"I really don't think this topic is properly located in the classical section. It's more suited to the non-classical department under possibly a rock/classical fusion thread."
But the thread is about the classical compositions of these composers. They are recognised by various education boards (IB, for one) and by various composers (Pierre Boulez, for one) as classical composers and there music is certainly classifiable as classical. I don't see why they should be seen as different just because they span across other genre's too.
"On this side of the Atlantic, he was never regarded that highly as a rock performer. Even in North America, I don't he ever enjoyed super-star rock status. This is not my assessment but is the opinion of those on another music forum, where there are literally thousands of rock and other music fans who spend all their time discussing and ranking different musical artists. Frank Zappa comes out about rank 50 in the top 100 rock performers, which thus indicates only moderate to good ranking, not an outstanding one. In the UK, his ranking would be lower than this, as the forum I am referring to has a clear USA bias."
Its true. Zappa's music (the stuff he really wanted to play) is far too complex and thought provoking to reach great heights of popularity with the public... as is most classical music. While he could quite easily churn out a pretty good rock solo, alot of his soloing on guitar is more steeped in the avant-garde and jazz than rock. The same goes for many of his compositions. AND THEN you have the purely classical stuff... compositions such as "Outrage At Valdez" and "Pound For A Brown".
"I have listened to samples of his more alleged classical pretensions (on Amazon) and it doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. Zorn's is of even less interest. I bet most of the posters on here would not care much for it. Try it. Go to Amazon and try a few samples. You'll soon get the flavour. It actually grates on my nerves."
Try that website I posted and listen to some of Zorn's chamber works or Orchestral works. You'll get a much larger sample, sometimes an entire piece, which is what is required to judge both Zappa and Zorn. Dismissing them based on some amazon.com samples is no different from judging Mahler or Beethoven based on 30 second clips.
"It tends to attract some folk who don't really like conventional classical music but who like Frank Zappa and who think the rest of us are fuddy-duddies for not liking him."
I can see where you'd be coming from if this was at, say, a Frank Zappa forum, but a forum that is dedicated to classical music, you're not likely to have many Frank Zappa fans signing up for the purpose of getting on at the "fuddy-duddies" who don't like his music. Naturally, most aren't going to enjoy the classical works of either Zorn or Zappa, just as most don't enjoy a lot of the modern, atonal, avant-garde composers, but thats not to say they should be dismissed right off the bat as being for "fans of his rock music only."
