Edgard Varèse (1883-1965), perhaps the most unique composer of the early 20th-century, greatly expanded common notions of what can be considered music. In the late 1950’s he was commissioned to create what would become one of his most famous works, a completely electronic composition for magnetic tape entitled Le Poème électonique. At the 1958 Brussels Worlds Fair, it became the musical score for a successful multi-media exposition for the Phillips Corporation. Varèse was the only composer of his generation to master the techniques of post-war electronic music. With the Poème, Varèse was truly able to accomplish his lifelong goal of freeing music from the past.
Life and previous works
Edgard was born in Paris, the first child of Henri and Blanche-Marie Varèse. Their marriage was not a happy one and Edgard spent his early childhood being raised by relatives. From an early age, Edgard expressed a serious interest in music but his father viewed music as a foolish venture and expected his first-born son to follow in his footsteps as an engineer. His father even went so far as to lock away the family piano to discourage his ambitions for music. Edgard despised his abusive father. After the death of his mother, his father soon re-married. One day Edgard came upon his father beating his new wife. Edgard was seized by a fit of rage. Turning the tables at last, he beat his father instead of being beaten by him. He left home for good and refused to see his father ever again.
Varèse spent the next period of his life in poverty; usually homeless and hungry, but he was free. A cousin introduced him to the Scola Cantorum music school, and found him a librarian job so he could pay the tuition. There he studied composition and conducting as well as Medieval and Renaissance music, of which he held a great love the rest of his life. He soon left on a monetary grant for the Paris Conservatoire, but soon left it as well.
Varèse spent many subsequent years establishing himself as a composer, but the outbreak of World War I obliterated his rising career in Europe. Varèse decided to begin anew by moving to New York in 1915. Divorcing himself from his musical past and his musical training, he set out to create a new music that didn’t ‘lie down in other men’s thoughts.’
Meanwhile his entire European catalogue, barring one setting, was destroyed in a warehouse fire during a socialist uprising in 1919, much to the relief of Varèse. Early works, including an opera Oedipus and the Sphinx, now exist only in memory. They are believed to be late-Romantic in style, owning much to the influence of Strauss and Debussy. For Varèse, it helped that a warehouse fire destroyed virtually everything he had created up to the time of his emigration to America, though it is likely that he might have lit the blaze himself had not others done the job. Before his death he put the only surviving early-period score, Bourgogne, to the flame himself. Varèse held the position that "with Amériques I began to write my own music, and wish to live, or die, by my later works."
For his first years in New York, 1915-1921, Varèse became the conductor of the New Symphony Orchestra, a group organized especially for him. His dedication to new music wasn’t always acclaimed critically, but it provided an important venue for modern composers. Varèse took another step forward for modern music by establishing the International Composer’s Guild, a group that performed premieres of works by composers such as Bartók, Cowell, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Webern, among others. As one early critic said, "The name of Edgard Varèse will go down in musical history as the man who started something."
The years 1921 through 1927 were the most productive and fruitful for Varèse’s compositions. He composed Amériques for large orchestra (1920-21), Offrandes for soprano and chamber orchestra (1921), Hyperprism for small orchestra and percussion (1922-23), Octandre for 7 winds and string bass (1923), Intégrales for small orchestra and percussion (1923-25), and Arcana for large orchestra (1926-27). All were premiered by the New Symphony Orchestra in New York. Varèse consistently used atypical instrument combinations in his works.
After leaving the International Composer’s Guild behind, he created Ionisation for 13 percussionists (1929-31), Ecuatorial for solo bass voice, trumpets, trombones, piano, organ, 2 ondes Martenot and percussion (1932-34) and Densité 21.5 for solo flute (1936).
After Densité 21.5, Varèse did not complete a single work for nearly nineteen years and slipped into obscurity among the public. Indeed, he was so consumed with his experiments, and yet so critical of his work, that he would often destroy at night what he had spent all day creating. Finally, he completed the work Déserts for orchestra and two-track magnetic tape in 1954. In the work he demonstrates a growing mastery of the magnetic tape as a compositional medium; experience which became very useful in the Poème électronique, his last completed work before his death.
