This will form a basis to which we can compare certain elements of Zappa's music to, and in turn ascertain the degree to which Zappa's music uses distinctively "Varesian" ideas. In my analyses that follow, I have consulted Jonathan Bernard's book The Music of Edgard Varese as guidance on Varese's technique, as well as the opinions of Varese himself as most famously exemplified in the "Liberation of Sound" lecture he gave in 1936. The study is conducted as a narrowly focused comparative examination, where specific Zappa pieces are analysed in order to show how the relate to Varese's methods of composing. To examine all the possible stylistic references to 20th century composers noted by Bernard, Kassel and Courrier, would go beyond the limits of this initial dissertation. For the purposes of this first tentative step towards an in-depth investigation into stylistic similarities between early 20th century modernists and Frank Zappa, I have chosen to concentrate primarily on the influence of Edgard Varese. If we are to make an attempt at understanding Zappa's music fully in this light, it is necessary to examine these assertions more closely, in order to discover the degree to which Zappa's music has absorbed particular stylistic nuances from each of the aforementioned composers. On the whole such studies, though undoubtedly important contributions to Zappa criticism, stop short of further specific investigation as to why Zappa's music evokes the style of these composers. This dissertation was conceived in response to the many authors, notably Jonathan Bernard, Matthias Kassel, Ben Watson and Kevin Courrier, who suggest that Frank Zappa's "art" music contains stylistic references to early 20th century composers as Igor Stravinsky, Eric Satie, Charles Ives, John Cage and Edgard Varese.
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