Edgar Varse The Father of Electronic Music

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Edgar VaréseThe Father of Electronic Music

• By
• Keighty Lautz
• March 30, 2006

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Early Life

• Born December 22, 1883 in Paris
• Attended Schola Cantorum and then the Paris
  Conservatoire.
• Studied music, science, and engineering
• Said, "I refuse to submit to sounds that have
  already been heard."

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Adulthood

• Served in Frances army during WWI
• Moved to America post-WWI (all previous
  composition was lost)
• Worked odd jobs, then founded the International
  Composers Guild
• Applied for various grants (i.e. Bell Telephone
  Laboratories), but failed because he was too
  unconventional
•  He died November 6, 1965 in the United States

4
His Music

• Considered to be one of the most important
  Avant-garde composers of the 20th century
• "I am handicapped by a lack of adequate
  electrical instruments for which I can conceive
  my music."
• Felt confined by traditional instruments
• Reintroduced idee-fixe (from Berlioz)

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Appreciation

• Initially, Varéses music wasnt well-received
• Some contemporaries appreciated it
• Most audiences hated it
• He considered quitting music, even committing
  suicide
• Post-WWII
• French and German composers explored new
  technology from the war
• Varése was suddenly a celebrity

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Works

• Un grand sommeil noir (1906)
• Amériques (1918-21)
• Offrandes (1921)
• Hyperprism (1922-23)
• Octandres (1923)
• Intégrales (1924-25)
• Arcana (1925-27)
• Ionisation (1929-31)
• Ecuatorial (1932-34)
• Density 21.5 (1936)
• Tuning Up (1947)
• Dance for Burgess (1949)
• Déserts (1950-54)
• Poème électronique (1957-58)
• Nocturnal (1961)

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Listening Examples

• Hyperprism    (1924)
• The orchestra consists of two groups
• Winds-flute doubling piccolo, piccolo clarinet,
  3 horns, a tenor and a bass trombone.
• Percussion-several performers playing sleigh
  bells, cymbals, crash cymbals, rattles, triangle,
  anvil, slapstick, Chinese blocks, tam-tam, Indian
  drum, snare drum, bass drum, tambourine, siren, a
  lion's roar (a tub with a hole in the bottom
  through which the player pulls a rope).
• Of interest is the use of non traditional sound
  sources such as the lion's roar and siren. The
  influence of Busoni and Russolo obvious in the
  choice of instruments.
• A trombone solo near the end shows a jazz
  influence.
• Ionisation (1931)
• The ensemble consists of 13 musicians playing a
  total of 37 percussion instruments, including
• 2 sirens (1 low and 1 high pitched), 2
  tam-tams, ditto, gong, crash cymbals, 3 different
  sized bass drums, bongos, snare drums, guiros,
  slap-sticks, chinese blocks (3 registers), Cuban
  claves, triangle, maracas, sleigh bells,
  castanets, tambourine, anvils (2 registers),
  chimes, celesta and piano.

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Listening Samples Contd

• Poeme Electronique (1958)
• Produced for the Philips Radio Corporation
  pavilion at the Brussels Exposition.
• Played through 450 speakers. It was 480 seconds
  long. Projected images such as photographs,
  paintings, montages, printed and written scripts
  accompanied the music , a true multi-media event.
• It was referred to as 'Organized Sound'.
• This is the 5th Symphony of electronic music.
  The defining work that caught the attention of
  the world and propelled future composers to take
  electronic music as a bona-fide form of music.
• (adapted from http//personal-pages.lvc.edu/snyde
  r/em/varesel.html)