Difference between revisions of "Edgard Varèse"

Revision as of 18:53, 26 October 2020

Edgard Varèse

Edgard Varèse (Paris, December 22 1883 - New York, November 6, 1965) was a French composer, often credited as the "Father of Electronic Music". His best known works are Octandre, Déserts, Ionisation, Hyperprism, Arcana, Poème Electronique and Amériques.

He was Zappa's main musical influence and the artist who inspired him to become a composer.

Biography of Varèse's life

Varèse was born a few days after Anton Webern and was the son of an authoritarian father, who left him to be raised by his grandparents in pursuance of an engineering career. Like Zappa, Varèse had a peripatetic youth, uprooting and residing in Villars, Paris, Berlin and Turin.

Ouellette's biography of Varèse establishes the spelling of his first 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'."

–"Edgard Varèse, a musical biography" by Fernand Ouellette (1966)

Growing up in a world where he rarely heard music he was fascinated by sound – the whistle of a train, the sounds of the wind, the ebb and flow of rivers and the rhythms of an industrial city. By 1904 he was a student at the Schola Cantorum, and later at the Paris Conservatoire.

In November 1907 Varèse married the actress Suzanne Bing, whom he had met at the Conservatoire, and they moved to Berlin. They had a daughter, but were divorced by 1913 in pursuance of their own careers. She moved to America with her theatre company, spending a period in New York where the company had a two year residency at a Garrick Theatre. [not the Garrick Theater]. In 1915 Varèse also moved to America, having had most of his early works destroyed by a fire in Berlin.

Varèse worked at promoting his vision of a new electronic music while employed as a copyist, teacher and conductor. He founded the short-lived New World Orchestra and composed Amériques, which he finished in 1921, but it would not be performed for another five years. During the summer of 1921 Varèse and Carlos Salzedo set up the International Composers' Guild (ICG), to promote the performance of contemporary music. Their manifesto stated;

"Dying is the privilege of the weary. The present day composers refuse to die. They have realized the necessity of banding together and fighting for the right of each individual to secure a fair and free presentation of his work".

During the next six years the ICG presented works by fifty six composers, including Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Webern, Berg, Hindemith and Honegger. During this period Varèse composed Offrandes, Hyperprism, Octandre, and Intégrales.

In November 1927 Varèse dissolved the ICG and, in 1928, established the Pan American Association of Composers with Nicolas Slonimsky as it's principal conductor. Varèse returned to Paris in 1928, where he set about modifying the score of Amériques to include the Ondes Martenot and, around 1930, composed Ionisation for percussion instruments. It was first performed on March 6, 1933 at Carnegie Hall, with Nicolas Slonimsky conducting.

At this time some American moralists were expressing concerns about the corruption of young American students studying in Paris. Over 50 years before Zappa's exchanges with the PMRC regarding morality and music, Varèse responded to these earlier American moralists' concerns in a interview;

"I feel suspicious of anyone who sets himself up as a judge of other people's morals, building himself a wall of such lofty morality that one has to wonder what he is hiding behind it".

By 1933 Varèse was back in New York, having finished Ecuatorial which was first performed in 1934, again under Nicolas Slonimsky. (to be continued ...)

Quote

In my compositions, I employ a system of weights, balances, measured tensions and releases – in some ways similar to Varèse's aesthetic. The similarities are best illustrated by comparison to a Calder mobile: a multicolored whatchamacallit, dangling in space, that has big blobs of metal connected to pieces of wire, balanced ingeniously against little metal dingleberries on the other end. Varèse knew Calder, and was fascinated by these creations.

–Frank Zappa in The Real Frank Zappa Book

Zappa references

During "Star Special" (BBC Radio 1 in 1980). played Hyperprism and commented;

"Varèse was a really cool guy. The only thing that he did that was wrong was he stopped composing for 25 years because people gave him a bad time. If people wouldn't have given him a bad time, he could have been writing for 25 more years and there would be 25 more years worth of stuff like that for the people who like that kind of stuff. But most people don't".

Throughout his life Zappa honored the work of Varèse. In "Son of Suzy Creamcheese", an article by Robert Shelton, The New York Times, 1966, Zappa said of Amériques; "It blows my mind. It’s my favorite top-40 record". FZ's 1989 playlist of ten records for the American radio show Castaway's Choice, hosted by John McNally, included Varèse's Octandre. He also played "Octandre" during the Musik Für Junge Leute show.

