To know Varése – notes of 20th century music - Varése by Robert P. Morgan

Before I began to study Edgrad Varése, there was a question that popped into my mind: His name looks very French to me, and I know he immigrated to the US, but why is he considered an “American” composer? Another interesting thing to look at in his compositions is the language. Most of his compositions, instrumentation, and expressions are named or described in French. This confused me when I first began to learn about him and his music. I thought he was a French composer, not even thinking about the possibility that he was a French-born composer who had emigrated. After reading this article, it makes more sense to me.

He wrote all of his principal compositions while living in the US. After he came to America (the big “melting pot”) he felt as if he fit in to this country because of the new musical material and more contemporary atmosphere that was happening at that time here. He saw this turning point as a “symbolic rejection of his European past”. This could be traced back to 1907; Varése had been highly influenced by Busoni, an Italian composer, who just published his book Sketch of a New Musical Esthetic. Busoni’s philosophy that "Music was born free; and to win freedom is its destiny, " made an impression on the young Varése.

His first composition in America is Amériques. It is very interesting to see a new permanent resident that was just beginning a new exploration of musical resources in this new world.

As a percussionist, and as an immigrant to this country it means a lot to give my first blog issue on this topic for two reasons: 1. He gave the significant musical burden and independent role to percussion in the orchestra and, 2. wrote the first percussion ensemble music - Ionization. Although there is a piano in this composition, it was still considered as the first work written for percussion ensemble. In his style of composition, most of the “traditional” instrument shouldn’t be looked at in term of its harmonic or melodic details. The piano in this Ionization became a percussive instrument in order to present another unique color.

Unlike most post-tonal composers, Varése’s emphasis on percussion writing became the most important feature of his style. His music is different because of the instrumentation and also his emphasis on timbre, rhythm, and dynamic innovation in his compositions, as he described of his goal as the “liberation of sound”. Because of his background training in mathematics and engineering, he loved to discover new devices to create sound and new sounds on traditional instruments, especially his later use of electronic instruments as the medium for his music. During the 1930s and 1940s, the trend was still conservative. His using of electronic instruments wasn’t acceptable at the time. This made him one of the most experimental composers and also contributed to him feeling isolated.

His late period of music Déserts (1954) and Poème électronique (1958) appeared when the musical atmosphere had really begun to change. His high degree of interest, consistent activity and more reliable electronic instruments that were becoming available provided the new sources of sound for his compositions.