*Creationism*, by Frank Zappa.

This Zappa piece, “Creationism,” was recorded at Mayfair Studios on September 7, 1967 and included in the Lump Money album (2009). Charles Ulrich, in The Big Note: A Guide to the Recordings of Frank Zappa (Vancouver: New Start Books, 2018, p. 325) informs us: “Collage of instrumental improvisation and spoken dialogue. Bunk Gardner and/or Ian Underwood play woodwinds through the Maestro Woodwind System. Underwood or Don Preston plays RMI electronic piano, Jimmy Carl Black plays bass trumpet. Black or Billy Mundi plays timpani.”

I find the theme amusing and, ultimately, funny. I see two interpretations: the piece is a musical representation of those people who go on talking about creationism (aka intelligent design) and the Genesis story of creation as literally true. The piece is telling us they are talking gibberish. A second interpretation would be that the gibberish creationism we hear in this piece is the creation process in a studio, the chaos one finds there until one composes an order over it. In this case, the intelligent designer is the composer, that is Zappa. It is noteworthy that the piece shows no order nor intelligent design at all. There is no order in the composition, no story, no linear plot, no sense. In fine, either way one interpretes the piece “Creationism,” the end result is chaos and gibberish. That is the whole point Zappa is making. Trying to impose an order or intelligent design on it may be the most foolish thing to do. Even more foolish than creationism itself.