. In Faves, Raves And Composers In Their Graves Zappa named "The Complete Works Of Edgard Varèse, Volume 1" as one of his favorite records.

In 1971 Zappa wrote "Edgard Varèse: The Idol of My Youth", an insight into his discovery of, and enthusiasm for, the music of Varèse. FZ was also interviewed for the Varèse appreciation radio documentary Varèse:Sonic Liberation [MP3 stream (58 minutes)]

Edgard Varèse is name-checked on the cover of Zappa's album "Freak Out!" (1966) under the heading "These People Have Contributed Materially In Many Ways To Make Our Music What It Is. Please Do Not Hold It Against Them". He is also mentioned in "The Real Frank Zappa Book" (1989).

Robert Lamm, founder of the band Chicago, says of a Varèse inspired [Chicago V] track;

Varèse's music "really kind of set us free in terms of what was possible musically". And so, what I was trying to say in 'A Hit by Varèse' was, "Wouldn't it be great if music this free could actually be accepted on radio — not just by the programmers, but by the people listening?'"

Edgard Varèse said of his work;

"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."

– Edgard Varèse, 1917

More information

Wikipedia Edgard Varèse article

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Category:Influences]]
+[[Image:Youngvarese.jpg|thumb|right|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)
+[[Edgard Varèse]] (Paris, December 22 1883 - New York, November 6, 1965) was a French composer, often credited as the "Father of Electronic Music". His best known works are [[Octandre]], [[Déserts]], [[Ionisation]], [[Hyperprism]], [[Arcana]],  [[Poème Electronique]] and [[Amériques]].
-Born Paris 22nd December 1883
+He was Zappa's main musical influence and the artist who inspired him to become a composer.
-Died New York 6th November 1965
+==Biography of Varèse's life==
+[[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]] was born a few days after [[Anton Webern]] and was the son of an authoritarian father, who left him to be raised by his grandparents in pursuance of an engineering career. Like Zappa, [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]] had a peripatetic youth, uprooting and residing in Villars, Paris, Berlin and Turin.
-In 1971 Frank Zappa wrote an article for the June issue of Stereo Review magazine:
+Ouellette's biography of '''Varèse''' establishes the spelling of his first name;
-<h2> Edgard Varese: The Idol of My Youth </H2>
+<blockquote>"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'."</blockquote>
+<div align=right>–"[[Edgard Varèse]], a musical biography" by Fernand Ouellette  (1966)</div>
-I have been asked to write about Edgard Varese. I am in no way qualified to. I can't even pronounce his name right. The only reason I have agreed to is because I love his music very much, and if by some chance this article can influence more people to hear his works, it will have been worthwhile.
-I was about thirteen when I read an article in Look about Sam Goody's Record Store in New York. My memory is not too clear on the details, but I recall it was praising the store's exceptional record merchandising ability. One example of brilliant salesmanship described how, through some mysterious trickery, the store actually managed to sell an album called "Ionization" (the real name of the album was "The Complete Works of Edgard Varese, Volume One"). The article described the record as a weird jumble of drums and other unpleasant sounds.
+Growing up in a world where he rarely heard music he was fascinated by sound – the whistle of a train, the sounds of the wind, the ebb and flow of rivers and the rhythms of an industrial city. By 1904 he was a student at the [[wikipedia:Schola Cantorum|Schola Cantorum]], and later at the [[wikipedia:Conservatoire de Paris|Paris Conservatoire]].
-I dashed off to my local record store and asked for it. Nobody ever heard of it. I told the guy in the store what it was like. He turned away, repulsed, and mum- bled solemnly, "I probably wouldn't stock it anyway . . .nobody here in San Diego would buy it."
+In November 1907 [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]] married the actress [[wikipedia:Suzanne Bing|Suzanne Bing]], whom he had met at the Conservatoire, and they moved to Berlin. They had a daughter, but were divorced by 1913 in pursuance of their own careers. She moved to America with her theatre company, spending a period in New York where the company had a two year residency at a Garrick Theatre. [not the [[Garrick Theater]]]. In 1915 [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]] also moved to America, having had most of his early works destroyed by a fire in Berlin.
-I didn't give up. I was so hot to get that record I couldn't even believe it. In those days I was a rhythm- and-blues fanatic. I saved any money I could get (some- times as much as $2 a week) so that every Friday and Saturday I could rummage through piles of old records at the juke Box Used Record Dump (or whatever they called it) in the Maryland Hotel or the dusty corners of little record stores where they'd keep the crappy records nobody wanted to buy.
