instrumentation: flute/piccolo, tenor/baritone sax, tenor trombone, piano, electric guitar, vibraphone, drum set, 2 violins, cello
duration: 12 minutes
written in: 2015
written for: wild Up
text: Alex Temple

“[Zappa] would have positively adored Temple’s terrific The Man Who Hated Everything.”
—Nashville Scene

In The Man Who Hated Everything, I pay tribute to Frank Zappa, particularly his early work with the Mothers of Invention. Some passages evoke his musical style explicitly, some allude to music that he loved (doo-wop, mid-century modernism), some have the performers improvise in response to verbal prompts, and some draw inspiration from other genre-bendy bands (Mr. Bungle, Henry Cow), or from musical iconography associated with Los Angeles (neo-noir jazz, 1960s filmstrips). At the end, the tribute becomes more of a critique — partially because that’s what Zappa himself would have done, and partially because I couldn’t bring myself to pay totally uncritical homage to someone who, for all his musical brilliance, could be pretty sexist and misanthropic.

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The Man Who Hated Everything was commissioned by wild Up and the American Composers Forum.

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download score (pdf)