269
Dame Evelyn Glennie, the world’s
most celebrated percussionist, counts
Ionisation alongside the works of John
Cage and Steve Reich as the pinnacle
of the entire percussion repertoire.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 320MODERN 1900 –1950
by the sounds of urban landscapes.
Intrigued by the manifestos of the
Futurists, but wishing to refine the
cacophony they advocated, Varèse
searched for ways in which he
could suggest familiar industrial
sounds within a tightly controlled
compositional outlook.
Ionisation requires 13 players
and more than 30 instruments, only
three of which can play traditional
pitches. Varèse weaves together
their intricate textures to create a
strange soundscape in which snare
drums and claves coexist with a
güiro (a scraped gourd) and a cuíca,
a Brazilian friction drum. The brash
sounds of the city are effectively
evoked through the use of a metal
anvil as well as the hand-cranked
siren—an instrument used in many
of Varèse’s works.While the percussion layers create
an industrial sound, Ionisation is
not anarchic noise. The piece has a
strong dramatic rhythm; in a letter
to composer Carlos Salzedo, Varèse
claimed to have written the piece
for the flamenco dancer Vicente
Escudero. Still, the piece was so
difficult to play that percussionists
of the New York Philharmonic,
engaged to record the piece for its
premiere at Carnegie Hall, New
York, were dismissed, and Nicholas
Slonimsky, who conducted the
piece, brought in other performers
to play on the recording.The legacy of Varèse
Ionisation may not be widely
performed, but its influence on
future music is undeniable. While
John Cage denied being influenced
by it, it is difficult to listen to
Cage’s First Construction (in Metal;
1939) without hearing parallels to
Varèse. The rock guitarist Frank
Zappa also counted Varèse as one
of his earliest influences. ■Edgard Varèse
Born in France in 1883, Varèse
studied engineering at the
insistence of his father before
eventually deciding to study
music in Paris. There, he was
influenced by composers such
as Satie, Debussy, and Busoni.
After being invalided out of
the army in 1915, he emigrated
to New York where he earned
his living as a conductor.
It was in the 1920s that his
music first started to attract
attention, but Varèse wrote
sporadically—producing little
more than a dozen works
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 works1921 Amériques
1923 Octandre
1936 Density 21.5
1958 Poème électroniqueUS_268-269_Varese.indd 269 26/03/18 1:01 PM