Open Rather Than Bounded
Wên-chung Chou · Perspectives of New Music · 1966
SOUND AS living matter' and space as open rather than bounded2 are the central ideas of Varese's philosophy. To understand their implications and ramifications is to understand the man, the composer and his legacy. These ideas, nurtured by a fertile imagination and generated by a vigorous sense of life, constitute the essence of his music and also the strength behind his lifelong fight for the liberation of and crusade for new instruments. They were first conceived early in his student days in Paris in the middle of the 1900's. Thereafter, he continually made known his beliefs, particularly after his arrival in this country. In 1916, Varese was quoted in the New York Morning Telegraph as saying: Our musical alphabet must be enriched. also need new instruments very badly. . ... In my own works I have always felt the need of new mediums of expression . . . which can lend themselves to every expression of thought and can keep up with thought. And in the Christian Science Monitor, in 1922 he added: What we want is an instrument that will give us a continuous sound at any pitch. The composer and the electrician will have to labor together to get it. . . . Speed and synthesis are characteristics of our own epoch. need twentieth century instruments to help us realize them in In 1924, Varese wrote in the Daily Mail and the Evening News3 of London: We need to make a new and simpler approach to music. The development of the art has been hampered by certain mechanical restrictions which no longer need prevail. . . . Just as the painter can obtain different intensity and graduation of colour, musicians can obtain different vibrations of sound, not necessarily conforming to the traditional half-tone and full tone, but varying, ultimately, from vibration to vibration.... are waiting for a new notation-a new Guido d'Arezzo-when music will move forward at a bound.