Drum ensamble. This is more avant garde, but I was in one in the late 70's in Vancouver WA. I think there were 14 of us, ran by a guy named Delayne Guild(e), it was extraordinary, sight reading only, I wish I had recordings. Thanks for posting. I had no idea this is what Delayne was after until I saw this.
It hard to explore culture today because we are living in a commercial madhouse, culture like politics, or 'truth' is made by those who can scream the loudest. Everything is made of marketing, even dissent is absorbed and neatly packaged with nice labels, commercialised. and so..... Varese still sounds like a new voice
If you can find a copy of the concert conducted in NYC by Leonard Slatkin right after 9/11, you'll hear an interesting piece of history. When Maestro Slatkin conduced the St. Louis Symphony, he had a habit of programming an entirely "modern" piece to start a concert. If the average music lover wanted to hear their pretty Schumann on the second half of the show, they had to sit through the first half. At his concert for 9/11... years after he left the SLSO for the American Orchestra in DC, right in the middle of the show, he programmed a snare drum solo. Bravo, Maestro!
Fabulous piece of music -- I stumbled across this years ago on a compilation CD. All of Varese's music pushes the boundaries like this -- he took the idea of classical music and moved it into uncharted territory. Truly groundbreaking stuff. You can understand how this would have lit a creative fire in Frank Zappa's head.
Just a remarkable performance. The courage, the dedication, and the conviction to the score and to the composer are evident in the performers' faces even if you are not clear on the methodology of the performance.
Very courageous to make music that 17 people find enjoyable. Bill Maher said it best, no one puts Frank Zappa on because they want to have a good time. This is in the category.
That's because of the siren sound. Where I lived before all the dogs of my block (yes, ALL OF THEM) started to howl at the same time, every time the firemen of the neighborhood passed near by with the siren ON... and that was almost every day, pretty annoying... XD
then your dog is a coward. "Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ears lie back in an easy chair. Many sounds that we are used to do not bother us, and for that reason we are inclined to call them beautiful. Frequently, when a new or unfamiliar work is accepted as beautiful on its first hearing, its fundamental quality is one that tends to put the mind to sleep. Stand up and take your dissonance like a man. I don’t write music for sissies. If music merely repeats itself, and becomes nothing but rote expressions of shallowness, then music will die. Charles Ives 1931
Imagine listening to this for the first time after growing up with R&B, rockabilly, country music and doowop. To the teenaged Frank Zappa it must have sounded on first hearing like it had been written by an alien.
i used to hate the electronic sound movement, but to be fair the more you listen to it and accept that it really is there you understand why people enjoy it.
+Eliezer Pennywhistler I have read to some authors whose opinion is in that way. Amadeo Roldán had written some little pieces just for percusion before Varèse, but Varèse is who writes a classical piece and universal (in occidental music) only for percusion.
+Roberto Rosillo-vich I was inspired from Ionization to compose a little music piece called "étude pour percussion". You can listen in the next link. I hope you like: myspace.com/rosillo-vich/music/songs
It's not snobbery if you like it. It's snobbery if you think you have better taste than the mainstream because you like it, and that somehow makes you more intelligent and sophisticated than the mainstream.
I'm personally pretty fond of the "organized sound" definition. Despite what many claim, it doesn't necessary exclude a chaotic, random sound-source. The key is selection, if you tune your ears to a washing machine and ignore other audio input, you are acting as a sampling musician. You, the listener, is organizing the sounds. Even John Cage's famous experiments into the limits of music, like 4'33, are organized, just not in the way we are used too.
This is the first time I've heard an Edgar Varse composition. I can see why Frank Zappa liked him so much. I bet it's really hard to write music like this. And to play it too!
It is awesome to find an Edgard Varese piece played on UA-cam. I first listened to his work several years ago when I found out that he was one of Frank Zappa's influences. I came to find out he was one of Pink Floyd's influences also. There aren't many Varese pieces in existence. Pity...
