An investigation of Edgard Varèse’s Poème Électronique
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5 word format
document in English
sociology
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published 19/06/2008
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SummaryTo those who are familiar with the unique historical context in which he was growing up, it comes as little surprise that Edgard Varèse was a composer at the forefront of the twentieth-century electronic music movement. As Malcolm MacDonald claims in his treatise on the artist, Varèse grew up during a time when“ a stream of cultural and technological innovations were changing Western man’s idea of the world, and his relation to it” (xii). He was born in the same year that synthetic fiber was invented, and before he even reached the age of ten, the world would witness the invention of the first steam turbine, the first electric motor, the pneumatic tire, and the box camera. Not long thereafter, the gramophone record and cinematograph would come into being, Sigmund Freud would publish his thoughts on the concepts of the unconscious self, the Wright brothers conduct their first powered flight, and Albert Einstein formulate his Special Theory of Relativity. Varèse was “literally a child of the modern age,” very likely leading to his interest in the use of electronic media to explore sound and music in a highly innovative way (MacDonald xi-xv).
Table of Contents
- An introduction to the composer.
- Background/overview of the piece.
- Detailed analysis of Poème Électronique
- Today there does not exist an intact, conventional score for Poème Électronique.
- Almost immediately the work evokes a sense of a specific closed space.
- The most curious, unifying aspect of the Poème Électronique is the occurrence of a characteristic Varèse motif.
- Conclusion.
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