinko Globokar, Christoph
Caskel, Edward Tarr, etc. Philip Glass and Steve Reich work closely with their
ensembles.
...The collaborative aspects of the recording process make this even clearer. When the
Beatles put together Sgt. Pepper with George Martin, or Frank Zappa worked with the
Mothers of Invention on the early Verve records, the collaboration helped produce a
musical statement greater than the sum of the individuals involved.
...In a way, today's musical maelstrom can be compated to the film industry, where
specialized talents are contributed to create a work much richer than what one mind
could create alone.
...My music depends on collaborators in a very special way. Most of the people I've
associated with are creative improvisers who have developed highly personalized
approaches to their instruments. These sounds defy traditional notation on score paper.
We "notate" the music on tape by molding it in the studio, as it is happening, as a
sculptor would mold clay. Over the past 15 years I have been fortunate to work with
some of the great musical minds of our time, many of whom are on this record. It's
become just like a family.
...Of course composition needs some kind of stamp, a sense of cohesion. That's what
I was taught in school by uptight professors in thin ties and thick glasses who made me
study pitch sets. I mean, give me a break from that sterile bullshit! But what all that
schooling did impress upon me was the realization that every note needs to have a
function, and that htere always has to be a sense of going somewhere, the feeling that a
personal vision is being realized.
...People often assume that the fast changes in my music are a result of tape editing.
Nothing could be further from the truth. We do it the hard way, man, and I think that's
why it works so well. There are no tape edits in my work, ever. We'll rehearse section
one, then record it, rehearse section two, then record it, punching each section in place
after the previous one, building the piece block by block, from start to finish. The
overhanging sonorities, as one section bleeds to the next, help give my pieces a sense of
unity; you can almost feel the sections growing out of one another. It is much more
organic that way, and so, easier to listen to. I can't believe I just said that. But really, I
believe the human ear, being so sensitive, gets tired of artificial sound of tape edits real
fast. Maybe that's tape music as a genre never really went anywhere. Edgard Varèse
described himself as an "organizer of sound." That concept is probably more valid today
than in any previous era.
...Of course, composing music for improvising musicians, which has been my main
interest as a composer since 1974, can be seen as a paradox. The key to harnessing the
talents of these players, to taking full advantage of their potential, is putting them in
inspiring contexts that spark them to even greater heights. Even in my early music I was
hearing structure and form more than content.
...This concept has been a constant in my work: from game pieces like Cobra, Hsu
Feng, and Ruan Lingyu; narrative pieces like Hu Die or Que Tran which aim at creating
a new improvising tradition for a small group format; file card compositions, which are
constructed in time, moment by moment, and realized in the studio like Godard,
Spillane, and Forbidden Fruit; arrangements like the Kurt Weill piece and the Morricone
tribute The Big Gundown; through to portraits or features, of which Two-Lane
Highway is the first recorded example.