Edgard Varese by Sherry Saunders

THE LIBERATION OF SOUND: AN EXPLORATION OF THE WORK OF EDGARD VARÈSE

John Freyermuth

Freyermuth 1

Many scholars and historians have researched and written about the influence of Edgard

Varèse’s compositions and theories on modern music, and they have outlined his importance as a composer and a historical figure. In his 1977 essay The Genesis of a Specific Twelve-Tone System in the Works of Varèse; András Wilheim outlines Varèse’s development and use of his own specific twelve-tone system in his acoustic compositions and later in his tape and acoustic composition Deserts.1 In 1981 Jonathan W. Bernard’s essay Pitch/Register in the Music of Edgard Varèse, Bernard illustrates how Varèse’s use of pitch and register separate his works from that of other composers throughout history and how he used pitch and register to put to work his theories outlined in the collection of lectures Varèse gave between 1936 and 1962, compiled by his student Chou Wen-Chung and encapsulated under the heading “The Liberation of Sound”.2 The influence of Varèse’s piece Desert’s is chronicled in Olivia Mattis’s 1992 essay Varèse’s Multimedia Conception of Deserts.3 In this Mattis also reveals that her research has uncovered that Deserts was originally intended to be a multimedia project instead of the purely audio composition it eventually became.4 In the 1992 essay Varèse and the Lyricism of the New Physics, John D. Anderson examines the connection that exists between Varèse’s compositions and theories to science and mathematics.5 Anderson examines the influence of physics and other contemporary scientific advancements that affected Varèse.6

The significance of Varèse’s acoustic work is often discussed but current study of his

masterpiece Poème Électronique is lacking by comparisons. Poème Électronique is investigated for its significance as a site-specific multimedia immersive piece by the Virtual Electronic Poem (VEP) Project, which with funding from the European Union Culture 2000 Programme, aimed to recreate the original Poème Électronique as it was performed inside the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels Worlds Fair with virtual reality technology.7 The VEP research focused on the performance of Poème Électronique and how to most accurately recreate the experience of the audio/visual spectacle as it occurred in 1958 and the Philips Pavilion.8

In her 2004 essay Historical Perspective: A Symphony of Sensations in the Spectator:

Le Corbusier’s Poème Électronique and the Historicization of New Media Arts, Kate Mondloch

Freyermuth 2 describes in great detail how Poème Électronique was conceptualized and created {Poème Électronique in this instance is referring to the total multimedia event that occurred inside the Philips Pavilion, not just the audio piece created by Edgard Varèse that bears the same name}. 9

She analyzes the cultural and historical impact of Poème Électronique and contextualizes it in

the cannon of new media history.10 In her essay Mondloch focuses on how through technology the spectacle was almost entirely automated and how that through this large degree of control Poème Électronique stands apart from other multimedia art of the time and set the framework for contemporary multimedia art installations.11

Through all of the investigations into Varèse’s work and the examination of Poème

Électronique as a multimedia immersive event and as a one of a kind site-specific event what is lost is an investigation of the significance of Edgard Varèse’s Poème Électronique as a work of audio art. This paper will illustrate the importance of the 1958 performance of Poème Électronique as a one of a kind immersive multimedia event and as the grand culmination of Varèse’s theories on sound finally realized in the electronic medium that he had called for and fought so hard for. It will outline the lasting effects of Poème Électronique and illustrate how it has influenced music theory and composition as well as changed the tools that are used to create music. It has opened up the doors for sound art installations and is even one of the precursors to modern surround sound. This paper will give a background on Varèse and outline the theories he ascribed to and how and why he was driven to make Poème Électronique. It will also illustrate Poème Électronique’s importance and how without it modern music would not exist as it does today.

Throughout Edgard Varèse’s career he fought for what he believed in. He fought for his

right to make music the way he conceived it. He was uncompromising and spoke freely of his ideas that went against the norm. The equipment he needed to accomplish the goals he set for himself as a composer was not yet available; this is why he spent the majority of his life isolated from the rest of the music community. He struggled with the instruments he had available to make the music he conceived. Varese’s brilliance was misunderstood and underappreciated, and he grew tired of it. After years of being denied access to the equipment he needed, he was finally

Freyermuth 3 allowed to work with the electronic medium that he had struggled so hard for.

Edgard Varèse was born December 22, 1883 in Paris, France. He lived with his mother

and his father Henri in Paris and later in Villars, a village in Burgundy.12 In 1892, the Varèse’s moved to Turin, Italy were Edgard wanted to study music, but his father, who was a engineer, pushed Edgard to pursue a career in engineering. It was the education in science and math that would prepare him for a career in engineering and it would have a profound effect on Edgard Varèse as a man and as a composer. He received private music lessons from Giovanni Bolzoni against his fathers wishes, and in 1903, he left his family and returned to Paris to pursue his musical studies, also against his fathers wishes.13 Later in life he would go on to describe this tyrannical relationship with his father. It is postulated that his difficult relationship with his father led in part to his disdain for authority and his insistance to follow his own desires even if they went against the majority. In 1904, he was admitted to Schola Cantorum where he studied under d’Indy, Roussel and Charles Bordes.14 It is during this time in Paris that Varèse developed a deep understanding and appreciation for the history of music that would eventually allow him to develop his own theories and move away from traditional theories of composition. In 1907, at the recommendation of Charles Widor, Varèse received the Première Bourse artistique de la ville de Paris.15 Despite his success in Paris, in late 1907, Varèse left for Berlin.

