Edgard Varese: Composer, Sound Sculptor, Visionary

Book Description

Edgard Varèse, the pioneering composer of electronic music, formed the subject of a major exhibition in Basel in 2006; it displayed many previously unknown documents from the composer's estate, including manuscripts, letters, and other material. This volume contains detailed commentaries on all the items on display, as well as thirty-two essays by leading authors from Europe and America. Varèse's life and music are discussed under the following headings: Influences - Points of Orientation; Conductor and Initiator in New York; Probing Uncharted Territory; Impact and Reception. Many previously unknown documents from the composer's estate, recently acquired by the Paul Sacher Foundation, form the basis of a nuanced picture of Varèse's life, musical thought, and compositional output. The book is lavishly illustrated with facsimiles of manuscripts, letters, and other documents from the composer's collection, as well as reproductions of paintings, drawings and sculpture documenting Varèse's close ties to the visual arts. Contributors: JONATHAN W. BERNARD, GIANMARIO BORIO, DIANE BOUCHARD, AUSTIN CLARKSON, HERMANN DANUSER, MICHEL DUCHESNEAU, SABINE FEISST, KYLE GANN, FRITZ GERBER, THEO HIRSBRUNNER, ANNE JOSTKLEIGREWE, MATTHIAS KASSEL, SYLVIA KAHAN, KLAUS KROPFINGER, ERNST LICHTENHAHN, MALCOLM MACDONALD, GUIDO MAGNAGUAGNO, OLIVIA MATTIS, ULRICH MOSCH, HELGA DE LA MOTTE-HABER, FELIX MEYER, DIETER NANZ, ROBERT PIENCIKOWSKI, WOLFGANG RATHERT, DAVID SCHIFF, ANNE C. SHREFFLER, HEINZ STAHLHUT, JüRG STENZL, DENISE VON GLAHN, CHOU WEN-CHUNG, HEIDY ZIMMERMANN. Published in cooperation with the Paul Sacher Foundation.

Average customer rating:

'Poem Electronique' in detail

Space Calculated in Seconds
Marc Treib
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Mixed Media | Other Media | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Entertainment | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0691021376

Book Description

The pavilion designed by Le Corbusier for the Philips Company at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair showcased a spectacle that remains a landmark in multimedia production. The pavilion's nearly two million visitors encountered no typical display of consumer products; instead they witnessed a dazzling demonstration of cutting-edge technology in the service of the arts. This totally automated bombardment of color, voice, sound, and images was broadcast within a space of warped concrete shells, orchestrated by Le Corbusier and his colleagues into a cohesive 480-second program. The talents and efforts that went into this project, and the interaction of the personalities behind it, make for a fascinating tale that bridges architecture, music, and marketing--one that has never been told, perhaps because the building was dismantled after the fair. In this book, Marc Treib looks at both this remarkable collaboration and the significance of the Philips project, which can be viewed as a pioneering quest into the production of postmodern art or even as a prototype of virtual reality.

Achieving for the first time his goal to use electronic media for a synthesis of the arts, Le Corbusier collaborated with the composer/architect Iannis Xenakis, the filmmaker Philippe Agostini, the graphic designer and editor Jean Petit, and the composer Edgard Varèse, whose distinguished piece Poème électronique was composed for this project. Treib explains in vivid detail the idea and development of the building design--based on the geometry of the hyperbolic paraboloid--and how this ambitious vision materialized through an innovative system of precast concrete panels, engineered by H. C. Duyster. Treib also describes the working methods of the collaborators, depicting, for example, Xenakis's frustration with designing under Le Corbusier's shadow and the tensions suffered by the Philips artistic director coordinating his company's business interests with Le Corbusier's and Varèse's artistic aspirations.

This wide-ranging investigation into the Philips project also examines the role of rhythm, cinematic montage, spatialized sound, and the composition of Varèse's music. The result is an engaging exploration of artistic collaboration in the 1950s, set against the political and cultural context of a world exposition, and of the realization of ambitious architectural ideas.

