… and I quote:
…an enormous bare legged peasant seated on the stump of a freshly cut tree singing a two-syllable nonsense song and accompanying himself with what we as kids used to call “arm farts.”
… and so:
The young composer-to-be rushed home to his family summer place in the Ukrainian countryside and practiced the technique assiduously until he was so successful at it that his parents forbade him to indulge in such an indecent accompaniment. (“Igor, stop that this instant, or go to your room!”)
Be sure to read John Adams full post.
Hat tip: Jonny Butter
I’d be willing to bet that arm farting is innate in every culture. I can imagine some neolithic 11 year old discovering it and being just as delighted as an 11 year old is today..
Among all the avenues of musical discovery that listening to Zappa has led me down (Stravinsky being one of the earliest), I am most appreciative of my discovery of world folk music and sea chanties that Zappa introduced me. Not only was Zappa open to the music of all cultures, I think one of the reasons he held European composers (I’m speaking of the old warhorses here) in such disdain was due to the high brow, high art arrogance and bigotry that traditional classical music viewed folk music and the cultures from which it sprung. Russia is a prime example of how European classical culture displaced their own while true Russian composers were marginalized.
I’m proud to say that in 1958 or thereabouts, I was the founder and leader of the Valley Elementary School 3rd Grade Boys Arm-fart band. Our best (only?) number was Sousa’s Stars & Stripes Forever. We were awesome. Even our teacher Miss Roeggie recognized our awesomeness, although she naturally had to feign disapproval.
[quote comment=”19231″]Sousa’s Stars & Stripes Forever[/quote]
…always a favorite for some creative vamping. After FZ brought us the “snork”, my buddies and I would entertain the ladies of the basement party with our wonderful snork rendition of the piccolo descant part. It’s a wonder we never got laid.
“Laid?” What’s that?