+[[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]] worked at promoting his vision of a ''new electronic music'' while employed as a copyist, teacher and conductor.  He founded the short-lived ''New World Orchestra'' and composed ''Amériques'', which he finished in 1921, but it would not be performed for another five years. During the summer of 1921 [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]] and [[wikipedia:Carlos Salzedo|Carlos Salzedo]] set up the ''International Composers' Guild'' (ICG), to promote the performance of contemporary music. Their manifesto stated;
-One day I was passing a hi-fi store in La Mesa. A little sign in the window announced a sale on 45's. After shuffling through their singles rack and finding a couple of Joe Houston records, I walked toward the cash register. On my way, I happened to glance into the LP bin. Sitting in the front, just a little bent at the corners, was a strange-looking black-and-white album cover. On it there was a picture of a man with gray frizzy hair. He looked like a mad scientist. I thought it was great that somebody had finally made a record of a mad scientist. I picked it up. I nearly (this is true, ladies and gentlemen) peed in my pants . . . THERE IT WAS! EMS 401, The Complete Works of Edgard Varese Volume I . . . Integrales, Density 21.5, Ionization, Octandre . . . Rene Le Roy, the N. Y. Wind Ensemble, the Juilliard Percussion Orchestra, Frederic Waidman Conducting . . .liner notes by Sidney Finkelstein! WOW!
+<blockquote>"Dying is the privilege of the weary. The present day composers refuse to die. They have realized the necessity of banding together and fighting for the right of each individual to secure a fair and free presentation of his work".</blockquote>
-I ran over to the singles box and stuffed the Joe Houston records back in it. I fumbled around in my pocket to see how much money I had (about $3.80). 1 knew I had to have a lot of money to buy an album. Only old people had enough money to buy albums. I'd never bought an album before. I sneaked over to the guy at the cash register and asked him how much EMS 401 cost. "That gray one in the box? $5.95"
+During the next six years the ICG presented works by fifty six composers, including [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]], [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]], [[Anton Webern|Webern]], Berg, Hindemith and Honegger. During this period [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]] composed ''Offrandes'', ''Hyperprism'', ''Octandre'', and ''Intégrales''.
-I had searched for that album for over a year, and now . . . disaster. I told the guy I only had $3.80. He scratched his neck. "We use that record to demonstrate the hi-fi's with, but nobody ever buys one when we use it . . . you can have it for $3.80 if you want it that bad. "
+In November 1927 [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]] dissolved the ICG and, in 1928, established the ''Pan American Association of Composers'' with [[Nicolas Slonimsky]] as it's principal conductor. [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]] returned to Paris in 1928, where he set about modifying the score of ''Amériques'' to include the ''[[wikipedia:Ondes Martenot|Ondes Martenot]]'' and, around 1930, composed ''Ionisation'' for percussion instruments. It was first performed on March 6, 1933 at Carnegie Hall, with [[Nicolas Slonimsky]] conducting.
-I couldn't imagine what he meant by "demonstrating hi-fi's with it." I'd never heard a hi-fi. I only knew that old people bought them. I had a genuine lo-fi . . . it was a little box about 4 inches deep with imitation wrought-iron legs at each corner (sort of brass-plated) which elevated it from the table top because the speaker was in the bottom. My mother kept it near the ironing board. She used to listen to a 78 of The Little Shoemaker on it. I took off the 78 of The Little Shoemaker and, carefully moving the speed lever to 33 1/3 (it had never been there before), turned the volume all the way up and placed the all-purpose Osmium-tip needle in the lead-in spiral to Ionization. I have a nice Catholic mother who likes Roller Derby. Edgard Varese does not get her off, even to this very day. I was forbidden to play that record in the living room ever again.
+At this time some American moralists were expressing concerns about the corruption of young American students studying in Paris. Over 50 years before Zappa's exchanges with the [[Z-Pack - L.A. Times article|PMRC]] regarding morality and music, [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]] responded to these earlier American moralists' concerns in a interview;