While in Berlin, Varèse finished his piece Bourgonge, on of his earliest compositions. In

1909 he became friends with Claude Debussy, Richard Strauss and Ferruccio Busoni.16 These three men would go on to be important influences on Varèse and greatly impact his music and theories. In 1915 Varèse immigrated to the United States were settled in New York where he would spend the majority of the rest of his life. From the moment he reached New York, Varèse was hard at work. He conducted many orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1918, the same year he began composition the first piece of music he would write in his new home land, aptly titled Amèriques.17 While not busy conducting and composing Varèse was out championing the work of other contemporary composers. In 1921 he founded the IGC (International Composers Guild) 1921, the Internationale Kompponisten-Gilde in Berlin with

Freyermuth 4 Busoni in 1922, and he founded the Pan-American Association of Composers in 1928.18 Varèse founded these organizations for the purpose of performing the works of twentieth century composers and through these organizations Varèse is responsible for premiering in America the work of Henry Cowell, Charles Ives, Bela Bartok and many other composers that without Varèse’s hard work and ardent support may not have been shown in the United States until a much later period in history.19

Shortly after arriving in the United States Varèse began to illustrate his revolutionary

theories on music and music composition to the American public. In 1917 he is quoted as saying: Our musical alphabet is poor and illogical. Music, which should be alive and vibrating, needs new means of expression, and science alone can infuse it with youthful vigor. I dream of instruments obedient to my thought and which, with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspected sounds, will lend themselves to the demands of my inner rhythm.20 In 1922, the first of his fourteen compositions was performed by the IGC, Offrandes, was performed on February 19 1922. Like any new movement, it was met with serious opposition. In the following years, Varèse, never compromising his beliefs, composed and premiered some of the most exciting and challenging works that the twentieth century had to offer. He proposed a challenge to his audience and the critics of the time, and unfortunately, few of them rose to meet that challenge. The equipment Varèse needed to achieve the sound he clamoured for was either not available to him or did not exist yet. The angst this caused him was echoed in the response of the crowd. They were not able to comprehend Varèse’s music because it presented such a radical leap ahead of the compositions of the time.

Nothing epitomized Varèse’s struggle with the public and critics more than the response

to the March 4, 1923 premiere of is piece Hyperprism in his adopted hometown of New York. With Varèse at the helm conducting the orchestra, Hyperprism introduced itself to the audience with an opening cymbal crash followed by howling sirens and a thunderous bass rumble.21 Sitting through less than half of the four and a half minute piece, half of the crowd left in protest and started a small riot in the lobby, while the other half demanded an encore as soon as the final

Freyermuth 5 cymbal crash faded out.22 This response, mixed reviews diametrically opposed, not riots, would become a trend for the receptions of Varèse’s work in the following years as Varèse continued to premiere works throughout the nineteen twenties. In the 1920’s and early part of the 1930’s Varèse was very busy and released a large portion of his career works. From 1924-1936 Varèse composed and premiered six of his most influential and appreciated works all in New York. He premiered Octandre 1924, Intègrales 1925, Amèriques 1926, Arcana 1927, Ionisation 1933, Ecuatorial 1934 and Density 21.5 in 1936.23

In 1936, Varèse gave the first of a series of lectures outlining his theories on sound and

music. His lectures would later be compiled by his student Chou Wen-Chung under the heading of “The Liberation of Sound”. 24 This first lecture, in Santa Fe New Mexico, reiterated Varèse’s call for “new instruments” and “new Music” as well as outline his theories on “sound-masses”, “zones of intensities”, “sound being projected through space” and his call for a new notation for new music.25 From 1932-1936 Varèse continually applied for a Guggenheim Fellowship to “pursue work on an instrument for the producing of new sounds.”26 Edgard Varèse never received the Guggenheim Fellowship and shares the dubious distinction with Arnold Schoenberg, as the only two major composers to have ever been denied a Guggenheim Fellowship.27