Varèse’s musical aesthetic
With his works, Varèse demonstrated a high degree of originality, surprising because he was schooled in one of Europe’s music centers. Ever the individualist, he thought himself all alone in the world of composition. Early on he stated that the Guild ‘disapproves of all ‘isms’; denies the existence of schools; recognizes only the individual,’ a phrase that can also be seen as a personal slogan. While a young man he envisioned the orchestra as a stream flowing, pulsating with rhythm and life. Nature was his first teacher, as it had been for many great artists.
Despite the fact that Varèse refused to identify himself with particular groups, he had many acquaintances of formative influence to his style. Early in his career he became friends with Debussy and Busoni, but he generally avoided friendships with other composers, rather, he found more in common with the painters and sculptors. Picasso was an obvious influence, for there are numerous ideological parallels between the two.
Certain groups caught his attention and were influential, though none of them melded with his viewpoints completely. Many of his philosophies, such as the view of music as spatialized, are directly related to Cubism. Varese was also acquainted with Marcel Duchamp and the Dadaist movement, thought he didn’t agree with their anti-art stance. He resisted the titles of a futurist or avant-garde composer, though he was instrumental to both movements.
A rebel at heart, Varèse found nothing sacred about the conventions of the music establishment, nor with the music of the common practice period. For however much he hated convention, Varèse held equal contempt for the proprietors of the new music schools. While Schoenberg had freed us from tonality, Varèse was disappointed that he and his Second Viennese School would limit themselves so much by following a constricting system. He often referred to twelve-tone system as a sort of ‘hardening of the arteries.’ When it came to Neo-classicism, he showed considerable distaste, calling it mere ‘academicism', which stifles spontaneous expression.’
While still at the Conservatorie, Varèse came across the first definition for music he found sufficient and encompassing of all musics: Wrònsky’s definition of music as ‘the corporealization of the intelligence that is in sounds.’ Varèse preferred to call his works ‘organized sound’ rather that music. Varèse ‘advocated a total revision of the fundamental definition of music,’ and probably succeeded, for his ‘organized sound’ definition has become a commonly accepted definition for music today.
Varèse was also innovative in his exploration of percussion instruments. With Ionisation, he proved that a work could be musical without having pitch as the primary focus. Rhythm became the primary focus of his works and, consequently, Varèse was the first composer to elevate percussion instruments the status of virtuosi. Also, by introducing new and inventive uses for the percussion instruments, he developed the percussion idiom far beyond anyone else of the time.
By the 30’s, Varèse found himself increasingly dissatisfied with the conventional means of sound production, which was, of course, limited by conventional instruments. His attempts to interest foundations, sound studios, and other commercial enterprises in subsidizing research into and construction of new instruments were repeatedly rebuffed. Varèse’s dream of having ‘instruments obedient to my thought’ would have to wait.
Science played an important role in many of Varèse’s works, for in many ways he considered it a sister-art to music. Many of his works have ‘scientific’ titles and he clearly demonstrates an understanding of the currents in scientific progress. Varèse’s concept of a work being spatialized, or designed for the resonance of the performance space, is directly related to the science of acoustics. He felt that the new instruments and new sounds would have to come from science.
Varèse introduced and used three unique instruments in his compositions, all of which are somewhat similar in function. He desired instruments that could provide a smooth glissando not only from pitch to pitch, but from frequency to frequency. In Amériques, Varèse utilized a common siren to create the desired hyperbolic sound. For Ecuatorial he wanted to use a theremin, but was unable to reach the inventor, Léon Thérémin, in time, so a similar electronic instrument, called the ondes Martenot, was used. These instruments are able to produce any desired sound frequency, whether or not they lie within the Western chromatic scale.
Varèse’s increasing distaste for, and dissatisfaction with, the Western tempered tuning system is evident. He viewed the keyboard as imposing stifling limitations on the whole world of sounds available for music.
Varèse’s works are unified by their focus on rhythm and timbre as the primary musical interest. Tonal music traditionally contains a focus on the horizontal flow of melody and harmony, whereas Varèse built his music on the relationship between vertical, harmonic structures, instrumental sonorities, spacings and rhythmic motifs.