Customer Reviews:

'Poem Electronique' in detail.......2000-04-25

This book tells the story of the world's first fully automated multi-media experience. The Phillips pavillion at the 1958 Worlds Fair was unusual in that it didn't merely showcase the company's products---Philips demonstrated the technological feats they were capable of through an eight minute display of light, film, color and sound known as 'Poem Electronique.' Two of the key figures in the story are, of course, the architect Le Corbusier and the composer Edgard Varese; anyone interested in either of these two would enjoy this book. Those familiar with Varese's music from this project would be especially interested to learn the context in which it was originally set. Iannis Xenakis also appears here as Le Corbusier's assistant. Anyone interested in Xenakis would enjoy this book as it is after completion of the 'Poem Electronique' that music becomes his primary focus. The book is well-researched, well-written, and well-presented. There are many many illustrations, which help---through them we get a better idea of what the 'Poem Electronique' experience was like, we get to see how the designs for it progressed on paper, and we get to see the constructions as they were being put together. This book examines a very unique meeting of art and technology, one that can neve again be experienced as originally intended.

Average customer rating:

Var`Ese: A Looking-Glass Diary
Louise Varese
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0393074617

Grand Street 63: Crossing the Line (Winter 1998)

Average customer rating:

Grand Street 63: Crossing the Line (Winter 1998)

Manufacturer: Grand Street
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1885490143

Ionisation for Percussion Ensemble of 13 Players: Full Score

Average customer rating:

revolution/evolution

Ionisation for Percussion Ensemble of 13 Players: Full Score

Manufacturer: Ricordi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Songbooks | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Six Brandenburg Concertos and the Four Orchestral Suites in Full Score (Dover Orchestral Scores)

ASIN: 0793546516

Customer Reviews:

revolution/evolution.......2006-10-18

Lion's Roars, cloches, Field drums, tam-tam, Sirens, snare drums, temple block,s wood blocks, cymbals, Varese was hovering around the physical world, he was always interested in how blocks, and densities, like the growing experiences of cities made its way into the world of sound, of timbre. He always had more ideas than he knew what to do with, but his rather modest oeuvres had cast a beacon well into and past what we now call post-modernity. He thought percussion alone could be utilized for materials in music, It is music, although this piece is unfortunatly the most copied, by Hollywood chase scenes and creeping terminators but all the innovators, this was a work everyone needed to get past,we really don't know if anyone did and since then there have been attempts at purely percussion works perhaps holding in abeyance that modernity has past by all of us, as it has past as an angel of 'illumination' or darkness, as the 'sulphurs' of all the 20th Century wars,corruption(s), greed and genocides seems to be with us as strongly as ever.Well EREWHON by Hughes Dufourt is a tepid, tenuous piece, measuring the thousands of timbral particles,prior to its construction;It holds its own something Varese would have liked to hear.Steve Reich also with his modest piece for four woodblocks still contains a gentle fascination, and early Cage. The unaccompanied percussion solos was a good place Ionization felt its influence, Ferneyhough's "Bone Alphabet", Feldman's "King of Denmark". Ralph Shapey as well of all the post dodecaphonists held a close association to 'Ionization' and Varese in philosophy, freedom, committment and timbre.Curious how the percussion solo after the Wars became tamer than 'Ionization', not nearly as explosive,or brutal, percussion inhabited a Zen garden(well with Cage) a lyrical place "quieting" the populations.

Average customer rating:

more pronounced Varese

Integrales: Study Score
Chou Wen-chung
Manufacturer: Ricordi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Songbooks | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0793573459

Book Description

Since its first publication in 1926, Integrales has been revised at least two times by Varese. This study score, edited by Chou Wen-chung, includes program notes of new revisions made by the composer. Duration ca. 11 minutes.

