The Black Page
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Black Page is a piece composed by American musician Frank Zappa known for being extraordinarily difficult to play.
Originally written for the drum set and melodic percussion, the piece was later rearranged in several versions, including a disco and a so-called New Age version.
It is said that Frank Zappa wrote "The Black Page" as a challenge for drummer Terry Bozzio; it was given its name because there were so many black dots on the page of sheet music that it was almost completely black. It is also said that Bozzio believed he was the only drummer able to play it, until Vinnie Colaiuta played it by heart at his audition for Zappa.
On the live album Zappa in New York, Zappa noted the "statistical density" of the piece [1]. It is written in common time with extensive use of tuplets, including tuplets inside tuplets. At one point there is a half note triplet in which each beat is counted with its own tuplet of 5, 5 and 6. The song ends with a whole note tuplet of 11 and then two half note tuplets of 11. The result is that the melody is played and then played two more times, twice as fast.
In 2006, the Black Page is featured in the Zappa Plays Zappa - Tour de Frank, an ambitious effort of Dweezil Zappa to bring Zappa music to the stage again. It includes new band members as well as Zappa alumni Napoleon Murphy Brock, Bozzio, and Steve Vai. In this show "The Black Page" starts out as a drum solo by Bozzio, then continues as a guitar duet with Steve Vai.
[edit] External links
- Analysis of Zappa's unusual rhythms, including some transcriptions and MIDI recordings of "The Black Page"
- Interview by Vinnie Colaiuta for Modern Drummer, including a description of Vinnie's audition for Zappa
- The Black Page, a sample from the Zappa Plays Zappa tour
 |
This song-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