I had never heard a piece like this outside of the context of old films. Neat. I got the impression that this is desert music, but that may be because of the guy that turned me on to it. I have never seen so many percussionist babes in one room; wow.
I first heard of this piece in the 1970's as mentioned by Frank Zappa. A fascinating brew, not for everyday consumption. So pleased to have come across it once again.
John, there's 14 if you count the conductor. I got this on DC++ in 2005, and just for the info, I'm 99% sure Daniel Kawka is the conductor. I saw him conduct a French Ensemble here in São Paulo later that year (by the way, they played Varèse's "Octandre" that evening), and again last year, and I recognized him from this video - he looked pretty much like the same person to me.
Not a symphony... Ionisation is a percussion piece for thirteen players, considered pioneer in the use of electronic devices to create new sounds in academic music (in this case, the sirens)
what I love about listening to avant garde music like this is you never know if they're making mistakes. Unless you have the score in front of you, and even then...
Even if you personally don't enjoy this music, I think you have to respect the fact that it has inspired others to create, including Frank Zappa, a man who went on to write a LOT of music, music which has been enjoyed by many for years. Any piece of music that inspires others to create, and as a result, keeps music going, is in my opinion a force for good!
You do hear this layered through a lot of Zappa's works. I don't think if Zappa had never heard this he would have been so inspired to develop his art. Zappa has expressed a lot of emotion about Varese' works
Ty for info. It might be old but it's very fresh to my ears, I could quite happily spend a few years investigating and performing music like this. But I suppose the avant garde always has to be, well, avant garde!
Am I the only one that gets visions of a military march, a bombardment, and at one point a rat being pummeled to death, when listening to this piece? Maybe I need to give it more listens.
i'd say you were getting there. Keep trying... this music is almost a hundred years old. It is not "new" anymore, and you can not only hear Zappa's influences, you can find Varese in a whole bunch of electric blues and rock and roll.
@CiZination You will understand when you're older. The first time I listen to this I was 13, and it meant nothing to me. After listening to it constantly I woke up, and it was revelatory. Sorry for my english.
crazy stuff, i just recently in an exam had to talk about the contrasts between this piece and Chavez's Toccata, never seeing them or hearing them before, but from the score theres lots to talk about, and it makes alot of sense now hearing it
Yes, musicians tend, sometimes, to be arrogant. But there is in this work an incredible complex analysis behind, and to realize all the turning points, the percussion games and the idea of the moments he processes, it's not easily identifiable. You have to learn in art what it takes to be art. You're not a waste of air, but you need to understand that this is more a game of comprehension rather than just listening. And for that you need to "train" you ear, as musicians normally do.
@aliciaamycouture This piece is actually played a lot on avant garde recitals, usually in a program of 20th century "sound" composers. These musicians are all percussionists. Theyre the ones in a symphony that play the timpany drums, the cymbals, etc. Varese wrote this piece just for percussion, in order to show how percussion can also be used to produce rhythm and music, in its own way.
Frank Zappa brought me here as well. And wow did I love it. Did you guys ever see frank Zappa play bike's. Google it is great he is young and unknown . This offering sounds like memory of living thru war in the city. But that's just me KPM
Yes it is. It's just that being an intellectual gives you more reasons to enjoy it. Not only that but by understanding why you enjoy it, you know where to look for other similar works.
You're entitled to your own opinion. After all, music is about how it's perceived by the listener. I, as a composer and musician, understand what's going on because I studied it, but it doesn't mean I listen to it during my spare time.
I'm amazed how much passionate side-taking and debate is going on here. Personally, although I think this is incredibly cool and obviously groundbreaking on numerous levels, it is really not that weird anymore. Zappa's "Brown Shoes Don't Make It" may contain more conventions, but the combined effect of everything......
Fantastic, note it was only Varese early works pre 1915 that were destroyed and it was a warehouse fire in Berlin- not him going mad. Varese did later destroy his one remaining work for the period before he went to the US ie pre 1915. But his works are freely available on CD and he was producing new music up till the late 50's
Je trouve ça très bon étant moi-même percussionniste. Je comprends pourquoi Frank Zappa fut impressionné par cette pièce car il fut d'abord un batteur avant de se mettre à la guitare.Bonne écoute!