Customer Reviews:

more pronounced Varese.......2006-06-27

Two Piccolos, Oboe, Eb Clarinet, Bb Clarinet, Horn, Trumpet in d, Trumpet in C, Tenor Trombone, Bass Trombone, Contrabass Trombone, 4 Percussion, Suspended Cymbal, Snare Drum, Tenor Drum, Castanets, Sleighbells, Chains, Tambourine, Low Tam Tam, Bass Drum, Slap Stick, you really feel this piece,the physicality of it like a steel girder,I always think of Richard Serra, but there is spirituality there, private, whereas in Varese there is an element of assault, like a siren, or a jack-air hammer, or simply the convolutions of traffic; For its relative small ensemble constitution of instruments there is something grandiose, perhaps a leftover from Varese,his early years; the work has considerable power, the tension many times results from the opening of spaces, and the focus on solo passages, like metal threads,doll-rods that holds the bridge together,against these solos, sustained percussion gong, tam-tam almost imperceptible timbres can be introduced as a premonition to the full bodied ensemble entering, The three trombones as well give,and lend more a clarity,and the fact that there is no Tuba(Contrabass Trombone instead) adds to the clarity. A Tuba, as glorious as it sounds would have functioned to blend/smear more the sonorities,more overtones rpresented per square acoustic footage (here the Contra Bass Trombone sticks out more,has more an edge)also there is not a bevy of snarling, nasty horns,only one with superimposed on whatever the trombones iterate, usually chordal declamations, The two piccolos well serve to "light-up" the work with a stridentcy,piercing moments; they really do not mix,or blend with anything else as the trombones merely claiming a timbral territory,perhaps they are close to the trumpet in D, smaller piccolo trumpet. The solos help contribute to the tension;like something has fallen out of the work, an open space,and in open sapces you can then see or hear lines more clearly,that when the rest of the ensemble enters; the percussion here punctuates whatever the winds do,but they do have a mystery, almost like DiChirico,someone also fascinated by modernities new found language and spaces; same identical rhythms are played much of the time, like this is an etude in how to sustain a timbre,disrupt it,subvert it twist it into other shapes then a dense chord, and slowly take away from it, the reiterations of the sustain timbre as well is what makes the work cohere toward conclusion.

Average customer rating:

good read on a boring life
I'm Still Waiting for a Varese Biography!!!
Varese deserves better
Long-Awaited, Important, But Flawed

Edgard Varese
Alan Clayson
Manufacturer: Sanctuary Publishing, Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1860743986

Book Description

French born New Yorker Edgard Varese sound-tracked inductrial society just as Debussy had more pastoral settings.

Customer Reviews:

good read on a boring life.......2007-07-30

Composer's lives are not ALL they are cracked up to be,most live in squalor,neglect and un-recognition most of their lives, the ones that begin by winning prizes are easily corruptible and will prostitute their art if the $$$ is right.We have numerous "composer-hookers" around,no need to worry, great abundances, but knowing some minutae, (mine U-Shah)on a composer's boring uneventful life may serve to shed light on his primary works. In that Varese sought a truth, truth of sound or timbre of construction unpretenciously in his aesthetic, one that should conform with the burgeoning vigours of the modern, the metropolis, flat surfaces, and electronic imports into music, all point toward a fascinating subject.

There is no doubt on Varese's influence WAS, in the PAST tense, I do not know what his influence may be right now, Composers of any philosophic stripe seem to be drawn to the power of his music, the unrelenting-ness of it, the innovative experimental side, all things quickly forgotten, and now with the "comfort zone" of years, Varese is fairly a safe predictable subject.When he began all his works he was largely ignored and thought insignificant, inconsequential. In retrospect we can glibly see all this now, everyone knows everything about everybody, there are no more mysteries or paradigms in the Neo-Liberal order colonizing the hearts and minds of today's populace.

