Born on December 22, 1883, French Composer Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varese spent the majority of career in the United States.  Varese passed away on November 6, 1965.  During his musical career, he ‘organized sound’ with an emphasis on timbre and rhythm believing his vision was of sound as living matter and musical space as open and not bound.  He heard his music in terms of sound masses that he likened to crystallization.

Questioning the authority of the music that came before him, his music defiantly asks, what is music?  And determined his answer is music is simply organized noises.  While only three hours of his surviving works are currently known, he is cited as an influence by several 20th century composers.  Varese’s interest in electronic resources resulted in him becoming known as the Father of electronic music.  For his work in these areas, Aloha Promises Forever rates Varese’s work as a 10 out of 10.  In my mind the singular most interesting piece of information about Varese is that without Varese, Frank Zappa would never have had the same approach to his own music.

You may listen to Edgard Varese’s Complete Works at: