Creation : 11/11/1967, Südwestfunk, Baden-Baden
Music : Edgar Varèse
Number of musicians : 6 percussionists
Duration : 7 mn
Composed: 1929 – 1931
Publisher (original version for 13 percusionnists) : COLFRANC MUSIC PUBLISHING CORP
Ionisation has taken its place among the masterpieces of XXth century music. It is the first piece in the history of western music for percussion alone, the first to consider percussion as true musical material – “the basis of rhythm, it is the immobile charged with its power” -.
Four basic cells which represent the sound material with which Edgar Varèse composes all his works, will disintegrate into over a hundred different rhythms, until the final explosion which is total disintegration.
We know that before Edgar Varèse, oriental folklore (mainly Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Balinese) made abundant use of percussion and, in this sense, we can borrow the slightest reference, however anecdotal from any folklore. By playing solely on the instrumental tones which he varies according to more and more complex combinations, he develops a new plasticity of sound, where, for the first time, sound appears to be treated scientifically, before the imagination or sensitivity can get a hold on it. Thus IONISATION represents an essential stage in this never-ending quest for new instrumental material, which can specifically feed and translate the inner world of sound that was the composer’s.
But it is also a work that reflects the urban environment that was dear to Edgar Varèse. Originally written for 13 percussionists and a conductor, IONISATION will be performed by the six Strasbourg percussionists, thanks to particular ways of making instruments (claves on a stand, pedal sirens, etc …) which in no way mutilate the original version. This version for 6 percussionists was arranged by Georges Van Gucht, Strasbourg’s former Director of Percussion, with the composer’s agreement and was performed for the first time on 11 November 1967, on the Südwestfunk radio in Baden-Baden.