-In order to listen to The Album, I had to stay in my room. I would sit there every night and play it two or three times and read the liner notes over and over. I didn't understand them at all. I didn't know what timbre was. I never heard of polyphony. I just liked the music because it sounded good to me. I would force anybody who came over to listen to it. (I had heard someplace that in radio stations the guys would make chalk marks on records so they could find an exact spot, so I did the same thing to EMS 401 . . . marked all the hot items so my friends wouldn't get bored in the quiet parts.)
+<blockquote>"I feel suspicious of anyone who sets himself up as a judge of other people's morals, building himself a wall of such lofty morality that one has to wonder what he is hiding behind it".</blockquote>
-I went to the library and tried to find a book about Mr. Varese. There wasn't any. The librarian told me he probably wasn't a Major Composer. She suggested I look in books about new or unpopular composers. I found a book that had a little blurb in it (with a picture of Mr. Varese as a young man, staring into the camera very seriously) saying that he would be just as happy growing grapes as being a composer.
+By 1933 [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]] was back in New York, having finished ''Ecuatorial'' which was first performed in 1934, again under [[Nicolas Slonimsky]]. (to be continued ...)
-On my fifteenth birthday my mother said she'd give me $5. 1 told her I would rather make a long-distance phone call. I figured Mr. Varese lived in New York because the record was made in New York (and be- cause he was so weird, he would live in Greenwich Village). I got New York Information, and sure enough, he was in the phone book.
+==Quote==
+<blockquote>In my compositions, I employ a system of weights, balances, measured tensions and releases – in some ways similar to [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]]'s aesthetic. The similarities are best illustrated by comparison to a Calder mobile: a multicolored whatchamacallit, dangling in space, that has big blobs of metal connected to pieces of wire, balanced ingeniously against little metal dingleberries on the other end. [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]] knew Calder, and was fascinated by these creations.</blockquote>
+<div align=right>–Frank Zappa in [[The Real Frank Zappa Book]]</div>
-His wife answered. She was very nice and told me he was in Europe and to call back in a few weeks. I did. I don't remember what I said to him exactly, but it was something like: "I really dig your music." He told me he was working on a new piece called Deserts. This thrilled me quite a bit since I was living in Lancaster, California then. When you're fifteen and living in the Mojave Desert and find out that the world's greatest composer, somewhere in a secret Greenwich Village laboratory, is working on a song about your "home town" you can get pretty excited. It seemed a great tragedy that nobody in-Palmdale or Rosamond would care if they ever heard it. I still think Deserts is about Lancaster, even if the liner notes on the Columbia LP say it's something more philosophical.
+==Zappa references==
-All through high school I searched for information about Varese and his music. One of the most exciting discoveries was in the school library in Lancaster. I found an orchestration book that had score examples in the back, and included was an excerpt from Offrandes with a lot of harp notes (and you know how groovy harp notes look). I remember fetishing the book for several weeks.
+During "[[Star Special]]" (BBC Radio 1 in 1980). played ''[[Hyperprism]]'' and commented;
-When I was eighteen I got a chance to go to the East Coast to visit my Aunt Mary in Baltimore. I had been composing for about four years then but had not heard any of it played. Aunt Mary was going to introduce me to some friend of hers (an Italian gentleman) who was connected with the symphony there. I had planned on making a side trip to mysterious Greenwich Village. During my birthday telephone conversation, Mr. Varese had casually mentioned the possibility of a visit if I was ever in the area. I wrote him a letter when I got to Baltimore, just to let him know I was in the area.
-I waited. My aunt introduced me to the symphony guy. She said, "This is Frankie. He writes orchestra music." The guy said, "Really? Tell me, sonny boy, what's the lowest note on a bassoon?" I said, "B flat . . .and also it says in the book you can get 'em up to a C or something in the treble clef." He said, "Really? You know about violin harmonics?" I said, "What's that?" He said, "See me again in a few years."
-I waited some more. The letter came. I couldn't believe it. A real handwritten letter from Edgard Varese! I still have it in a little frame. In very tiny scientific-looking script it says:
-VII 12th/57
-Dear Mr. Zappa
-I am sorry not to be able to grant your request.  I am leaving
