I heard Slonimsky tell this story in a lecture in a new music series at the Palace of Fine Arts Exploratorium in San Francisco in 1981. Some additional details: Slonimsky said that he was at home one night, when the phone rang. He answered, and the caller asked "is this Nicholas Slonimsky?" Slonimsky answered "yes." "You're the Slonimsky who's the author of the 'Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns'?" "Yes, that's me." "Oh, this is great! I've always wanted to meet you! I just happened to stumble across your name in the Los Angeles phone book, and wondered if it was you. This is Frank Zappa." Slonimsky thought this must be some kind of joke, but Zappa assured him that it really was him. Zappa continued "we should get together. What are you doing now?" "Well, actually, I'm watching 'Kojak." "Well, would you like to come over now?" "Um, well, it is kind of late..." "Oh, I suppose it is... well, how about tomorrow, then?" Slonimsky said that he'd be free that next day, so Zappa said that he'd send over a chauffeured limousine to pick him up and take him to Zappa's home. Slonimsky said that, indeed, the next day a vehicle "which looked like a space shuttle!" arrived at his home, and took him over to Zappa's. At this point in the story, Slonimsky said of his meeting Zappa "first of all, he's perfectly normal!" He then continued, saying that there was a Bösendorfer Imperial grand piano in Zappa's living room, which Zappa then invited Slonimsky to play, asking that it be something that used the instrument's extra low notes. Slonimsky obliged, playing an extract from Mussorgsky's Opera "Boris Goudonov." Zappa then invited him to play with his band in an upcoming concert. They settled on performing a composition of Slonimsky's. Slonimsky described arriving at the performance venue, going backstage to meet Zappa, who offered him earplugs with the words "here, you'll need these," because of the extreme levels of sound amplification used in the concert. He said that Zappa introduced him to his audience, calling him "one of our nation's musical treasures!" He said this introduction met with uproarious applause, though added "of course, they would applaud at anything!"

This is very nice. Due to Zappa I began listening to Edgard Varese as a teenager and really liked the music. The role of a musician as translator and bridge maker is underappreciated.

Fun fact: Slominsky named his cat 'Grody-to-the-Max' after learning the phrase from Moon Zappa!

Slonimsky sounds like a great guy, and he spoke better english than a lot of americans

Mr. Slonimsky was the man with the plan in opening the concert world to modern music, specifically American composers. He conducted, produced...beat the pavements for $ to get all kinds of works heard for the 1st time in the 1920's. Such a nice coda to a life lived furthering the arts; the world owes him a huge debt of gratitude...no one was making money , but he kept things going...Stravinsky, Ives, Carter and more.

Nicolas Slonimsky was a Classical musician, but a Genius in the armony music. I have his book, and I teach guitar using his precious "theasurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns". Really a Genius, and the Maestro Frank Zappa. Thank you for posting this spreech!

Slonimsky was such a genius! His scales and melodic patterns book is mind-blowing!

Who would have thought at the time that he would outlive Zappa?

This dude was my grandfathers teacher, and it is even better knowing he also taught Zappa. Full circle

such a sharp and generous man, Slonimsky.

"Music is music" good said! And a wonderful accent - as a german this english is perfect for me to understand ;-)

Beautiful man, Nicolas Slominsky. And immortal Frank Zappa, a great inspiration. What can a man do, if he has love, determination, interest in music, such passion to read scores too.

I love the way he pronounces Varese. Great recording.

This is fantastic. Slonimsky's comments seal Frank's musical reputation.

Was just learning about this guy and it's really surprising that he was alive recently enough for us to have a recording of him.

What an amazing man ... Beautiful ...

Greggary Peccary is truly the historian. Ive always loved his channel....not only for Zappa stuff...but other 20th cent. music that Ive never heard of.... contrary to popular opinion...some black people do love this music,.

always the same with GreggaryPeccary he doesn't only allow us to discover and enjoy very valuable and rare gems but gives us also very interesting infos on the material. Thanks for what u do Greg !

Brilliant. You can feel the friendship there.

fantastic, dude! thanks a lot for sharing this stuff

Frank Zappa was the music Mad Scientist .

Thank you so much for posting this... Slonimsky is one of the most monumental figures in all of 20th music.

Very nice. Nice lesson

Touching.

How wonderful 😀

Frank preferred to devote himself strictly to classical compositions, but he felt he could be more successful as a music artist dabbling in other genres. He was able to do this quite well also. A true original. Overall, Frank Zappa is among the upper eschalon of sound artists of the 20th Century that most people probably never heard of. Thank you GreggaryPeccary for the music you are offering.

Slonimsky tells this story in his book- Perfect Pitch that also has great stories about being Kousevitsky in Boston I highly recommend that book - funny and erudite

Two Geniuses

Great.

my mind is reeling 😢😮❤

Absolute Genious.

Zappa was an intellectual.

What a character! If you're looking for an interesting read, get a copy of Slonimsky's autobiography, Perfect Pitch. It's a hoot, full of humorous stories and interesting history of 20th century classical music.

What resides in this mans chest is the closest thing akin to a heart of gold.

music is One great

Credit where it's due! I'll be dwelling/diving into Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns! Take care! ps yes I know Varese's work and own the total of his recorded works, compiled by some obscure label!

Nice words what anyone wants to hear. Zappa humorously said he learn all music theory etc. from library/books. Maybe because no Julliard ha ha. So go to library...

Slonimsky wrote a book called 'The Lexicon of Musical Invective': a compendium of bad reviews of orchestral works including composer's responses to those reviews.

Where did you get image at 2:30? It doesn't look like a picture, it looks like a still from a film.

1:14 How is that word spelled and what does that mean?

There's the real Zelig