@ArunNamboodiri That's called a "lion's roar." The string is rosined, and so the thing makes a loud groaning noise... Don't know how many pieces use one, but Ionisation will serve to keep it around.
damn!!! I am from mexico (Veracruz) I played this piece back in 2008 in Oaxaca. I have no idea how did I perform this music, or better say "organized noise". I remember the whole adventure of getting the sirens from the local junk yards in Oaxaca... but I do not remember how the sheet music looks like.
3rd of all I believe that "Ionisation" was the beginning of the end for Varese. Like all the other modernists, esp Reger and Schoenberg, Varese's intellectual growth soon took over his inspirational growth and his music soon became answers to mathematical problems, if I may put it in that way. "Ameriques" was the height of his inspiration and his genius. After Ionization his works were merely depicting portraits instead of producing music.
A most...interesting piece of work. Not at all easy to listen to; it's a challenge. But a satisfying challenge. Will be back some day soon for another listen.
Frank Zappa LOVED him. He was like his childhood hero. For his fifteenth birthday his gift was to make long-distance phone call Edgard Varese.
Now I finally understand where Frank Zappa got his inspiration.
+MJmcnult You Got That Right!
Well said
Read his autobiography, he talks about Varese
MJmcnult “yeah but listen to the siren. Don’t you like the siren?”
Zappa to his mom when she told him to turn it off while she was ironing.
Read the book by Zappa
Avant-Garde percussion is a truly under appreciated music form. I love it.
Drum ensamble. This is more avant garde, but I was in one in the late 70's in Vancouver WA. I think there were 14 of us, ran by a guy named Delayne Guild(e), it was extraordinary, sight reading only, I wish I had recordings. Thanks for posting. I had no idea this is what Delayne was after until I saw this.
I always liked this song. I can't get the melody out of my head.
I hope you got your blood pressure checked way back then...
Lol
TO say it with the words of Adrian Belew: "The more I look at it, the more I like it. I do think it's good!"
Sounds like a fire at a drum school. I love it!
i love u lol
Yah, the usually leave that part out of the videos -- freaks people out, but you can see them all occasionally looking over their shoulders.
🔥🚒👩🚒
It hard to explore culture today because we are living in a commercial madhouse, culture like politics, or 'truth' is made by those who can scream the loudest. Everything is made of marketing, even dissent is absorbed and neatly packaged with nice labels, commercialised. and so..... Varese still sounds like a new voice
If you can find a copy of the concert conducted in NYC by Leonard Slatkin right after 9/11, you'll hear an interesting piece of history. When Maestro Slatkin conduced the St. Louis Symphony, he had a habit of programming an entirely "modern" piece to start a concert. If the average music lover wanted to hear their pretty Schumann on the second half of the show, they had to sit through the first half. At his concert for 9/11... years after he left the SLSO for the American Orchestra in DC, right in the middle of the show, he programmed a snare drum solo. Bravo, Maestro!
Fabulous piece of music -- I stumbled across this years ago on a compilation CD. All of Varese's music pushes the boundaries like this -- he took the idea of classical music and moved it into uncharted territory. Truly groundbreaking stuff. You can understand how this would have lit a creative fire in Frank Zappa's head.
Just a remarkable performance. The courage, the dedication, and the conviction to the score and to the composer are evident in the performers' faces even if you are not clear on the methodology of the performance.
Very courageous to make music that 17 people find enjoyable. Bill Maher said it best, no one puts Frank Zappa on because they want to have a good time. This is in the category.
I couldn't finish listening to the whole piece because my dog wouldn't stop howling.
LMAO!!!!