This began what would become a silent period from 1937 to 1952 where Varèse did not

compose any works that were premiered. During this time period Varèse continued to search for a means of realizing his dreams of working in the electronic medium. In 1937 he approached sound studios in Los Angeles about use of their facilities and was denied, and throughout this fifteen year silent period Varèse attempted to get the attention of many directors, including Walt Disney, to develop the visual component of a multimedia presentation of his, at this point, unreleased piece Dèserts.28 He was unable to procure any interest from the directors he approached, and thus never realized his multimedia aspirations for this piece. Varèse worked on his unfinished Opus Espace, which went by many names, and is believed to have become part of his composition Dèserts.29 In his silent years, Varèse continued to lecture at various universities including the Arsuna School of Fine Arts, Santa Fe and Columbia University.30 In 1939, Varèse

Freyermuth 6 gave a lecture at the University of southern California that would later be encapsulated by his student Chou Wen-Chung as part of “The Liberation of Sound”. This lecture focused on “Music as an Art-Science”. 31 In this lecture he outlined his the reasons why machines are needed in music and how composers would benefit from the new “sound producing machines”. 32

In 1950 EMS, a record company, attempted to produce the first recordings of Varèse’s

works, but sadly the project was aborted after the death of Jack Skurnick, the owner of EMS.33 In 1951 Varèse again tried to procure the necessary equipment and facilities he needed to work in the electronic medium and produce his music the way he conceived it. He approached various companies, like Bell Labs and Magnecord, but again was denied access to the material he needed to compose the way he saw fit and to put into practice his theories on sound and composition. 34 This again was a very sad time for Varèse. He felt more isolated then ever and even considered abandoning music altogether. During this time Varèse fell into such a tremendous depression that he even contemplated committing suicide.35

After all of the struggles and the isolation Varèse’s luck began to change when in 1951

he received an Ampex model 401A tape recorder from an anonymous donor. This extremely wonderful gift rejuvenated Varèse and he quickly began work on the electronic interpolations for his unreleased, failed multimedia piece Dèserts.36 After working on Dèserts on his own for the better part of three years, in 1954 Varèse was invited by Pierre Schaefer to complete his work on the tape interpolations for Dèserts with him at the Studio D’Essai of Radiodiffusion francaise, (RTF) in Paris France.37 Dèserts was premiered December 2, 1954 in Paris, France where it was “the first stereophonic broadcast in French radio history.” 38It was once again met with less than stellar reviews and because of the number of complaints the French radio received funding for Pierre Schaefer’s work at the RTF was almost pulled. In 1955 Varèse began work on an electronic piece of Thomas Bouchard’s film Around and about Joan Miro, which he completed in 1956.39

In 1957 Edgard Varèse was presented with the opportunity he had waited his entire life

for, he was approached by the Philips Corporation to compose sound for their audio/visual spectacle Poème Électronique at the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 World’s Fair. Varèse was given

Freyermuth 7 the chance to work on the project because of the insistence of the lead designer Le Corbusier, who refused to work on the project if Varèse was not the composer, this sentiment was echoed by his assistant Iannis Xenakis. Begrudgingly Philips had no choice but to accept and allowed Varèse to compose the main audio piece for the project. Luckily for Philips they agreed to Corbusier’s demands because upon the projects completion in 1958, it was a huge success and amongst all of the great art work that comprised in the piece, LeCorbusier’s and Iannis Xenakis’ architectural design and Corbusier’s visual spectacle Varèse Poème Électronique stood out from the other installations. Marc Trieb in his book Space Calculated in Seconds, Philips Pavilion, Le Corbusier, Edgard Varèse, Trieb states the importance of Varèse’s Poème Électronique as “of all of the elements that make up the Poème Électronique, only Varèse’s 480 second composition retains a reputation as a master work.”40 Working on Poème Électronique allowed Varèse to finally be able to work within the electronic medium that he had pined for all his life. It was an opportunity that Varèse did not waste. He showed that if he had had the tools he called for in “The Liberation of Sound” that he could create the works his theories call for and that his dreams of sound-masses projecting through space, a freedom from the tempered scale and freedom from counterpoint could all become a reality.

Edgard Varèse was influenced by wide variety of individuals and disciplines He drew as

much from the work of mineralogist Nathaniel Arbiter as he did from that of Claude Debussy. According to Larry Stemple in his 1974 essay Not Even Varèse Can Be an Orphan, states, “it is known that Varèse did find greater stimulation in the company of scientists and artists other than musicians.”41 Varèse was greatly influenced by the discoveries in the field of physics during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.42 He was especially interested in and influenced by John Redfield’s book Music, a Science and an Art and borrowed from it extensively in his 1939 lecture at the University of Southern California about “Music as an Art-Science”. 43 The most influential scientific influence on Varèse was that of Herman L.F. Helmholtz, 1821-1894, whose study On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music, was the theory Varèse adopted to compose music in lieu of the traditional compositional approach.44 This lead

Freyermuth 8 to many of the innovations Varèse used in his compositional methods. Because of Helmholtz’s work Varèse was able to envision the usage of sounds in compositions differently than other composers from the same era, allowing him to take risks in his compositions. For example, he used polyphonic sirens to produce up to eight different distinct pitches at once, like the sirens that Helmoltz discussed in his work On the Sensations of Tone and a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music.45

