Edgard Varèse

France, 1908–1965

French-American composer who rejected melody and harmony in favour of organised sound. His works for percussion and early electronic instruments made him a founding figure of the sonic avant-garde.

MusicRoots documents 3 artists who influenced Edgard Varèse and 5 artists Edgard Varèse influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Edgard Varèse?

• Igor Stravinsky — Stravinsky's rhythmic innovations in The Rite of Spring were a crucial influence on Varèse's percussive approach.
• Claude Debussy — Debussy was a personal mentor to the young Varèse and opened him to the world of timbral expression.
• Ferruccio Busoni — Busoni mentored the young Varèse in Berlin — the Sketch of a New Esthetic was, in Varèse's words, the book that liberated him.

Which artists did Edgard Varèse influence?

• Pierre Schaeffer — Varèse's liberation of sound from traditional instruments inspired Schaeffer's radical approach to recording.
• The Mothers of Invention — Zappa's Varèse obsession is founding rock legend — he phoned the composer as a teenager and put 'the present-day composer refuses to die' on Freak Out!.
• Iannis Xenakis — Varèse's conception of music as spatialized masses of organized sound was the acknowledged precedent for Xenakis's sound clouds and his work at spatial electronic music.
• Tod Dockstader — Dockstader named his practice 'organized sound' — borrowing Varèse's own term in open acknowledgement of the master.
• Frank Zappa — As a teenager Zappa was obsessed with Edgard Varèse — the modernist's dissonance and percussion are foundational to Zappa's composition.