That's because of the siren sound. Where I lived before all the dogs of my block (yes, ALL OF THEM) started to howl at the same time, every time the firemen of the neighborhood passed near by with the siren ON... and that was almost every day, pretty annoying... XD
then your dog is a coward. "Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ears lie back in an easy chair. Many sounds that we are used to do not bother us, and for that reason we are inclined to call them beautiful. Frequently, when a new or unfamiliar work is accepted as beautiful on its first hearing, its fundamental quality is one that tends to put the mind to sleep.
Stand up and take your dissonance like a man. I don’t write music for sissies. If music merely repeats itself, and becomes nothing but rote expressions of shallowness, then music will die.
Charles Ives 1931
well according to Russolo's "Art Of Noise" he was just trying to add to the piece. lol
Hmm, my dog wouldn't START howling.
Imagine listening to this for the first time after growing up with R&B, rockabilly, country music and doowop. To the teenaged Frank Zappa it must have sounded on first hearing like it had been written by an alien.
Frank sent me here, that and the deep desire for musical deviation
Lol Google+ lol.
Hang on, I'll send you a link to my MySpace page...
MUSICAL DEVIANT ! Hi ...Nice to meet you !
i used to hate the electronic sound movement, but to be fair the more you listen to it and accept that it really is there you understand why people enjoy it.
This piece of music means more to me every time I hear it.
Superb ! It was the first composition in the occidental music just for persussion intruments. Amazing !!
+Roberto Rosillo-vich And you know this how?
+Eliezer Pennywhistler I have read to some authors whose opinion is in that way. Amadeo Roldán had written some little pieces just for percusion before Varèse, but Varèse is who writes a classical piece and universal (in occidental music) only for percusion.
+Roberto Rosillo-vich I was inspired from Ionization to compose a little music piece called "étude pour percussion". You can listen in the next link. I hope you like:
myspace.com/rosillo-vich/music/songs
It's not snobbery if you like it. It's snobbery if you think you have better taste than the mainstream because you like it, and that somehow makes you more intelligent and sophisticated than the mainstream.
Wow...didn't think I would like it, but it didn't seem as random as people were describing. It sounds like 60's science fiction. Good Stuff!
A 1970 MG Midget with bad valve springs, a rusty exhaust, and rod knock sounds pretty similar to this.
It's actually quite surprisingly pleasant to hear.
How long have you been deaf?
you would enjoy nettspend now, fly high king
Worthwhile to take the time to listen to these Masterpieces.
Totally awesome! The first time I've seen this piece performed with all thirteen percussionists.
I'm personally pretty fond of the "organized sound" definition. Despite what many claim, it doesn't necessary exclude a chaotic, random sound-source. The key is selection, if you tune your ears to a washing machine and ignore other audio input, you are acting as a sampling musician. You, the listener, is organizing the sounds. Even John Cage's famous experiments into the limits of music, like 4'33, are organized, just not in the way we are used too.
That final decrescendo was amazing, music simply vanished in the air!
Those piano slams at the end plunge straight into the soul.
I looked up this video after I read that it inspired Frank Zappa, and I can certainly see why it did. Thank you so much for posting this video.
This is the first time I've heard an Edgar Varse composition. I can see why Frank Zappa liked him so much. I bet it's really hard to write music like this. And to play it too!
Bonsoir, je vous remercie pour le partage.... J'adore.... Je vous souhaite une agréable soirée.
Really, the most high spirited performance I've ever encountered of this classic!
This was uploaded a little over a year after UA-cam was created. That is insane.
after it was bought by google*
+MinecraftBysup69 He still gets points as it was started in February, 2005.
+Thecommander248 I give more credit for the Zappa mention.
It probably scared off a million early adopters
It is awesome to find an Edgard Varese piece played on UA-cam. I first listened to his work several years ago when I found out that he was one of Frank Zappa's influences. I came to find out he was one of Pink Floyd's influences also. There aren't many Varese pieces in existence. Pity...
I've listened to this piece many times, but somehow it works better watching it.
HairFarmer, thanks for the post!