Varèse was not limited to drawing inspiration and being influenced by western culture,

according to Michiko Toyama in Fernand Ouellette’s Edgard Varèse, Octandre and Intègrales were both claimed as gagaku.46 Varèse was influenced very strongly by his father. In multiple sources it is stated how Varèse fought authority in music because of his relationship with his tyrannical father and that his compositions were a form of patricide on musical history. Musically Varèse was deeply influenced by two composers he befriended during his time in Berlin in the early nineteen hundreds, Ferruccio Busoni and Claude Debussy. In a discussion between Varèse and Debussy about composing Debussy to Varèse, “You have a right to compose, what you want to, and the way you want to, if the music comes and it is your own.”47 This had a great influence on Varèse because it gave him the confidence and the justification to continue to compose works in the fashion that he saw fit, and not feel that need to bow to the trends of his contemporaries. In a very large way Debussy is probably the biggest influence on Varèse because he is the one that set him free to compose works as he saw fit. The sounds that Varèse created were always undoubtedly “his own”. Ferruccio Busoni greatly influenced Varèse with his A New Aesthetic of Music, which contained the dictum “Music was born free, and to win freedom is its destiny”. 48 Also while in Berlin, Varèse was influenced by fellow composers Romain Rolland and Richard Strauss who encouraged Varèse to follow his ideals and compose music as he saw fit. During his fifteen year silent period Varèse spent a lot of time in Santa Fe New Mexico where he spent time amongst the various Native American tribes of the area. Varèse states that he was deeply influenced by their mythology and folklore and acknowledges their influence in the preface to Ecuatorial.49

During the mid-twentieth century Varèse was not the only composer experimenting

Freyermuth 9 with new music theory, new compositional methods and using new instruments, both acoustic and electronic. During the 1951’s John Cage was working on various prepared instrument pieces that used extended technique to play them, which allowed him to create sounds outside of the instruments regular voicings. Cage was also working with new forms of indeterminate compositional techniques, where the outcome of the piece was left to be determined by factors outside the composition. For example, in Music of Changes, Cage used the I Ching, to make decisions about the duration, voicing and dynamics of the notes played on the piano.50

Another composer calling for new music and instruments was Harry Partch. He

composed music for performance on acoustic instruments that he invented that allowed him to compose music for a specific forty-three tone octave, which allowed him to escape the trapping of the equal tempered twelve-tone system.51 These are just two of the many other composers working at the same time period as Varèse and working on formulation similar ideas and similar goals. What separates Varèse from the rest of his fellow twentieth century composers was that Varèse was calling for new music, new instruments and a new form of notation in 1907, twentythree years earlier then his closets contemporary avant-garde composer. What also separated Varèse was the structure of his compositions and theories. Larry Stempel in his 1974 article for The Music Quarterly entitled, Not Even Varèse Can be an Orphan, wonderfully summarizes the uniqueness of Edgard Varèse’s catalogue, in respect to that of other composers. Stempel writes, As it has stood since his death in 1965, the complete Varèseian oeuvre, glistening with the newness of its tensile phonology, seems to have sprung out of music history like Athene born full-grown and battle-clad. From its first rude utterances in the 1920s the repertoire of sound we now hear as so distinctively Varèse not only induced few sympathetic vibrations in his contemporaries, but still defies our efforts to unmask resonances from any real musical progeny of progenitors.52 For Varèse there was no period where he was defining his style and trying to figure out his voice in composition. From the beginning Varèse knew what he wanted and fought for his right to compose with the sounds he wanted and in the style he wanted. Varèse was set apart from his contemporaries because he was at it longer than them and his style was more unique and more

Freyermuth 10 defined then that of Cage or Partch and unlike his contemporaries no one since Varèse has been able to capture the sound and mood of his era that way Varèse’s compositions captured the mood and the atmosphere of early twentieth century America.

Varèse began composing with an already fully developed idiosyncratic style, that he had

yet to put into a formal documentation.53 Varèse never wrote a manifesto, he never was part of a school of composers and he never formulated an “ism”. 54 Varèse just spoke his mind, and spoke it often. He mostly spoke through interviews and letters that he sent to publications like but not excluded to “The Commonwealth”, the New York Morning Telegraph, The Christian Science Monitor.55 The majority of our understanding of his theories come from a series of lectures given at different universities between 1936 and 1962. 56 “The Liberation of Sound” is broken down into four main sections each dealing with different theories Varèse had on different aspects of sound and music. His theories were not introduced to the world specifically when the lectures occurred, as is the case in his lecture entitled New Instruments and New Music. This is not the first time Varèse called for new instruments and new music this is just the instance in which he best explained the reasons why he needed new instruments and what his new music would be composed of. The first lecture that is used to form the opening segment of “The Liberation of Sound” occurred in Santa Fe New Mexico in 1936. This particular lecture is titled New Instruments and New Music. In this lecture Varèse aptly outlines his need for new instruments and what they will allow him to accomplish. Varèse states, When new instruments will allow me to write music as I conceive it, the movement of sound-masses, of shifting planes, will be clearly perceived in my work, taking the place of linear counterpoint. When these sound-masses collide, the phenomena of penetration or repulsion will seem to occur. Certain transmutations taking place on certain planes will seem to be projected onto other planes, moving at different speeds and at different angles. There will no longer be the old conception of melody or interplay of melodies. The entire work will be a melodic totality. The entire work will flow as a river flows. 57 Varèse also describes the multiple dimensions of sound, vertical, horizontal and dynamic, and how he shall use them to project sounds into space. These sound-masses being projected into

