Nicolas Slonimsky

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Nicolas Slonimsky, born Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimsky on 4/27/1894, in St. Petersburg, Russia, was a famed musicologist, pianist, composer, and conductor (and a self-described "failed wunderkind") who settled in the US in 1923, where he conducted, wrote music articles for newspapers and magazines, lectured at Harvard (not in music, but Slavonic languages), composed orchestral works and commercial jingles, and compiled "big books" of reference that have proven essential to the study of music: i.e. "Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians" - editions 5-8, "Music Since 1900" - fifth edition, "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns" ("the Bible of improvization" - FZ), and "Lexicon of Musical Invective".

As a conductor, he introduced Edgard Varèse's Ionisation (the score of which is dedicated to Slonimsky, Varèse having been Best Man at his weddding) at the Hollywood Bowl in 1933, in addition to conducting premiere works by Charles Ives, Henry Cowell, and other noted contemporary composers.

In 1981, Frank Zappa called Slonimsky on the telephone, having found his number listed, and a meeting was arranged. Slonimsky recalled: "This guy called me up...and asked if I was Nicolas Slonimsky - correctly pronouncing my name! And I arranged to meet with him...Zappa showed me some of his scores...they looked like they could've been written by Varese posthumously...fabulous contra panto dissonances..."

FZ asked Slonimsky if he'd like to "sit-in" with The Mothers at their next concert, in Santa Monica, on 12/11/1981; Slonimsky accepted. He visited the Zappa home a number of times after that, and was particularly 'taken' by Moon, naming his new cat "Grody to the Max" in tribute to her.

His autobiography, "Perfect Pitch", was published in 1988. Slonimsky died on Christmas Day 1995, at the age of 101. Slonimsky's daughter, Electra Yourke, revised and expanded "Perfect Pitch" in 2002.