TITLE: Deserts (1954)

COMPOSER: Edgard Varese (1885-1965)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

In 1885, Edgard Varese was born in Paris. His parents planned for him to become an engineer. When he was nine, the Varese family moved to Turin. Edgard engaged in composition until he was seventeen, when Giovanni Balzoni of the Turin Conservatory became his mentor. Through Balzoni, young Varese became a percussionist with the Turin Opera. At nineteen, he returned to Paris where he studied at the Schola Cantorum with Albert Roussel and Vincent D'Indy, whom he considered rather stuffy. While in Paris, he won an important municipal composition prize. It was at the Schola Cantorum that he formed a lifelong interest in medieval, renaissance and baroque music. He formed a Schola Cantorum in Santa Fe in 1937. Varese was famous for introducing audiences to composers such as Monteverdi, Perotin and Schutz, who were unfamiliar at the time. It was around 1914 that Varese began evolving a new concept of composition based on the liberation of sound, which he referred to as "living matter". His own compositions were referred to as "organized sound". In 1915, Varese moved to New York where he plunged into a series of innovative musical activities. These included the formation of the International Composer's Guild in 1921. Although this lasted only six years, it presented many new works. The following year in Berlin, he formed the Internazionalen Komponisten. In 1917, Varese was conductor of a Berlioz Requiem presentation which brought him much notoriety, however, his musical views brought much criticism. A famous quote demonstrating his philosophy toward music and life in general is the following: "I was not interested in tearing-down, but in finding new means."

Quote by Edgard Varese

MOVEMENTS: One

PERFORMANCE TIME: 24' 45"

INSTRUMENTATION: 14 Instruments

• 1 Piccolo, 1 Flute, 1 Clarinet, 1 Bass Clarinet, 2 Horns, 3 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, 1 Tuba, piano, 1 percussion, 2-Magnetic Tapes of electronically organized sounds transmitted on two channels by means of stereophonic system.

EDITIONS: Available for Purchase

1. E.C. Kerby, Ltd., 198 Davenport Rd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5R-1J2
2. G. Schirmer, Inc., 866 Third Ave., New York, NY 10022

COMPOSITION SKETCH AND MUSICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Deserts is considered to be the first electronic composition for wind band. Deserts was conceived for two different media: instrumental sounds and sounds electronically produced. After planning the work as a whole, Varese wrote the instrumental score, always keeping in mind its relation to the organized sound sequence on tape to be interpolated at three different points in the score. There are four instrumental sections of different lengths and three interpolations of organized sound. The music given to the instrumental ensemble may be said to be evolved in opposing planes and volumes, producing the sensation of movement in space, however, the intervals between the pitches determine these ever-changing and contrasted volumes and planes. They are not based on any fixed set of intervals, such as a scale, a series or any existing principle of musical measurement. They are decided by the exigencies of this particular work. The title, Deserts, should not lead the listener to expect descriptive music. Varese stated that there was no program, no literal reference. For him but not, he insisted, necessarily for anyone else, the word desert suggested not only "all physical deserts (of sand, sea, snow, of outer space, of empty city streets), but also the deserts in the mind of man; not only those stripped aspects of nature that suggest bareness, aloofness and timelessness, but also that remote inner space no telescope can reach where man is alone, a world of mystery and essential loneliness." (quote by Edgard Varese)

SELECTED RECORDINGS:

RELATED WEBSITES:

Varese Page - http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/13355.html