Page 271 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

MODERN 1900–1950 269

See also: Ives’s Symphony No. 4 254–255 ■ Parade 256–257 ■ Symphonie pour
un homme seul 298–301 ■ 4´33˝ 302–305 ■ Six Pianos 320

by the sounds of urban landscapes. While the percussion layers create
Intrigued by the manifestos of the an industrial sound, Ionisation is
Futurists, but wishing to refine the not anarchic noise. The piece has a
cacophony they advocated, Varèse strong dramatic rhythm; in a letter
searched for ways in which he to composer Carlos Salzedo, Varèse
could suggest familiar industrial claimed to have written the piece
sounds within a tightly controlled for the flamenco dancer Vicente
compositional outlook. Escudero. Still, the piece was so
Ionisation requires 13 players difficult to play that percussionists
and more than 30 instruments, only of the New York Philharmonic,
three of which can play traditional engaged to record the piece for its Edgard Varèse
pitches. Varèse weaves together premiere at Carnegie Hall, New
their intricate textures to create a York, were dismissed, and Nicholas Born in France in 1883, Varèse
strange soundscape in which snare Slonimsky, who conducted the studied engineering at the
drums and claves coexist with a piece, brought in other performers insistence of his father before
güiro (a scraped gourd) and a cuíca, to play on the recording. eventually deciding to study
a Brazilian friction drum. The brash music in Paris. There, he was
sounds of the city are effectively The legacy of Varèse influenced by composers such
evoked through the use of a metal Ionisation may not be widely as Satie, Debussy, and Busoni.
anvil as well as the hand-cranked performed, but its influence on After being invalided out of
siren—an instrument used in many future music is undeniable. While the army in 1915, he emigrated
of Varèse’s works. John Cage denied being influenced to New York where he earned
by it, it is difficult to listen to his living as a conductor.
Cage’s First Construction (in Metal; It was in the 1920s that his
Dame Evelyn Glennie, the world’s 1939) without hearing parallels to music first started to attract
most celebrated percussionist, counts attention, but Varèse wrote
Ionisation alongside the works of John Varèse. The rock guitarist Frank sporadically—producing little
Cage and Steve Reich as the pinnacle Zappa also counted Varèse as one more than a dozen works
of the entire percussion repertoire. of his earliest influences. ■ as he searched for ways to
create truly electronic music.
Eventually, in the 1950s,
technology had evolved
sufficiently to allow him to
create Deserts for ensemble
and tape, and in 1958 his
Poème électronique, one of
the first works created by
manipulating magnetic tape,
was performed at the Brussels
Exhibition through 400
speakers in Le Corbusier’s
pavilion. Varèse died in 1965.

Other key works
1921 Amériques
1923 Octandre
1936 Density 21.5
1958 Poème électronique

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