Freyermuth 11 space will be differentiated by “zones of intensities” that are distinguished from each other by their timbre, different tone colors and by differences in their perceived volume. He goes on to illustrate that the tones that result from the collision and repulsion of these sound masses would result in new sounds that had never been used in composition before and therefore will call for a new type of notation that will adequately allow the composer to transpose his this new “magic sound”. Varèse felt that the new form of notation would be seismographic.58 The theory of soundmasses, zones of intensities and new sounds derived from these moving sound-masses utilized in Varèse’s pre electronic work can best be heard in Hyperprism 1923, and is even better recognized by Varèse in Arcana 1927.59

The second section of “The Liberation of Sound” is from a 1939 lecture at the University

of Southern California entitled Music as an Art Science.60 In this section, Varèse reiterates his need for a new medium of expression for his conception, and how when this new medium is combined with his afore mentioned new notation system the audience will be able to hear music as the composer conceived it without the interference of the performer/musicians interpretation of what the composer wrote.61 Varèse also describes how electronic instruments will allow composers to write music that exceeds limitations of the of a musicians ability to play the piece. The new medium Varèse calls for will allow for greater diversity and difficulty in pieces composers create because they will not have to be conscious of the performers ability to play the piece because they will simply input the score into a machine and the music will be performed by the machine. Varèse states the importance of a greater collaboration between composer and scientist or engineer will be necessary to achieve the desired results in this new medium.62

What Varèse is expressing in this section of “The Liberation of Sound” is his frustration

with performers/musicians interpreting his music incorrectly while playing it, and with the restrictions imposed on his compositions by being limited to having to write music for the limited range of the instruments available and for the limited ability of the performs/musicians that play the piece. Varèse was calling for something more where he would not be bound by technology or performer and would be free to compose pieces free from restraint and with a new

Freyermuth 12 palette of sounds to work with. The third section of “The Liberation of Sound” is from a 1959 lecture at Princeton University titled Rhythm, Form and Content.63 This section begins with Varèse defending his call for new instruments and illustrating that he is not out to destroy traditional composition and never again use traditional instruments, but rather to use them in conjunction with the new electronic medium; to use the electronic medium as an addiditive.64 He illustrates that it is still up to the composer to write good music whether it be for orchestra or for tape and that musical principles remain the same for either medium.65 Varèse then goes onto to describe his theories on rhythm as “a succession of alternate and opposite or correlative states.”66 He also describes the difference between rhythm and cadence. Varèse describes the difference, Cadence of the regular succession of beats and accents has little to do with the rhythm of a composition. Rhythm is the element in music that gives life to the work and holds it together. It is the element of stability, the generator of form. In my own works, for instance, rhythm derives from the simultaneous interplay of unrelated elements that intervene at calculated, but not regular time lapses.67

Varèse then goes on to explain his theory on “form as a resultant – the result of a

process”.68 He explains how his form is like that of the formation of a crystal and that each of his pieces’ forms are derived from the interaction of the elements inside the piece and that the different combinations and interactions and therefore the different forms that can be created are limitless, like the exterior forms of a crystal. According to Varèse that means that there is an endless amount of possible musical forms.69 Varèse also states that there is no difference between content and form, because if you remove one of them then there is no content.70

What Varèse is demonstrating in this section is the importance of compositional

techniques to his music. He is demonstrating that more than new electronic instruments are needed to create “good” new music, and that it is still up to the composer to write good music. Varèse stresses the importance of history and illustrates to his critics that he has a vast knowledge of music theory and history and that he has the utmost respect for the composers that came

Freyermuth 13 before him. Varèse also illustrates his conceptions of rhythm and form and how he treats them in his compositions and underlines the similarity between working in the old medium and the new electronic medium, that they both still boil down to the composer’s use of rhythm and form.

