Before Frank Zappa renewed his love of classical composition later in life, before he took up with the Mothers of Invention, before even he had become disgusted with classical composition in the first place, Zappa studied classical composition as a young man. The "Waltz for Guitar" dates from this epoch. It was completely unknown until Keyboard and Guitar Player magazine published an issue celebrating Zappa's many contributions to the latter instrument, one of whose features was this lost work of Zappa's. The work combines Zappa's early experiments with serialism, which ultimately didn't quite take, with his love of the guitar, which did. This extremely brief "Waltz" is a crab canon, which means it can be played forwards or backwards and sound the same either way. Despite the title, there is not much suggestion of a triple rhythm anywhere in the work. "Waltz for Guitar" is of interest mainly as a chip from the juvenile workbench of the master who would ultimately produce some of the most interesting music, popular or classical, in the latter half of the 20th century.



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