The Music of Edgard Varèse

I had a request for a particular LP of Edgard Varèse's music, so I thought I would turn this post into a small festival of historic recordings of works by this remarkable, iconoclastic figure.

Varèse (1883-1965) was born in Paris and came to the US in 1915, already seeking new vistas in sound. Soon after arriving, he announced to a reporter, "I refuse to submit myself only to sounds that have already been heard. What I am looking for are new technical mediums which can lend themselves to every expression of thought and keep up with thought."

As Eric Salzman wrote in a long article on Varèse (included in the download), "He widened our notion of music to take in noise and the sounds of the human and natural worlds around us - never arbitrarily, but always with the highest artistic and expressive goals. He created a new kind of instrumental and percussion music that is as contemporary now as when it was written. [Salzman wrote this in 1971; the statement is still true today.] He predicted the advent of electronic music, musique concréte, and multimedia, and, having worked much of his life toward achieving these new means, lived long enough to create the first masterpieces in the new music."

"Déserts," "Hyperprism," "Intégrales," "Density 21.5"

The requested record was this EMI production from 1969-70 by the Paris Instrumental Ensemble for Contemporary Music, conducted by Konstantin Simonovitch, in "Déserts," "Hyperprism" and "Intégrales."

Konstantin Simonovitch

The longest composition - 30 minutes - is "Déserts," which is from 1950-54. The composer said the title encompasses "not only physical deserts of sand, sea, mountains, and snow, outer space, deserted city streets… but also distant inner space… where man is alone in a world of mystery and essential solitude."

"Hyperprism" for winds, brass and percussion is much earlier - from 1922-23. As might be expected, it was premiered to an uncomprehending and mostly hostile New York audience in the latter year.

"Intégrales" was first performed in 1925, again in New York. The critic Lawrence Gilman contrasted Varèse with that another forward thinking composer: "Unlike [Arnold] Schönberg, he has broken completely with the musical past... Originality, to be sure, is not the goal of music. Yet it is something to be able to evolve music that pays tribute to no man."

Finally, flutist Michel Debost is heard in "Density 21.5." (The work was written for George Barrère, who played a platinum flute. The density of platinum is 21.5.)

Michel Debost

The performances are entirely convincing to these ears. The one review I did find of this relatively obscure recording preferred the slightly earlier ones led by Robert Craft. However, if you are at all interested in the avant-garde of the 20th century, this LP is a good introduction to Varèse's compositions. It is vividly recorded.

Simonovitch, a native of Belgrade, was the founder and conductor of the Paris Instrumental Ensemble for Contemporary Music, which often appeared on ORTF, the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française. Debost is a well-known and often recorded soloist who was at one time the principal in the Orchestre de Paris. He now lives in the US.

LINK

The Earliest Varèse LP

The first LP of Varèse's music came out in 1950. It was recorded under the composer's supervision and issued by the tiny EMS label, issued by the Emily Music Shop of New York. Frederic Waldman was the conductor, René Le Roy the flutist, again in "Density 21.5."

I first posted the LP 15 years ago, and have now refurbished the sound, which is strikingly good for its time. The LP includes "Ionisation" and "Octandre," which are not performed on the Simonovitch album above.

This particular record was an inspiration to the young Frank Zappa. The download includes an article in which he discusses his quest to find a copy of it.

Although the jacket above says it is "Volume I" of the complete works, no further releases were to follow.

You can read more about the record in my original post. The direct download link is below.

LINK

The Earliest Varèse Recordings

There were at least three recordings of Varèse's music during the 78 era, two of which can be found via a new post on my singles blog. The percussion work "Ionisation" is led by Nicholas Slonimsky, best known as a writer on music. The recording comes from 1933. An excerpt from "Octandre" is performed by a wind and brass ensemble conducted by Walter Goehr in a 1937 recording.

More information about these works and the download link can be found here.

The 78s come from Internet Archive; the LPs above are from my collection.

Early Varèse Recordings

These were among the first recordings of Edgard Varèse's iconoclastic music. They were made under his supervision in 1950 by a small New York label. Although the cover says this is Volume 1, it actually is the only volume issued.

If you haven't heard Varèse's music, think of the sonorities Stravinsky unleashed in The Rite of Spring and Petrushka, and then use those sonorities as the basis of a musical syntax. That will give you some sense of Varèse's sound world.

And as C.J. Luten noted in American Record Guide: "Other key points, it seems to me, are his music’s continual suggestion of the characteristic sounds of city life (that the composer says 'have been all our lives a part of our daily consciousness') and its close affinity with primitive expression."

In truth, although Varèse was certainly considered "out there" in his day, he was in a sense a forerunner of trends to come, and composers of timbre-centered music have become more common and influential since his time.

The record did get warily positive reviews. The acute critic-composer Arthur Berger wrote in Saturday Review: "The ingredients [of Varèse's music] are pure rhythm and color, organized astutely in terms more realistic on paper than to the ear... To my ears 'Intégrales' is like an obstinate wisp of blues reflected in one of those distorting mirrors in amusement parks. Like most of his music, it points to a sensitive ear and enormous knowledge of what instruments can do, and EMS did full acoustic justice to these gifts. Any work of Varese is intriguing indeed on first acquaintance, but shock is not, as it would seem, its aim. There is no doubt of its sincerity, and it is a pleasure to see this sincerity rewarded by some recognition at last."

The performance on the record were praised by the critics. Conducting was Frederic Waldman. The flute piece "Density 21.5" was performed by René Le Roy.

One person who was strongly influenced by Varèse was the late rock musician Frank Zappa. He wrote an article for Stereo Review in 1971 where he talked about his quest to find a copy of this very recording and to get in touch with the composer. It's an amusing article and some of it may actually be true, so I've included it in the download. My real reason for bringing it up is because it demonstrates just how difficult it was to get recordings of rare music until fairly recently. The wonders of the internet!

Zappa's article also mentions that the LP was considered a sonic spectacular in its day, although in truth some of the seemingly spectacular quality was produced (as it often is) by a strong bias towards the presence region. I have compensated for that bias, and the results, while still sounding vivid, are now more full bodied.

REMASTERED VERSION - APRIL 2024