The forth and final section of Varèse’s “The Liberation of Sound” comes from a lecture

he gave at Yale University 1962 titled The Electronic Medium.71 In this lecture Varèse illustrates what he believes to be the best definition of music, “the corporealization of the intelligence that is in sound,” Hoene Wronsky.72 Varèse often used this definition of music and used it as the basis for why he called his music “organized sound” and why he referred to himself as “a worker in rhythms, frequencies and intensities” not as a musician.73 Varèse then goes on to describe the new freedoms and liberties attained by the use of the electronic medium. How it has allowed composers to work with sounds that many consider noise and to be able to work with sustained notes that were not possible with earlier instruements.74 He discusses the freedom the electronic medium has granted the composer from the tempered system and from esthetic codification.75 Varèse also illustrates that the electronic medium will not do all the work for the composer and that good music will still have to be written and that new electronic devices need to be created specifically to create music and that only through a closer relationship between art and science will this be possible.76 In this final lecture Varèse illustrates the importance of what the electronic medium has done for composition, while warning that it is not a miracle machine and that composers still have to write good music and master their craft to make interesting music within the scope of this new and limitless medium. Varèse is calling for the research into and the call for new music to continue and that only with a closer relationship with science will music and art be able to continually move forward and extrapolate the most from the new electronic medium. Varèse is pointing out that there is still much work to be done to truly liberate sound. In 1956, Edgard Varèse was presented with a chance to finally realize his dream on being able to work entirely in the electronic medium. At the Philips labs in Eindhoven, he worked in the laboratory with a team of engineers and the latest equipment at his disposal to create in

Freyermuth 14 any manner he saw fit the score for Corbusier’s electronic poem. Varèse struggled to compose material on time for Philips because there was a lack of terminology for describing electronic music which made it extremely difficult to communicate with the engineers and therefore achieve the desired sonic results.77 It was extremely difficult work, because this was Varèse’s first completely tape composition, and he was also as unfamiliar with the equipment as the Philips engineers were with his sonic ideas. There was also a constant struggle to have Varèse removed from the project because Philips never wanted him as the composer and they were not happy with the music he was creating, but as he did to get Varèse initially involved in the project, Le Corbusier fought for Varèse and threatened to leave if they attempted to get rid of Varèse. For the project, Varèse composed sound that was to be juxtaposed against images, film, colored lights and sculptures hanging from the ceiling. The visual components of the exhibition were conceived by Le Corbusier and created with the help of cinematographer Philippe Agostini. The architectural work was overseen and conceived by Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis, although later a dispute of authorship of the project arouse, and was eventually settled that the two would be coauthors on the project. Xenakis also scored a short music piece, Concrete PH, for the entryway to the main room of the pavilion. Once inside the main room of the pavilion the audience would stand in darkness until the eight-minute presentation of Poème Électronique.78 Once the presentation began the audience was engulfed in Varèse’s composition, also titled Poème Électronique, as it was played off of three optical tapes and routed, by a fully automated system, to four hundred and twenty-five different speakers that lined the curved walls of the pavilion and to eleven subwoofers that were scattered amongst the floor of the pavilion. As the sound was being played it was juxtaposed against the visual component that le Corbusier designed and the juxtaposition of the site and sound created a thrilling experience for the audience. Varèse’s Poème Électronique was composed of unmodified and modified sounds, machine noises, distorted organs, disembodied chants, human noises, pipe organ, percussion, electronic sounds and modified recordings.79 Varèse’s Poème Électronique was recorded onto three separate audio tracks that were routed through a distribution matrix that disbursed the

Freyermuth 15 sounds through different speakers at different times through out the performance, and no two performances shared the routing system.80

Poème Électronique premiered in 1958 at the Philips Pavilion at the Worlds Fair in

Brussels, Belgium to great successes. It was considered a huge success and was viewed by approximately two million people before it was dismantled in 1959. Poème Électronique was a site-specific art installation and as soon as it was destroyed in 1959 the world would not be able to witness the event ever again, but what was left from the original site-specific Poème Électronique was Edgard Varèse’s audio Poème Électronique, which has withstood the test of time and is regarded as the first masterpiece created for the fledgling electronic medium.81

After the success of Poème Électronique Varèse was instantly elevated to celebrity status

and his work that had been dismissed earlier in his career was now being taken seriously. The new found status as a celebrity allowed Varèse to continue to work in the electronic medium. He was able to work with Vladimir Ussachevsky at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1961 to rework the tape interpolations for his piece Dèserts.82 The success of Poème Électronique had given him the recognition he sought and allowed him to continue his work in the electronic medium. It is a shame that it took until he was in his seventies for him to get the recognition he deserved. Varèse was not able to continue his research at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center because shortly after completing Dèserrts he contracted a bad strain of bronchitis and died November 5, 1965 in New York.

