Poeme Electronique (Electronic Poem;

1958),
by Edgard Varese
Edgard Varese (1883-1965), one of the great innovators of twentieth-century
music, was born in France but spent most of his life in the United States. As
early as 1916, he dreamed of freeing music from the limitations of traditional
instruments and expanding the vocabulary of sounds. During the 1920s and
1930s, Varese pioneered in the exploration of percussive and noise-like sounds,
and he wrote the first important work for percussion ensemble (Ionisation, 1931).
But it was the new electronic developments of the 1950s that enabled Varese to
realise his vision of a liberation of sound. In 1958, at the age of seventy-five,
he composed Poeme electronique, one of the earliest masterpieces of electronic
music created in a tape studio. The 8 minute work was designed to be heard
within the pavilion of the Philips Radio Corporation at the 1958 Brussels World
Fair. Varese obtained unique spatial effects by projecting sound from 425 loudspeakers placed all over the interior surfaces of the pavilion. The composers
worked in collaboration with the architect Le Corbusier, who selected a series of
images photographs, paintings and writing that were projected on the walls
as the music was heard. However, Varese did not make any attempt to
synchronise the sounds with the images chosen by Le Corbusier, which included
birds and beasts, fish and reptiles, ..masks and skeletons, idols, girls clad and
un-clad, cities in normal appearance and then suddenly askew, as well as
atomic mushroom clouds.

Because it was created in a tape studio, Poeme electronique exists in only a

single performance whose duration (8minutes) is fixed on audiotape. Vareses
raw material tones and noises came from a wide variety of sources, including
electronic generators, church bells, sirens, organs, human voices, and machines.
The sounds are often electronically processed in such a way that they cannot be
precisely identified. In the listening outline, the effect of such sounds is
conveyed by words placed in quotation marks; for example, wood blocks or
chirps. Varese organised his sounds into an electronic poem that seems weird
yet is amazingly logical and compelling.
Poeme electronique divides into two main sections, the first lasting 2 minutes 36
seconds and the second 5 minutes 29 seconds. Each section begins with low bell
tolls and ends with sirens. Heard several times during Poeme is a distinctive
group of three rising tones. Human voices and recognisable organ tones appear
only during the second section. Varese once remarked about the female voice
heard toward the end: I wanted it to express tragedy and inquisition.
Some further points about Poeme electronique:

It is classified as Musique concrete (French pronunciation: meaning

concrete music) is a form of electroacoustic music that is made in part
from acousmatic sound. It can feature sounds derived from recordings of
musical instruments, voice, and the natural environment as well as those
created using synthesisers and computer-based digital signal processing.
The pavilion that it was held in was shaped like a stomach, with a narrow
entrance and exit on either side of a large central space. As the audience
entered and exited the pavilion, the electronic composition Concret PH by
Iannis Xenakis (who acted as Le Corbusiers architectural assistant for the
pavilions design) was heard. Poeme electronique was synchronised to a
film of black and white photographs selected by Le Corbusier which
touched on vague themes of human existence. Le Corbusiers original
concept called for a pause in the film while his voice was heard, speaking
directly to the audience. However, Varese objected to the idea that Le
Corbusiers voice would be played over his composition, and the idea was
abandoned.
The interior of the pavilion was also lit by a constantly changing pattern of
coloured lights, and in addition to the film, three separate projectors
showed additional still photos on the walls.
The piece was originally recorded on three separate mono tapes, two of
which were in turn recorded onto a stereo tape with panning effects. The
stereo tape and the remaining mono tape were finally combined onto
35mm perforated tape in order to synchronise the tape with the film and
lighting changes.

Listening Guide
The composition opens with the sound of a bell resonating within a space which
is sparse, empty, open and free. The following sounds are isolated and
scattered. The orientation is multidirectional and the image definition localised.

The sounds overlap and cross over or are separated by intervening spaces,
notably the long silence at 5.35. Each time the bell resonates it is with greater
reverb which increases the tension and size of the surrounding space. Panning
adds to the disorientation. Repeated patterns of the bell and the three note
semitones at 0.55 and sirens help to keep the piece connected although the
rhythms of percussion can really be considered the glue that holds the entire
piece together. While the rhythms do not mimic each other, they are the single
constant theme in Poeme, sometimes supportive, sometimes the primary
motive. Each group of sounds is in marked contrast to the sounds that
proceeded it, but although often startling there is also a feeling that whilst new, a
relatedness exists. Hollow wooden sounds follow harsh metal sounds, a frantic,
densely textured section is followed by silence.it is these juxtapositions
which keep the piece interesting and ensure our attention. All parts are echoed
and amplified in the conclusion of the composition.
The composition uses three basic methods to link elements. The first and most
important of these is space. The open, unrestricted space into which the sound
is abandoned becomes one of the comforting familiar constants in the piece.
Secondly, it is held together obviously by pitch both in terms of plateau and
pitches relative to each other. Thirdly the silences become a unifying motif as a
regular bridge to the next element. The only departure from this being the richly
interwoven passage of heavy resonance and echo which follows the
establishment of a theme at the beginning. In this section the sounds overlap
and cross over, whereas at all other times they simply move on in a forward
direction. There is diffusion of sound throughout as the very source of each
sound is in itself tremulous. Linking is also made by repeating the first note as
the last, with repetition of the starting theme and in the connective three note
descending melody which is placed as a recapitulation and resolving device. The
ending is deliberately abrupt, but not unresolved. The last sound is a stronger
more assertive rendition of the first. Happy, established, without need to justify
itself the sound has already been validated by its repetition in its many guises
throughout the piece. We do not question its relatedness to any other . It is
the whole.