Zappa.com

Who were the classical musicans that Zappa listened to and drew a lot of inspiration from? And any other musicans of other genres would be great too.

I could only find the types if music that inspired him, not any names of certain artists.

Edgard Varese was a huge inspiration for him. I also believe that he was a fan of Igor Stravinsky and Anton Webern as well.

I have some Igor Stravinsky and I could see where Frank might have pulled inspiration from that.

awesome, thanks for that!

From my look into the matter, he enjoyed/admired-

Varese
Stravinsky
Bartok
Webern
Nono
Boulez
Chopin (Only one interview says this, and I'm not sure how much I trust it.)
Takemitsu
Penderecki
Nancarrow
Partch
Ives
Feldman
Cage (This also depends on the interview, and time. I'd say Cage influenced some of Zappa's thinking, but Zappa's less ART about it...)
Ravel
Moondog

He was probably familiar with many, many more. It seemed to be a field he was fascinated with. There are others where he only liked select works, like Schoenberg.

To add to FC's list:

Stockhausen
Alban Berg

and certainly plenty more...

FC -- Where did you read about Zappa on Moondog? I'm curious.
Nono is someone I never got around to researching. His politics put me off, I guess. Heard a Nono piece on the radio that somehow reminded me of Frank. Didn't catch the title though...

Crikey, you're missing some of the obvious:

Eric Dolphy
Wes Montgomery
Cecil Taylor
Ligeti
Xenakis
Boulez
Add Your Own Name here


cheers,

itsonlydanny