Edgard Varèse’s Poème Électronique served as an illustration of the theories outlined

in “The Liberation of Sound”. Varèse for years implemented his theories into his acoustic compositions yearning for the opportunity to truly realize them in the medium they were intended for. Though his theories worked in the acoustic realm and are plainly audible in his earlier compositions, they are beautifully illustrated in Poème Électronique and demonstrate just how far ahead of his time Varèse was. Through Poème Électronique, Varèse was able to hear his composition as he intended it to be heard. In the site-specific installation of Poème Électronique Varèse was able to hear his sound-masses being projected into space and moving

Freyermuth 16 through it interacting with other sound-masses as they collide, penetrate and reflect off of each other. He was able to hear how this interaction shaped the form of the composition and gave life to the piece through their rhythm. Varèse was able to demonstrate and hear the use of timbre as a means to differentiate different sound-masses. He heard his composition freed from the tempered system including all sounds he saw fit into the composition. He was able to use sustained electronic sounds that swelled and faded in intensity. In short, Varèse was able to “liberate sound” within the world of Poème Électronique. With Poème Électronique Varèse illustrated the effectiveness with which art and science can work together to create a masterpiece. In 1958 Edgard Varèse laid the following goals out for himself as a musician. These goals were: To compose freely, following no established rules, dogmas, or fashions. To compose on the principle that all sounds are the raw material of music. To free sound-to free music from the limitations of the tempered system.82 Varèse, through Poème Électronique and his other compositions, was able to accomplish all of his goals as a musician and much more. He influenced countless composers and musicians, and even though he did not receive the proper recognition for his contributions to contemporary music, throughout his life and because of that he suffered greatly, at last in the twilight of his life he received the recognition and respect he deserved. Long after his death his influence is still being felt and his music is still being heard and to this day still sounds a little ahead of its time.

Edgard Varèse influenced many composers and musicians during his life and his work

continues to influence artists after his death. Some composers that were influenced by Varèse were Morton Feldman, Chicago, Brian Eno and Frank Zappa. Morton Feldman had this to say about Edgard Varèse in his Essay Sound, Noise, Varèse, and Boulez, Sound is all our dreams of music. Noise is music’s dreams of us. And those moments when one losses control, and sound like crystals forms its own planes, and with a thrust, there is no sound, no tone, no sentiment, nothing left but the significance of our first breathsuch is the music of Varèse. He alone has given us this elegance, this physical reality, this impression that the music is writing about mankind rather than being composed. 83

Freyermuth 17 Varèse’s Poème Électronique had a striking impact on Brian Eon’s audiovisual installations.84 Varèse’s theories outlined in “The Liberation of Sound”, especially the excerpt about sound-masses interacting with each other as they are projected through space and the use of the inferior resultants that were created when the sound-masses interacted with each other was of great influence to Eno in his ambient pieces. Especially Discreet Music, 1975, a tape composition where the content and the form of the piece are determined by the interaction of three synthesizer chords as they decay through the synthetic space created by reverberation processors and analog tape delay effects. Eno even used an alternate form of notation to transcribe this piece because traditional staff notation was incapable of capturing the it.85 Although Varèse’s work by no means could be classified as ambient, it has had a massive influence on one of the major pioneers of ambient music. Another modern composer highly influenced by Edgard Varèse was Frank Zappa who wrote and essay entitled, Edgard Varèse: The Idol of My Youth, in which Zappa outlines his love of Varèse’s music and the impact that it had on his life.86

If technology moved at speed of Edgard Varèse then he may never have had to have gone

through such a long period of time where his work was not taken seriously and were he did not get the respect he deserved. This paper illustrates how important a figure Edgard Varèse was to modern music and that his influence both technically and aesthetically is far more encompassing than originally theorized. The significance of Poème Électronique is unique as it serves as a demonstration of Varèse’s theories in action and also serves as the point in which the majority of the rest of the world began to catch up with Varèse’s pace. In an interview with Alcopley in 1963 Varèse says, “Contrary to general belief, an artist is never ahead of his time, but most people are always far behind.”87 This statement brilliantly encapsulates the plight of Varèse’s career and the importance of Poème Électronique as the point in which everybody else began to catch up to Varèse. In Poème Électronique all Varèse theorized, wrote, proclaimed and lived was able to be made present. Poème Électronique is the culmination of his theories and proclamations on sound that are scattered amongst his thirteen other published compositions but work in perfect harmony together in Poème Électronique. Finally, with the necessary technology at his command

Freyermuth 18 the audience was finally able to catch up to Varèse and understand why he had fought so hard for “the liberation of sound”. They had entered the world of Varèse by entering the Philips Pavilion and entering Poème Électronique and now that they had visited his seldom heard world they could appreciate Varèse as one of the most influential and important composers in music history and Poème Électronique as his signature piece.

