VARÈSE, Edgard

A Frenchman who studied in Italy and lived in Berlin before emigrating to America in 1915, Varese developed the concept of organized sound that eschewed precise pitch and other traditional musical structures for alternative kinds of musical coherence. His monumental departure lonisation (1931) is a wholly percussive piece that employs such nonmusical sound generators as sirens, sleigh bells, and brake drums that, incidentally, have indefinite pitch. To say that this short work, only several minutes...