Edgard Varèse

Note on his name: "Although the Christian name Edgar is spelt without a second d in French, a d appears in the official certificate confirming the birth of Varèse. So, except during a brief period of his life, Varèse always signed his name with a second d." - Fernand Ouellette, Edgard Varèse, a musical biography (1966)

Born Paris 22nd December 1883

Died New York 6th November 1965

In 1971 Frank Zappa wrote Edgard Varèse: The Idol of My Youth about his discovery of, and enthusiasm for, the music of Varèse.

Zappa is interviewed for the radio documentary Varèse:Sonic Liberation (MP3 stream (58 minutes))

"I long for instruments obedient to my thought and whim, with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspected sounds, which will lend themselves to the exigencies of my inner rhythm." - Varèse in 1917

From "BBC.co.uk - Music Profiles: Edgard Varèse" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/varese.shtml): The highly influential French avant-garde composer who settled in America. Ahead of his time, the quest to free sound from the limitations of normal instruments led Varèse to combine technology with art, focussing on percussion instruments and electronics, taped sounds, loud speakers, sirens, dissonance and extremes of contrast.

Varèse in one minute (also from http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/varese.shtml):

• Pioneering French composer who lived in New York
• He wrote carefully organised pieces that explore a thin line between music and noise
• Introduced Debussy to Schoenberg's music, and was a close friend of Busoni
• Ionisation was the first piece to be written for a percussion ensemble, and also included a siren
• The premiere of his Hyperprism scandalized New York in 1923
• Varèse was an early exponent of electronic music with his Déserts and Poème Electronique
• He looked, and sometimes acted, like an eccentric, mad professor