Transcript Edgard Varèse

“An artist is never ahead of their time
most people are just behind theirs”
Marcel
FREN – 1010- 002
Early Life and Influences
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Born Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, in Paris on December
22, 1883
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Lived with maternal grandfather Claude Cortot in Turin, Italy, who
taught him the fundamentals of music at a young age
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Tumultuous and Abusive upbringing led him to be secluded yet
extremely focused on his work
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Although he wrote full scale operas starting at the age of 13, his
father burned whatever music he found
As a Young Man
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Left home for Paris in 1903 with money he received from his
grandfather
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Enrolled at Schola Cantorum de Paris, where his talents exceeded
that of his peers
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Was taught formally by Albert Roussel and befriended the
composers Erik Satie, Richard Strauss, and Claude Debussy
Early Work
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He was highly dissatisfied with traditional classical music, although
he excelled at composing it
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Started writing music for orchestra that purposely either bored or
discomforted the audience
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Had to travel around Europe to always play for new audiences
because nobody would see him twice
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Left for the United States in 1915, to attract a new audience,
compose more avant-garde works, and to avoid World War I
The United States
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Found more artistic freedom than in Europe
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Was embraced by the artistic community
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Found stability in work as a Conductor
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Compositions became either increasingly more complex, or
incredibly minimalist
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Most of his work from this period has been lost or destroyed
Back to Europe
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Returned to Paris in 1928 due to severe homesickness and to
complete one of his compositions in a different environment
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It was there that he composed his best known non electric piece,
“Ionisation for Percussion” which he wrote simply to make enough
money to return to the United States
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Wrote to the Guggenheim Foundation for a grant to build the first
electronic music studio
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On his return to the United States in the mid-1930s his work
became exclusively electronic
Later Life
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Later life was mostly plagued with poor health
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Admired greatly by those who knew him, but overall his work was
largely forgotten
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In his later life he started to compose and think of some of the most
ambitious projects of his career such as the evolution of free jazz,
choral work that involved single pieces using all of the major
languages of the world and poems, and short stories being
converted into musical form
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Died on November 6, 1965
“Father of Electronic Music”
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Saw over the construction of the first electronic studio
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First classical composer to include electronic instruments
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Used seemingly non-melodic objects like the Theremin and the
siren to create complex music
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Saw over the building of the prototype for the first amplifiers
“Eye Music”
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Towards the end of his career he
stopped writing music in traditional
notation
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He would create maps of sound, and
write music that was left open for
interpretation by the conductor
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Very few pieces of his work can be
played by a traditional orchestra
Mental Health
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Due to a stressful and abusive childhood, I believe Varèse’s mental
health was a serious factor in his life and his compositions
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His family had a long line of metal disorders

His spontaneity and bizarreness as a person can be heard in his
work
Influence in Jazz
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Could be considered the main architect of free jazz
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In 1957 he held a workshop with several acclaimed jazz musicians
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Taught them how to disregard conventional time structures
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The recording of them rehearsing under Varèse’s direction is
considered to be the first free jazz recording
Frank Zappa
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Composer/Musician, obsessed with Varèse
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Extremely Influential to Zappa and his music
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Popularized Varèse again

Frank Zappa heavily influenced the guitarist
Steve Vai ,who is one of my biggest
influences as a musician
Overview
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Immeasurable Influence on music
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Influenced a wide variety of other
musicians
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The Father of Electronic Music and
the Father of Avant-Garde Music
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Saw that music is not exclusively
found in musicians and their
instruments, it is found in nature and
in everyone
Works Cited
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Bernard, Jonathan W. The Music of Edgard Varèse. Yale University Press, 1987.
Meyer, Felix and Heidy Zimmermann. Edgard Varèse: Composer, Sound Sculptor,
Visionary. Boydell Press, 2006.
MacDonald, Malcolm. Varèse: Astronomer in Sound. Kahn & Averill Publishers, 2003.
Zappa, Frank. Real Frank Zappa Book. Fireside, 1990.
“Ionisation for Percussion” by Edgard Varèse. 1931. (Musical Score)
“Poeme Electronique” by Edgard Varèse 1958. (Musical Score)
“Deserts” by Edgard Varèse. 1954. (Musical Score)
Igor Toronyi – Lalic. “Edgard Varèse dropped bombs on the 20th Century” The Times.
26-10-10
<http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/classical/articl
e7091652.ece>
“Edgard Varèse, A Free Jazz Pioneer? NPR. 26-10-10
<http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2009/06/download_edgard_varese_a_free.ht
ml>
Picture Credits
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Edgard_Varese.gif
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_asZ1ez5lMZ8/SOPMzHMFjQI/AAAAAAAABhk/22hPi010IrQ/
s400/varese3.jpg
http://codoix.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/steve-vai.jpg
http://www.morethings.com/music/zappa/frank_zappa_images/october1980albuquerqu
e08.jp
http://playtherecords.com/uploaded_images/score_detail-708103.jpg