MAGNIFIC! incredible! spasms of percussions everywere!
the composition perforance and filming are perfect artistry. The ensemble is also quite an attractive looking group of people.
I had never heard a piece like this outside of the context of old films.
Neat.
I got the impression that this is desert music, but that may be because of the guy that turned me on to it.
I have never seen so many percussionist babes in one room; wow.
I first heard of this piece in the 1970's as mentioned by Frank Zappa. A fascinating brew, not for everyday consumption. So pleased to have come across it once again.
Indeed, a treat to find some Varese on youtube.
Zappa brought me here, Varese's genius keeps bringing me back.
John, there's 14 if you count the conductor.
I got this on DC++ in 2005, and just for the info, I'm 99% sure Daniel Kawka is the conductor. I saw him conduct a French Ensemble here in São Paulo later that year (by the way, they played Varèse's "Octandre" that evening), and again last year, and I recognized him from this video - he looked pretty much like the same person to me.
no doubt about the brilliance and value of this piece. this cat rocked.
Not a symphony... Ionisation is a percussion piece for thirteen players, considered pioneer in the use of electronic devices to create new sounds in academic music (in this case, the sirens)
I'm pretty sure the poster means he/she doesn't know the name of the ensemble performing the piece.
I can't help but feel all these performers have that art student look of the past.
Great video ! very interesting... thanks for puting it on UA-cam
Thank you very much, I had never heard this performance!
Added to resume: Can play piano parts of Varese's Ionisation.
what I love about listening to avant garde music like this is you never know if they're making mistakes. Unless you have the score in front of you, and even then...
Edgar was a great influence on FZ. Two masterful composers who were not afraid to reach for what music could really be,BECAUSE "Music is the Best" FZ
The best acoustic dubstep I've ever heard 🤘
humans are interesting
Truly fream and marvelous at that!
Fascinating piece - Varese was an early experimentalist - well-performed - I love how the videographer puts you right in the middle of the players.
FRANK!?! How could you bring me till here? Now, do you think can I listen pop music again?!?
The conductor is Jena-Louis Forestier. The footage is from the BBC documentary on Varèse, also on YT.
Mmmmmm....unpitched percussion, various tasty timbres, the spices of any orchestra.
this is intense
makes me feel really wierd, but this kind of wierd feeling is a great pleasure. Amazing,
I've listend to this many many times. Good stuff.
Even if you personally don't enjoy this music, I think you have to respect the fact that it has inspired others to create, including Frank Zappa, a man who went on to write a LOT of music, music which has been enjoyed by many for years. Any piece of music that inspires others to create, and as a result, keeps music going, is in my opinion a force for good!
You do hear this layered through a lot of Zappa's works. I don't think if Zappa had never heard this he would have been so inspired to develop his art. Zappa has expressed a lot of emotion about Varese' works
Eerily reminded of a NYC subway.
Ty for info.
It might be old but it's very fresh to my ears, I could quite happily spend a few years investigating and performing music like this. But I suppose the avant garde always has to be, well, avant garde!
Thanks to Frank.
Am I the only one that gets visions of a military march, a bombardment, and at one point a rat being pummeled to death, when listening to this piece? Maybe I need to give it more listens.
i'd say you were getting there. Keep trying... this music is almost a hundred years old. It is not "new" anymore, and you can not only hear Zappa's influences, you can find Varese in a whole bunch of electric blues and rock and roll.
Who'd have thought you could get such good Varese on youtube?
@CiZination
You will understand when you're older. The first time I listen to this I was 13, and it meant nothing to me. After listening to it constantly I woke up, and it was revelatory.
Sorry for my english.
love those sirens
This is great. Thanks for posting.
crazy stuff, i just recently in an exam had to talk about the contrasts between this piece and Chavez's Toccata, never seeing them or hearing them before, but from the score theres lots to talk about, and it makes alot of sense now hearing it
Oh man, this is beautiful and amazing.
the way this was filmed is spectacular
Sweet sound of madness
Yes, musicians tend, sometimes, to be arrogant. But there is in this work an incredible complex analysis behind, and to realize all the turning points, the percussion games and the idea of the moments he processes, it's not easily identifiable. You have to learn in art what it takes to be art. You're not a waste of air, but you need to understand that this is more a game of comprehension rather than just listening. And for that you need to "train" you ear, as musicians normally do.
