Edgard Varese - biographical sketch

Varese, Edgard [Edgar] (Victor Achille Charles).  Composer.  (1883-1965).  
Varese was born December 22, 1883, in Paris.  From 1907 to 1913, Varese 
was married to Suzanne Bing; they had one daughter.  In 1921, he married 
Louise Norton.  Varese died November 6, 1965, in New York.

Varese entered the Schola Cantorum in Paris in 1904, but left it to study at 
the Conservatoire in 1905.  At the Schola, he studied composition with 
Albert Roussel and conducting with Vincent D'Indy.  He joined Charles-Marie 
Widor's composition class at the Conservatoire.  In 1907, he received the 
"bourse artistique" offered by the City of Paris.  Varese was elected to 
membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1955, and to the 
Royal Swedish Academy in 1962.  Besides composing, Varese temporarily 
earned a living as a choral conductor - first of the chorus of the Universite 
Populaire in 1907 in Paris; in 1917, a performance of the "Requiem Mass" of 
Berlioz in New York; and in 1918, he conducted a concert of the Cincinnati 
Symphony Orchestra.

Varese founded, with Carlos Salzedo, the International Composers Guild in 
1922.  He also was one of the founders of the Pan American Society in 1926, 
dedicated to the promotion of music of the Americas.  Although Varese was
French-born, his music is unquestionably American, and in fact, he became a naturalized U. S. citizen in 1926.  He was strongly committed to the 
promotion of modern music throughout his life.  He was an explorer and 
inventor, best known for his ventures into the new timbre of electronic 
music.  He introduced an original principle of organizing the materials and 
forms of sound, even preferring the term "organized sound" to "music."  In the 
1920's, Varese produced a series of compositions which are highly complex
rhythmically, freely atonal, and in forms that were not dependent upon harmonic
progression or thematic working.  After World War II, he employed the newly
available technology in composing two of the first pieces that use electronic 
tape:  "Poeme electronique" and "Deserts."  Varese frequently made extensive 
use of percussion in his music.  One of his best-known works, "Ionization" is 
scored for thirteen percussion.  Varese was influenced by Debussy, Stravinsky, 
and Schoenberg, but his approach to organized sound is definitely original and 
had a great influence on future composers, particularly of American music.

JBE    
3/29/95