Edgard Varese

by Alan Clayson

One of the most influential, innovative and inspiring composers of the 20th Century, Edgard Varese responded to advances in modern science in a climate of global conflict to create music that broke down the fragile remnants of diatonic tonality and embraced 'noise'. His intellectual shift from the dominance of melodic progression to a more textural approach to composition would see him revered by such cultural figureheads as Igor Stravinsky, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Frank Zappa and others. His 'Poem Electronique' was one of the first examples of a purely artificial, studio-made composition, and would act as a blueprint for later Electroacoustic explorations. The work Ionisation for percussion ensemble included air-raid sirens and was described by the New York Times as a 'terrible and marvelous work'. The 1954 premier of Deserts caused an uproar comparable to the infamous response to The Rite Of Spring some fifty years earlier.

Genres: Music

218 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2002

About the author

Alan Clayson (Dover, England, 1951) is of a late 1970s vintage of composer-entertainers that also embraces the likes of Wreckless Eric, Tom Robinson, Elvis Costello and John Otway. While he is still making regular concert appearances, he has become better known as an author of around thirty books - mostly musical biography. These include the best-sellers "Backbeat" (subject of a major film), The Yardbirds and The Beatles book box.

He has written for journals as diverse as The Guardian, Record Collector, Ink, Mojo, Mediaeval World, Folk Roots, Guitar, Hello!, Drummer, The Times, The Independent, Ugly Things and, as a 'teenager, the notorious Schoolkids 0z. He has also been engaged to perform and lecture on both sides of the Atlantic - as well as broadcast on national TV and radio.

From 1975 to 1985, he led the legendary Clayson and the Argonauts - who reformed in 2005, ostensibly to launch Sunset On A Legend, a long-awaited double-CD retrospective - and was thrust to 'a premier position on rock's Lunatic Fringe' (Melody Maker).

As shown by the existence of a US fan club - dating from an 1992 soiree in Chicago - Alan Clayson's following grows still as well as demand for his talents as a record producer, and the number of versions of his compositions by such diverse acts as Dave Berry (in whose backing group, he played keyboards in the mid-1980s), New Age Outfit, Stairway - and Joy Tobing, winner of the Indonesian version of Pop Idol. He has worked too with The Portsmouth Sinfonia, Wreckless Eric, Twinkle, The Yardbirds, The Pretty Things, Mark Astronaut and the late Screaming Lord Sutch among many others. While his stage act defies succinct description, he has been labelled a 'chansonnier' in recent years for performances and record releases that may stand collectively as Alan Clayson's artistic apotheosis were it not for a promise of surprises yet to come.

Reviews

[Cobertizo · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Hablar de ritmo no es suficiente. El ritmo no es más que la constante de un pulso. Hace falta otra cosa. La percusión tiene que hablar, que tener sus propios latidos, sus propios sistemas sanguíneos. Debe transmitir su potencia al conjunto de la orquesta, como sucede en las batucadas (...). Los nuevos conceptos de la astronomía nos permiten considerar el ritmo como un elemento de estabilidad y no como ordenación de ciertas cadencias o de ciertos decalajes métricos"

[David Melbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

. . . Clayson kept me riveted and I endorse his views on a severely underrated composer of the last century. Now that Varese is dead and gone (nearly forty years ago!) his music is performed and respected by those who know. . . --From A Reader's Journal, by d r melbie.