The use of noise in composition, while not a new idea, is featured prominently in many Varèsian works, especially those containing musique concrète. His desire to free sound also extended to the subjective idea of noise.
No matter how drastic the outside criticisms were, not one person was more critical of his work than Varèse himself. He held up a high level of quality in all of his works, though the entire output barely fills a two-hour program.
Since Varèse thought so far ahead of his time, he often had to wait for the technology to catch up with his visions. While contemporaries feared electronics as a potentially destructive factor to music, Varèse embraced them as an additive to expand upon the conventional instruments. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Varèse never retreated from his initial attacks on the music establishment: indeed, with the passage of years he became bolder with his innovations.
Conception & Organization of the Phillips project
The Phillips corporation, makers of electronics, set out early in 1956 to create an exhibition pavilion for the Brussels exposition, the first full-scale world’s fair mounted since the war. Phillips wanted to present themselves as a progressive, benevolent multi-national corporation. Of course they also wanted to demonstrate the power of the technological media they were developing for sale. Thankfully, the decision was made early on to keep product sales out of the pavilion in order to make the presentation purely ‘technology in the service of the arts.’
French architect Le Corbusier was chosen to design a building to house what the Phillips people were already calling an ‘electronic poem.’ Le Corbusier, already a visionary in the world of architecture, ended up designing a pavilion that is certainly one of the most eccentric in history. Le Corbusier also had a firm grasp on the related arts. Le Corbusier knew that the arts were "empty, divided and isolated " and hoped his vision for "The Synthesis of the Major Arts" would come true with the Philips project.
The project was budgeted at ten million francs. When the issue of who should compose the Poème came up, Le Corbusier insisted that commissioning Varèse was an absolute must, or else he would not go through with the project. The Phillips people had their reservations, but followed Le Corbusier on the decision. After a while they began to have serious doubts about Varèse and commissioned a ‘shadow’ score, also entitled Poème élecronique, from the French composer Henri Tomasi in case the Varèse work was deemed completely unacceptable
When conceptualizing the Poème, the only convention given to the designers was that the program was to last precisely 480 seconds. Architecture, color, voice, sound, and images were superimposed without any full comprehension in advance of the nature of the resulting work. The completed Poème électronique would emerge as a conglomerate greater than any of its constituent parts, to some degree planned, to some degree the product of fortuitous accident.
New Instruments: Creating and Executing the Poème
Varèse, not surprisingly, readily accepted the chance to create the Poème. It was the opportunity Varèse had been awaiting for a very long time. He even went so far as to say, "the only thing in which I am interested is to give birth to the most extraordinary thing possible."
So Varèse went to work and proceeded to gather sound materials for his production, which includes modified and unmodified sounds, mainly machine noises, bells, piano, and percussion. Oscillators provided pure sine waves. Two human voices, a man saying "Oh God" and an operatic soprano, also make an appearance. A wise restraint is shown in choosing so few musical materials. The sources of these sounds have not been recorded and we only can speculate on what we are actually hearing, though the source is not as important as the context within the work.
Varèse spent eight frenetic months in the Phillips laboratories at Eindhoven gathering sound materials, cutting and piecing together the Poème on three-track tape. Production was slow, partly due to Varèse’s unfamiliarity with the high-tech equipment, and by the end of the fourth month, only the first two minutes were complete! Tensions between Phillips sponsors and Varèse became intense up until the opening. However, Varese was able to complete the score in time for the fair.
With the Poème, Varèse was able to hear his music set in space for the first time. The acoustical properties of the space were nearly as important as the magnetic impressions on the tape. In a sense, music and architecture were rendered coincident.
Projecting the automated sound tape became a science all of its own. Over four hundred loudspeakers were placed strategically throughout the interior ceiling of the pavilion. A sophisticated automation system was devised to project sounds to exact places at precise moments in the presentation. The absolute control exerted over sound waves is baffling to think about.
Automation was also used in the sister presentation with its projected images and colorful lighting. The lighting was a series of colors meant to create ambiance. The images, including concentration camps, a nuclear explosion and a mother holding her baby represented a collage liturgy for twentieth century humankind.
