On the Road: 7-12 Inductee Spotlight: Frank Zappa & Rock's Avant-Garde

TEACHERS SHOULD PREVIEW ALL CONTENT PRIOR TO SHARING WITH STUDENTS.

Suggested Grade Level: 7-12

This research guide serves as a resource for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Education Department course, Inductee Spotlight: Frank Zappa & Rock's Avant Garde . For additional information on the course and for more teacher resources, see  http://rockhall.com/education/distance-learning/courses/zappa/

Frank Zappa was one of rock and roll’s sharpest musical minds and an astute social critic. He bridged musical styles – rock, jazz, classical, and avant-garde – with masterful ease. This class examines his music by focusing on the moments when these various musical styles merged, sometimes comfortably, sometimes with contention. Students will explore Zappa’s music to hear how he was able to translate his musical ideas into everything from rock and roll to full orchestral scores. We will listen to examples from his rock music (Freak Out!), symphonic pieces (Orchestral Favorites), digitized extravaganzas for the Synclavier keyboard (Francesco Zappa), and satirical musicals (Joe’s Garage). Special interviews with members of the Cleveland based group Red: An Orchestra help students to understand Zappa’s connections to the Western Classical tradition and composers such as Igor Stravinsky and Edgard Varèse.

Our catalog has a subject category for "Inductee." If you enter this term in the search box and choose "Subject" in the dropdown box, you will retrieve information on our resources that are related to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees.

Limit your search by using the facets on the left of your screen in the library catalog, i.e. Format:

- Book
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These resources, pulled from class discussion and selected from the Library and Archives' collections, will help you to:

• Compare and contrast varied styles of music as created by Frank Zappa, Howlin' Wolf, Igor Stravinsky, Edgar
 Varèse, and John Coltrane and appropriately use related musical terms such as: melody, harmony, rhythm, lyrics, and instrumentation.
  
• Describe the sounds of instruments used in Zappa's compositions, and appropriately use related musical terms such as: brass, percussion, woodwinds, strings, vocalist, and synthesizer.
  
• Give examples of how Frank Zappa both influenced and was influenced by society and culture.
  

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Below is a list of links to archival materials related to this course: