The works of Edgard Varese (1883-1965) represent the most radical
expression of 20th-century Modernism in music. Not only did he create
such orchestral showpieces as Ameriques and Arcana and such mainstays of
the instrumental repertoire as Octandre and Density 21:5; he also
pioneered works for percussion ensemble and electronic music, both on
tape and using electronic instruments. Yet books about Varese are few.
Either they are biographical studies by non-musicians, or severely
analytical treatises beyond the reach of the majority of music lovers
who are likely to hear his works in concert. This book takes a different
approach. Within a chronological scheme, its core is a series of
descriptive analyses; accessible to any literate music-lover, of all
Varese's available works. Malcolm MacDonald relates them to the ideas,
both aesthetic and scientific, which underlay Varese's boldly original
view of sound and musical structure. He shows how Varese's conception of
a music that explodes into space, of intelligent sounds moving in space
arose from 20th-century man's expanding consciousness of his place in
the universe, but also from the esoteric philosophies of late
19th-century Paris, inspired by Renaissance alchemists such as
Paracelsus. Much of Varese's output is destroyed, but it is possible to
infer much about his lost early works, his vast stage of composition
about communication with the star Sirius, and the unachieved choral
symphony Espace, designed to be performed simultaneously in the various
capitals of the world. This is also the first book to discuss the
previously unpublished Varese scores released for performance in 1998 by
Varese executor Chou Wen Chung.