Unfortunately, the pavilion did not quite make the deadline and open on time, due to some necessary refinements with the automation equipment. Once everything was in place and working correctly, the performances were able to begin. Six hundred people would attend each show, fixed at ten-minute intervals. Every performance was to last precisely eight minutes with a two-minute interval to allow one group to exit while the next group entered. Over one million people attended the performance during the Fair.
Reaction to the Poème
Though Varèse never concerned himself with public taste throughout his career, it is interesting to note what the public thought of this work. While everyone knew the presentation was a serious venture, many could not help but laugh at the blips and bleeps of the Varèse score. One journalist even went so far as to call it a "modern nightmare." Another journalist asked whether it was a presentation to be "contemplated or endured" though his final judgement, however, was that "it will leave no one unmoved."
The Poème became Varèse’s most successful work since the 20’s, allowing him to live the rest of his years as a popular figure.
The whole of the Poème électronique presentation represented the concerns of the time. The world during the fair was caught between cautious confidence in growing economic prosperity and fission energy sources, and the lingering anxieties of the destruction that might descend, should tensions between the superpowers escalate.
In the musical world, modern discussions on musical development in the 20th century often reach a culmination with the Poème. Undoubtedly, it is a key work in 20th century music; widely regarded in academic circles as a masterpiece.
All in all, the Phillips pavilion and the Poème électronique was an outstanding success, one of the last great works made in service to the arts. Some people even view it as a prototype for virtual reality. In historical context it provides clues for what may become a true synthesis of the major arts.
Understanding and Analyzing the Poème électronique
The Phillips pavilion was soon torn down after the festival leaving those whom did not experience the presentation only to speculate at the original. The existing version of Varèse’s score is a stereophonic mix from the original sound tapes, but we can only imagine what it would have sounded like if it were still spatialized in the structure for which it was designed.
Analyzing any of Varese’s works is difficult, mainly because he doesn’t use form in a traditional, identifiable manner. He views form as a resultant of the compositional process and, therefore, each of his works has an individual and unique form.
With the Poème, this compositional process makes analytical understanding very difficult. First of all, the work does not have a score, other than a few sketches Varèse drew during its creation. Also, the use of collage techniques adds a huge variety of seemingly unrelated sounds difficult to analyze.
Since Varèse viewed form as a resultant of a process, it is often difficult to identify a structure within the work. Richard Felciano identified, in over-simplified terms, four sections within the Poème, each of a two-minute duration. It opens with a presentation of Ideas (Exposition), moves to a Compacting of those ideas (Development) to a Climax and thinning out of continuously varied material ("Recapitulation") and finally has a Grand Pause and broadening of material for conclusion (Coda).
Conclusion
The Poème électronique, perhaps
more than any other of Varèse’s works, fulfilled his dream of freeing
music from the past. It proved the significance of Varèse’s life
work before, not after, his death, indeed proving that Varèse’s
works are those by which the future must be measured.
Bibliograpy
Bernard, Jonathan W. The Music of Edgard Varèse.
New Haven: Yale University Press. 1987.
Chou Wen-Chung. Liner notes to Varèse: The Complete
Works. Decca/London. 1998.
Ewen, David. Composers of Tomorrow’s Music; a non-technical
introduction to the musical avant-garde movement.
New York, Dodd, Mead. 1971.
Ouelette, Fernand. Edgard Varèse. New York,
Orion Press. 1966.
Peyser, Joan. The new music; the sense behind the sound.
New York, Delacoret Press. 1971.
Rich, Alan. American pioneers : Ives to Cage and beyond.
London: Phaidon. 1995.
Trieb, Marc. Space Calculated in Seconds : The Philips Pavilion,
Le Corbuster, Edgard Varèse. Princeton University
Press. Princeton, New Jersey.
1996.
Van Solkema, Sherman. The New World of Edgard Varèse:
A Symposium. University of New York. 1979.
Varèse, Louise. Varèse; a looking-glass diary.
W. W. Norton & Co. 1972.
Discography
Varèse, Edgard Varèse: The Complete Works.
Riccardo Chailly, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, ASKO Ensemble. Decca/London.
1998.