Edgar Varese was an American composer, though he was born in Paris on December 22nd, 1883. He was very influential toward the use of atonality and rhythmic complexity, which he began to use in his works composed during the 1920’s. Varese didn’t truly start studying music until 1903, and by 1905 he was enrolled in Charles-Marie Widor’s composition class at the conservatoire. After living in Paris, he moved to Berlin for a short while, moved between the two cities, and made friends Hofmannsthal, Rolland and Debussy. However, he was never able to retain steady work in Europe, so in December of 1915, he departed for the USA. Here, he worked for some time, joined the Pan American Association for Composers, but still visited Paris occasionally. After a failed attempt to persuade two Paris companies to invest in electric instrument research, Varese was very depressed. He wrote Density 21-5 in 1936, but nothing else until a decade later. Density 21-5 was titled after the instrument it features: Barrere’s platinum flute. The density of platinum happens to be 21-5. The piece is for solo flute, and is very atonal. It features a large pitch range, and very strong dynamics. During his decade free of composing, Varese was a teacher. In his last years, Varese saw great appreciation of his work. He won an astounding amount of awards, had more and more his scores transcribed and performed. Unfortunately, one of his pieces, Nocturnal, was never finished because of his death in 1965.
Here is a link to the song, though it's on our midterm listening exam also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCFk0f8szes
