Ionisation

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Composer Name

Edgard Varèse

General Info

Year: 1931
Duration: c. 6:00
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Ricordi-M
Cost: Score and Parts - $0.00   |   Score Only - $0.00

Instrumentation

Player I: Chinese cymbal, bass drum, cow bell
Player II: Tam tams (2), gong, cow bell
Player III: Bongos, tenor drum, bass drums (2)
Player IV: Field drum, tenor drum
Player V: Siren, friction drum
Player VI: Siren, slap stick, guiro
Player VII: Chinese blocks (3), claves, triangle
Player VIII: Snare drum, maracas
Player IX: Snare drums (2), suspended cymbal
Player X: Cymbals α2, sleigh bells, tubular chimes
Player XI: Guiro, castanets, orchestra bells
Player XII: Tambourine, anvils (2), tam tam
Player XIII: Slapstick, triangle, sleigh bells

Piano

Program Notes

premiere: 6 March 1933, Carnegie Hall, New York City, Nicolas Slonimsky, cond.

Ionisation is scored for some three dozen percussion instruments, of which only three--chimes, celesta, and piano--are capable of playing notes in the equal-tempered scale. Composition based on the preeminence of pitch here gives way to a music of timbres and rhythms. As the first of many all-percussion scores written in this century, Ionisation is remarkably subtle in its use of those instruments. The form is articulated by changing sonorities--a passage scored only for metal instruments; a fleeting duet for drums and maracas; a hair-raising moment (the first sustained loud point in the score) when several players have the same triplet figure (a rhythmic unison); the first high, Morse-code clanging of the anvils, more than midway through. The grand and sonorous coda is marked by the entrance of the piano, celesta, and chimes--the three instruments of definite pitch. Varèse once defined his mission as the "liberation of sound" (just as Schoenberg promised the "emancipation of dissonance.") Ionisation is the purest demonstration of his success, and of his eventual influence. It is the work of both a pioneer and a master.

Recent Performances

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Works for Percussion by this Composer

Ionisation - Percussion Ensemble (13)