Notes 1. Andras Wilheim, “The Genesis of a Specific Twelve-Tone System in the Works of Varese,” Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 19 (Fall 1977): pg. #, http://www.jstor.org/stable/901798 (accessed October 30, 2009). 2. Jonathan W. Bernard, “Pitch/Register in the Music of Edgardd Varese,” Music Theory Spectrum 3 (Spring 1981): pg. #, http://www.jstor.org/stable/746131 (accessed October 30, 2009). 3. Olivia Mattis, “Varese’s Multimedia Conception of Deserts,” The Music Quarterly 76, no. 4 (Winter 1992): pg. #, http://www.jstor.org/stable/742477 (accessed October 30, 2009). 4. Olivia Mattis, “Varese’s Multimedia Conception of Deserts,” The Music Quarterly 76, no. 4 (Winter 1992): pg. #, http://www.jstor.org/stable/742477 (accessed October 30, 2009). 5. John D. Anderson, “Varese and the Lyricism of the New Physics,” The Music Quarterly 75, no. 1 (Spring 1991): section goes here, http://www.jstor.org/stable/742126 (accessed October 30, 2009). 6. John D. Anderson, “Varese and the Lyricism of the New Physics,” The Music Quarterly 75, no. 1 (Spring 1991): section goes here, http://www.jstor.org/stable/742126 (accessed October 30, 2009). 7. “VEP,” Virtual Reality & Multi Media Park - Torino, section goes here, http://www.edu. vrmmp.it/vep/ (accessed November 11, 2009). 8. “VEP,” Virtual Reality & Multi Media Park - Torino, section goes here, http://www.edu. vrmmp.it/vep/ (accessed November 11, 2009). 9. Katie Mondloch, “A Symphony of Sensations in the Spectator: Le Corbusier’s Poeme electronique and the Historicization of New Media Arts,” Leonardo 37, no. 1 (2004): section goes here, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577575 (accessed October 30, 2009). 10. Katie Mondloch, “A Symphony of Sensations in the Spectator: Le Corbusier’s Poeme electronique and the Historicization of New Media Arts,” Leonardo 37, no. 1 (2004): 57, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577575 (accessed October 30, 2009) 11. Katie Mondloch, “A Symphony of Sensations in the Spectator: Le Corbusier’s Poeme electronique and the Historicization of New Media Arts,” Leonardo 37, no. 1 (2004): 5758, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577575 (accessed October 30, 2009). 12. Chou Wen-Chung, “A Varese Chronology,” Perspectives of New Music 5, no. 1 (Winter

1966): 7, http://www.jstor.org/stable/ (accessed October 30, 2009). 13. Chou Wen-Chung, “A Varese Chronology,” Perspectives of New Music 5, no. 1 (Winter 1966): 7, http://www.jstor.org/stable/ (accessed October 30, 2009). 14. Chou Wen-Chung, “A Varese Chronology,” Perspectives of New Music 5, no. 1 (Winter 1966): 7, http://www.jstor.org/stable/ (accessed October 30, 2009). 15. Chou Wen-Chung, “A Varese Chronology,” Perspectives of New Music 5, no. 1 (Winter 1966): 7, http://www.jstor.org/stable/ (accessed October 30, 2009). 16. Encyclopedia Britannica, , s.v. “Varese, Edgardd,” http://0-www.search.eb.com.library. scad.edu/eb/article-9074843 (accessed November 3, 2009). 17. Chou Wen-Chung, “A Varese Chronology,” Perspectives of New Music 5, no. 1 (Winter 1966): 8, http://www.jstor.org/stable/ (accessed October 30, 2009). 18. Chou Wen-Chung, “A Varese Chronology,” Perspectives of New Music 5, no. 1 (Winter 1966): 8-9, http://www.jstor.org/stable/ (accessed October 30, 2009). 19. Encyclopedia Britannica, , s.v. “Varese, Edgardd,” http://0-www.search.eb.com.library. scad.edu/eb/article-9074843 (accessed November 3, 2009). 20. Gilbert Chase, “Edgard Varese,” Anuario 2 (1966): 95, http://www.jstor.org/stable/779769 (accessed October 30, 2009). 21. Chou Wen-Chung, “A Varese Chronology,” Perspectives of New Music 5, no. 1 (Winter 1966): 8, http://www.jstor.org/stable/ (accessed October 30, 2009). 22. Chou Wen-Chung, “A Varese Chronology,” Perspectives of New Music 5, no. 1 (Winter 1966): 8, http://www.jstor.org/stable/ (accessed October 30, 2009). 23. Chou Wen-Chung, “A Varese Chronology,” Perspectives of New Music 5, no. 1 (Winter 1966): 8-9, http://www.jstor.org/stable/ (accessed October 30, 2009). 24. Daniel Warner, Audio Culture Readings in Modern Music, ed. Christoph Cox (New York: Continuum International Group, 2004), 17. 25. Daniel Warner, Audio Culture Readings in Modern Music, ed. Christoph Cox (New York: Continuum International Group, 2004), 17-18. 26. Chou Wen-Chung, “A Varese Chronology,” Perspectives of New Music 5, no. 1 (Winter 1966): 9, http://www.jstor.org/stable/ (accessed October 30, 2009). 27. “Edgardd Varese,” Tobey_christine Home Page, 3, http://homepage.smc.edu/tobey_

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