Edgard Varèse

[7/4]

Allen Lowe wrote, 7/4 wrote

he also mentioned about some concerts that he said involved Varese,

Varese wrote Graphs and Time, a sketch for Macero and the Mingus band. It gets performed occasionally by the American Festival of Microtonal Music.

... and then Christiern wrote:

I had a little party for Varese back in the 60s. He showed great interest in my record (then LP) collection, skipping past the classical shelves.

Did he smile at all?

Tell us a bit about

him.

[Christiern]

Not much I can tell you, really. Varèse liked WBAI, the radio station I used to run, so when we produced a modest fund-raising concert at Town Hall, and featured flute solo), Density 21.5. He was very pleased and asked if he could attend. That was great, because he was in his 80s and I had wrongly assumed that he would not be as mobile as he turned out to be. I was delighted when he accepted an invitation to attend a post-concert party in his honor at my apartment (where I still live). All I can say is that he seemed to enjoy himself, he smiled warmly, ate a little (I had it catered by a Danish Restaurant--Old Denmark), and stayed for about an hour. I had, up to then, only met him once and we had a few phone conversations (I recall talking to him about the theramin). My impression of him was, well, that he was a remarkably regular guy--of course he was not really that, but that's how he carried himself. I think it was my music director, John Corigliano, who originally introduced us.

Not long after that, Varèse passed away.

Wish I could tell you more.

[7/4]

Works for me, thanks!

[AllenLowe]

there are, of course, the stories of Bird running into Varese down town and talking about studying with him - though some have claimed this to be false, it does seem to be confirmed by some interview I've read with Varese himself -

also, I don't think he used a theremin, at least on his early recordings - it was something called an ondes martenot -

[Christiern]

I don't recall the details of our conversation, but I told him that I had seen a theremin demonstration at school in England and that I found it quite interesting. Very few people I knew were aware of the instrument, so I recall being pleasantly surprised to find that he was very familiar with it. Don't recall if he said he had used it.

[BruceH]

Thanks for sharing your memory of Varese, Christiern! Very interesting.

[Ken Dryden]

I'm remember when I first got interested in learning more about Edgard Varèse after listening to Frank Zappa for a little while. I talked to my father and he pulled out a copy of The Complete Works of Edgard Varèse, Vol. 1, which he had purchased during the early 1950s at Sam Goody's in New York City.

I always thought it was a tragedy that he destroyed his early compositions. I'm still fascinated by his music 35 years after discovering it for myself.

I'll have to look around to see if anyone has recorded "Graphs and Time," as I'm unfamiliar with that Varèse composition.

[7/4]

I always thought it was a tragedy that he destroyed his early compositions. I'm still fascinated by his music 35 years after discovering it for myself.

It's a shame he didn't write more.

I'll have to look around to see if anyone has recorded "Graphs and Time," as I'm unfamiliar with that Varèse composition.

I don't think so. Doubt it.

[7/4]

for those who somehow missed it...

Edgard Varese: The Idol of My Youth

By Frank Zappa

Article taken from Stereo Review, June 1971. pp 61-62.

Edited April 5, 2008 by 7/4

[7/4]

...on vibes!

.

[Chuck Nessa]

Zappa almost made me turn away from Varese. Frank failed again.

[Rooster_Ties]

Zappa almost made me turn away from Varese.

How so?

[Rooster_Ties]

...on vibes!

Here's another one, on tenor recorder...

[rostasi]

"Edgard Varèse conducts a workshop with jazzmen Art Farmer (trumpet), Hal McKusik (clarinet, alto sax), Teo Macero (tenor sax), Eddie Bert (trombone), Frank Rehak (trombone), Don Butterfield (tuba), Hall Overton (piano), Charlie Mingus (bass), Ed Shaughnessy (drums), probably John La Porta (alto sax)..."

[BruceH]

Did he smile at all?

Are you kidding? He's smiling right there! (HIS version of a smile.)

[7/4]

looks happy to me.

[Chuck Nessa]

Bad shampoo.

Why haven't I been able to buy real poo in my lifetime?

[MartyJazz]

I've always dug his "Ameriques", especially the version in an old LP I own of Maurice Avranel conducting the Utah Symphony. Very exciting piece of music. Interestingly, I got turned on to Varese many years ago by a fanatic British Mingus collector with whom I had been trading tapes.

[alocispepraluger102]

a friend writes:

"I'm actually familiar with Vaerse's work. He was a forerunner of Stockhausen and many of the 20th century composers who experimented with electronic music. When I was much younger I followed the development of electronic music until Christof Penderecki (sp?) came along with his orchestrations that made synthesizers moot.

I knew Frank Zappa from a composers seminar he gave at OSU in the 80's. I was working in the Secretary of States office and Zappa came to the office to pick up some voter registrationm forms. Back then he was requiring everyone who attended his concerts to register to vote. He walked by the department where I was working and came in to say hello. You should have seen the looks on my co workers faces!"

[7/4]

Cool story, but what would I say if FZ walked into the room back then???

...

Edited September 7, 2009 by 7/4

[7/4]

something I'd like to check out, I'd love to hear piano versions of any Varèse compositions.

Edgard Varèse: Amériques / Morton Feldman: Piece for Four Pianos / Five Pianos

Content:

Morton Feldman: Piece for Four Pianos

Edgard Varèse: Amériques. Version for two pianos, eight hands

Morton Feldman: Five Pianos

Helena Bugallo: piano / Amy Williams: piano / Amy Briggs: piano / Benjamin Engeli: piano / Stefan Wirth: piano

Wergo WER 67082

Helena Bugallo writes about her edition of "Amériques":

"Edgard Varèse’s arrangement of 'Amériques' for two pianos, eight hands, resurfaced in 2004, during the cataloguing of his posthumous papers at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel. The edition prepared for the present recording is based on Varèse's manuscript and incorporates dynamics, articulations, and character indications taken from his 1921 orchestral score. Only occasionally was it necessary to modify the original division of parts among the players due to practical performance considerations. A few bars corresponding to solo percussion were added to complete the score."

Edited September 7, 2009 by 7/4

[7/4]

Edgard Varese, “Ameriques” and Morton Feldman, “Piece for Four Pianos” and “Five Pianos” performed by Bugallo- Williams Piano Duo and Friends (Wergo). On Oct. 28, 1972, one of the first and most memorable results of composer Morton Feldman’s long residence as UB’s “Varese Professor of Music” was the performance of Feldman’s otherworldly “Pianos and Voices” at a Creative Associate Concert in the Albright- Knox Gallery. The pianists were a New Music all-star team of Feldman himself, David Del Tredici, Julius Eastman, William Appleby and Lukas Foss, no less. It is, by all possible guesses, the same piece as the pedal-overtoned “Five Pianos” which, with less prominent humming, magically concludes the wonderful new disc by the Buffalo-formed Bugallo-Williams piano duo and their keyboard friends. The true star of the program, though, is Varese’s 1920 “Ameriques” which, in gigantic orchestra form, is one of the most magnificent and savage masterworks in all of modern music. In Varese’s own two-piano transcription discovered in 2004, it is an entirely different piece—jagged and of daunting difficulty but of the sort that Helena Bugallo and Amy Williams routinely attempt with neither hubris or difficulty but rather total nonchalance.

more here

[7/4]

Stravinsky and Varese.

[7/4]

[7/4]

Graphs And Time first recording...my own Sonic Bloom is on the same disk!

IDEAS

Ives Harrison Coates Cage Beardsley Partch Carrillo Varese Rimsky-Korsakov

American Festival of Microtonal Music (AFMM)