-for Europe next week and will be gone until next spring.  I am
-hoping however to see you on my return.  With best wishes.
-<nowiki>
-                                  Sincerely
-                                  Edgard Varèse
-</nowiki>
+<blockquote>"Varèse was a really cool guy. The only thing that he did that was wrong was he stopped composing for 25 years because people gave him a bad time. If people wouldn't have given him a bad time, he could have been writing for 25 more years and there would be 25 more years worth of stuff like that for the people who like that kind of stuff. But most people don't".</blockquote>
-I never got to meet Mr. Varese. But I kept looking for records of his music. When he got to be about eighty I guess a few companies gave in and recorded some of his stuff. Sort of a gesture, I imagine. I always wondered who bought them besides me. It was about seven years from the time I first heard his music till I met someone else who even knew he existed. That person was a film student at USC. He had the Columbia LP with Poeme Electronique on it. He thought it would make groovy sound effects.
+Throughout his life Zappa honored the work of [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]]. In "[[Son of Suzy Creamcheese]]", an article by [[Robert Shelton]], [[The New York Times]], 1966, Zappa said of ''[[Amériques]]''; "It blows my mind. It’s my favorite top-40 record". FZ's 1989 playlist of ten records for the American radio show [[Castaway's Choice]], hosted by John McNally, included Varèse's ''[[Octandre]]''. He also played "Octandre" during the [[Musik Für Junge Leute]] show. [[Image:Ems401.gif|right|EMS 401]]. In [[Faves, Raves And Composers In Their Graves]] Zappa named ''"The [[Complete Works Of Edgard Varèse, Volume 1]]"'' as one of his favorite records.
-I can't give you any structural insights or academic suppositions about how his music works or why I think it sounds so good. His music is completely unique. If you haven't heard it yet, go hear it. If you've already heard it and think it might make groovy sound effects, listen again. I would recommend the Chicago Symphony recording of Arcana on RCA (at full volume) or the Utah Symphony recording of Ameriques on Vanguard. Also, there is a biography by Fernand Oulette, and miniature scores are available for most of his works, published by G. Ricordi.
+In 1971 Zappa wrote "[[Edgard Varèse: The Idol of My Youth]]",  an insight into his discovery of, and enthusiasm for, the music of Varèse. FZ was also interviewed for the [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]] appreciation radio documentary [http://www.archive.org/stream/VareseSonicLiberation Varèse:Sonic Liberation] [<small>MP3 stream (58 minutes)</small>]
-----
+[[Edgard Varèse]] is name-checked on the cover of Zappa's album "[[Freak Out!]]" (1966) under the heading "These People Have Contributed Materially In Many Ways To Make Our Music What It Is. Please Do Not Hold It Against Them". He is also mentioned in "[[The Real Frank Zappa Book]]" (1989).
+[[Wikipedia:Robert Lamm|Robert Lamm]], founder of the band [[Wikipedia:Chicago (band)|Chicago]], says of a '''Varèse''' inspired [Chicago V] track;
+<blockquote>Varèse's music "really kind of set us free in terms of what was possible musically". And so, what I was trying to say in 'A Hit by Varèse' was, "Wouldn't it be great if music this free could actually be accepted on radio — not just by the programmers, but by the people listening?'"</blockquote>
+[[Edgard Varèse]] said of his work;
+<blockquote>"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."</blockquote>
+<div align=right> – [[Edgard Varèse]], 1917</div>
-"''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
+==See also==
+*[[Complete Works Of Edgard Varèse, Volume 1]]
+*[[Varèse: The Rage & The Fury]]
+*[[Frank Zappa on Edgar Varèse]]
+*[[Edgard Varèse: The Idol of My Youth]]
+*[[Louise Varèse]]
+*[[Zappa's letter to Varèse]]
+*[[In Memoriam Edgar Varese]]
-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.
+==More information==
+*[[Wikipedia:Edgard Varèse|Wikipedia Edgard Varèse article]]
-Varèse in one minute (also from http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/varese.shtml):
+[[Category:Influences|Varèse, Edgard]]
-* Pioneering French composer who lived in New York
+[[Category:Composers|Varèse, Edgard]]
-* He wrote carefully organised pieces that explore a thin line between music and noise
+[[Category:Favorite Artists|Varèse, Edgard]]
-* Introduced Debussy to Schoenberg's music, and was a close friend of Busoni
+[[Category:Freak Out! (The List)|Varèse, Edgard]]
-* Ionisation was the first piece to be written for a percussion ensemble, and also included a siren
+[[Category:The Real Frank Zappa Book (The List)|Varèse, Edgard]]
-* 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

Difference between revisions of "Edgard Varèse"

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