@aliciaamycouture This piece is actually played a lot on avant garde recitals, usually in a program of 20th century "sound" composers. These musicians are all percussionists. Theyre the ones in a symphony that play the timpany drums, the cymbals, etc. Varese wrote this piece just for percussion, in order to show how percussion can also be used to produce rhythm and music, in its own way.
I can see the Zappa connection, sounds like this are all over Uncle Meat
Frank Zappa brought me here as well. And wow did I love it. Did you guys ever see frank Zappa play bike's. Google it is great he is young and unknown . This offering sounds like memory of living thru war in the city. But that's just me KPM
I'm here because I love Edgard Varese's music.
excellent job! amazing master piece!
Yes it is. It's just that being an intellectual gives you more reasons to enjoy it. Not only that but by understanding why you enjoy it, you know where to look for other similar works.
Beautiful...
This is insane. I love it!
I would have said this is so Zappa, but this is one of the things that made zappa be zappa!
Well, slackjaw1475 and polemic showing the true intellectual depth of contemporary argument. Well done chaps!
I like this, there's probably something wrong with me....
No
No
sO quiRkY
Sounds like a hotdog falling down the hallway...sexier than a Chinese teapot falling down the stairs...5 out of 5 stars. Viva Edgard and Viva Frank!
You're entitled to your own opinion. After all, music is about how it's perceived by the listener. I, as a composer and musician, understand what's going on because I studied it, but it doesn't mean I listen to it during my spare time.
Agreed, really nice performance of this piece!
I'm amazed how much passionate side-taking and debate is going on here. Personally, although I think this is incredibly cool and obviously groundbreaking on numerous levels, it is really not that weird anymore. Zappa's "Brown Shoes Don't Make It" may contain more conventions, but the combined effect of everything......
Fantastic, note it was only Varese early works pre 1915 that were destroyed and it was a warehouse fire in Berlin- not him going mad. Varese did later destroy his one remaining work for the period before he went to the US ie pre 1915. But his works are freely available on CD and he was producing new music up till the late 50's
Je trouve ça très bon étant moi-même percussionniste.
Je comprends pourquoi Frank Zappa fut impressionné par cette pièce car il fut d'abord un batteur avant de se mettre à la guitare.Bonne écoute!
Thanks Frank..
This is awesome!!!
Wow, cool piece!
Beautiful
@ArunNamboodiri That's called a "lion's roar." The string is rosined, and so the thing makes a loud groaning noise... Don't know how many pieces use one, but Ionisation will serve to keep it around.
damn!!! I am from mexico (Veracruz) I played this piece back in 2008 in Oaxaca. I have no idea how did I perform this music, or better say "organized noise". I remember the whole adventure of getting the sirens from the local junk yards in Oaxaca... but I do not remember how the sheet music looks like.
Louise
My Dear, In my head a bird sings all night long. Much Love!
I tried to click like twice, it made the funniest dang noise I ever heard.
i love it! i really do! it's very special but i just love it!
Frank Zappa brought this to the next Level with pieces like the Black Page and Dupree s Paradise
I'd say HR2911 was more Varesian
ua-cam.com/video/Ygif5lVhy-U/v-deo.html
3rd of all I believe that "Ionisation" was the beginning of the end for Varese. Like all the other modernists, esp Reger and Schoenberg, Varese's intellectual growth soon took over his inspirational growth and his music soon became answers to mathematical problems, if I may put it in that way. "Ameriques" was the height of his inspiration and his genius. After Ionization his works were merely depicting portraits instead of producing music.
A most...interesting piece of work. Not at all easy to listen to; it's a challenge. But a satisfying challenge. Will be back some day soon for another listen.