Writing about all this has indeed become problematic for if you do not have an academic perspective of analysis pummeling a work into the ground, tracing evolutions,differences, continuities, paradigms, dead-ends, densities, and complexities what's left??. Pure writing and that's where Clayson falls here, an aspect overlooked by those who find nothing of inherent value herein.
The revolution is over, Mickey Mouse and Bill Gates won it, so the vigours of modernity is merely now today something to be practiced,and thought about,Creators are isolated, marginalized,censored through neglect( like Spinoza who ground Lens for a supportive means)while his philosophic visions were largely ignored in his time ,Varese had always more ideas than he could practically realize,so he was fortunate to hear his primary works during his lifetime largely with gifted conductors as Ralph Shapey.
Clayson's work here is not academic by any means but remains a good read.We need more literary excursions on music;You will never be invited to a seminar of the American Musicological Society to present it, but who cares? all we want is our writers to satisfy the "knowledge" card bringing "16 Wheeler" Tone-Pitch analysis and technical detail to their work, this is their one productive value that makes them part of the working class I suppose,"knowledge (You read Lacan's "Four Discourses") so when it is missing or avoided because others have so vigourously covered the subject we find fault.
Poor Mr. Clayson doesn't get no Respect ! !. Any interest generated in Varese I think is a positive move,He changed contemporary expression in music and ingluenced a generation of composers; good writing is good reading, and Who knows perhaps there is an aspect of Varese work you would never have thought of unless you read Clayson's plagued error-prone account here. READ, Thinkers READ. . .

I'm Still Waiting for a Varese Biography!!!.......2004-07-06

The English-speaking music world has been waiting for a comprehensive biography of musical maverick Edgard Varese for nearly a century. Varese is probably the only important contemporary composer who has never been the recipient of scholarly attention. So imagine my delight when I picked up this book on a recent trip to St. Louis. Finally, the English biography of the elusive composer that I'd been waiting for! Unfortunately, after reading the book, I'm still waiting for a good book on the composer.

This book, written by rock biographer Alan Clayson, is the single worst musical biography I've ever read. Clayson is better known for his tomes on the Beatles, including the popular Backbeat, which told the story of the Beatles' early years in Germany. Unfortunately, he brings the same gossipy qualities and rock-magazine journalist prose to this enterprise and the results are really poor. The facts of Varese's life are basically not very exciting. Like most composers, Varese's profession was solitary and, in his case, marked by extended periods of inaction. Clayson is reduced to creating imaginative scenes and undocumented reactions in an effort to "spice" up the biographical skeleton. He also injects his own opinions into the narrative liberally, ascribing to Varese contempt for more popular composers like Copland that is not bourn out by the facts. And he reserves a chapter and a half for Frank Zappa, a figure that, though he was indeed a great proponent of the composer, never met the man.

All of this would be merely annoying but could be justified if Clayson had anything of interest to say about Varese's compositions. After all, the most interesting thing about a composer is always the music. But Clayson is mind-numbingly braindead when it comes to speaking about music. There is no analysis of the works in question. Rather, Clayson is given to speaking in purple prose about his dubious impressions of the compositions. Ameriques in particular is subjected to ridiculous treatment, as Clayson blathers on about "the otherworldly deliberation of a dream's slow motion in its paranormal and fragmented mindscapes of frontier forts and wide white spaces on a map of emptiness." Often, Clayson seems proud of his musical ignorance, as he ridicules theorists subjecting works like Density 21.5 to analysis, as if the desire to study a seminal modern score is somehow base.

The shame of it is that Varese is a composer that is endlessly fascinating, even given his very small surviving output. No follower of the "isms" of the 20th century, Varese made his own way, and indeed proved prophetic. He was an early and enthusiastic pioneer in electronic music and predicted the day when performers would be replaced by machines capable of directly communicating a composer's thought to an audience, something that, for better or worse, is increasingly common in these days of MIDI. And his attitude toward music as organized sound has had wide-ranging influence in the world of 20th century composition and even experimental rock. All of this is makes the composer a fruitful subject for a comprehensive biography. Someday, someone with ability will attempt the biography I've been waiting for. Until that day, Clayson's book is all we've got. My suggestion is to be patient and don't waste your money on this drivel.

Varese deserves better.......2004-04-09

Varese urgently deserves a decent and independent biography and an approachable analysis of his musical works.

Clayson is not up to either task. This book is poorly written, full of historical inaccuracies and/or misunderstandings, and devoid of any substantial musical analysis.

I truly regret having spent money on this.

Long-Awaited, Important, But Flawed.......2003-10-26

Edgard Varese was one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century, but somehow no English-language biography of this titan was ever published, until now. I have been awaiting this publishing event for more than 25 years. That this book fills such a major void accounts for most of the 3 stars I gave it. Alan Clawson is generally known as a rock historian, and his style is probably better suited to that. He gives us the details of Varese's life as well as some glimpses of the private man, and does a decent enough job of it. There is also adequate description of Varese's too-infrequent published compositions. But he refers to himself much too often for the biography of a man he never met - and mostly of the "Yeah, I remember listening to the Beatles on my car radio" variety, transferred onto the avant-garde composer. And such flippant words and phrases as "kinda", "feller", and "Oh, Gawd" serve as a jarring distraction from the subject and call still more unneeded attention to the author. There is also a chapter and a half devoted to Frank Zappa, an admirer of Varese. Nothing wrong with that per se, I guess, but I fail to see how Zappa's arrest on a morals charge falls within the scope of this book. There is virtually nothing on how Varese's influence can be heard in Zappa's music. If you like Varese and have wanted to learn more about him, go ahead and get the book. But if you've waited a quarter-century as I have, you may not find it entirely worth the wait.

Ameriques for Orchestra (1922): Full Score

Average customer rating:

Ameriques for Orchestra (1922): Full Score

Manufacturer: Ricordi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Songbooks | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Orchestra | Instrumentation | Sheet Music & Scores | Formats | Books
ASIN: 0634033913

Book Description

Revised in 1997 by Chou Wen-chung.

Die Musik von Edgard Varese: Studien zu seinen nach 1918 entstandenen Werken

Average customer rating:

Die Musik von Edgard Varese: Studien zu seinen nach 1918 entstandenen Werken
Helga De la Motte-Haber
Manufacturer: Wolke Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

German | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Entertainment | German | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

Nonfiction | German | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All German Books | German | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 3923997566

Average customer rating:

Edgar Varese (Musique)
Marc Bredel
Manufacturer: Mazarine
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

French | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Entertainment | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

Nonfiction | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 286374139X

Book Description

His Life, My Portion is a book of Devotionals that you can choose daily the subject you would most enjoy and that will satisfy your interest at that particular time.

Average customer rating:

I Want My Portion!
Gail L. Thomas
Manufacturer: PPC Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0976728907

Average customer rating:

My Portion: (An Autobiography
Rebekah Kohut
Manufacturer: Arno Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Jewish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Judaism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0405067224

Suddenly My Heart Stopped for Just a Small Portion of Time: Defining Moments

Average customer rating:

Suddenly My Heart Stopped for Just a Small Portion of Time: Defining Moments
Students in Conjunction with 826 Valencia
Manufacturer: 826 Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 097792890X

Book Description

This book provides personal narratives written by fifth graders and high school seniors.

Fragmenta condita: the unrecorded portion of my Kipling collection: (Appendix to "A bibliography of the works of Rudyard Kipling.")

Average customer rating:

Fragmenta condita: the unrecorded portion of my Kipling collection: (Appendix to "A bibliography of the works of Rudyard Kipling.")
E. W Martindell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0008CHLXY

If It Is Not My Portion To Meet Thee in This My Life Then Let Me Ever Feel That I Have Missed Thy Sight ...[Song Offering 79] (EASTERN LITERATURE, INDIAN POETRY)

Average customer rating:

If It Is Not My Portion To Meet Thee in This My Life Then Let Me Ever Feel That I Have Missed Thy Sight ...[Song Offering 79] (EASTERN LITERATURE, INDIAN POETRY)
Rabindranath Tagore
Manufacturer: AREPRINT SERVICE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H4FN9M

My diary,: 1746-1855. Portions of a journal written in the Old Sayre House on the Ridge in Madison, New Jersey

Average customer rating:

My diary,: 1746-1855. Portions of a journal written in the Old Sayre House on the Ridge in Madison, New Jersey
Mary Elizabeth Burnett
Manufacturer: printed for the Madison Historical Society by the Golden Hind Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007EZYZ0

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books