Varese\'s Poeme Electronique Before Attempting

Varese's Poeme Electronique

Before attempting to analyze Edgard Varese's "Poem Electronique," it is necessary to understand that when the composer exhibited the piece at the 1958 World's Fair it was delivered live inside an acoustically rich pavilion with 400 speakers. Listening to a digital version of the "Poeme Electronique" with headphones cannot begin to approximate the three-dimensionality that Varese built into the composition. The "Poeme Electronique" is absolutely classifiable as "music" for several reasons, not the least of which is its historical importance as the harbinger of electronic and abstract music. The piece is abstract in the same way visual arts can be. Although the listener does not sense the familiar structures and forms of music, the composition as a whole possesses rich tonality and a variety of sounds layered upon each other.

Granted, the "Poeme Electronique" stretches the average person's definition of what music is. The piece has no melody and although it is rather percussive at times it lacks a rhythm. Yet these elements that typically define music are too limited to cover the gamut of creative sonic expressions. Many modern listeners deny rap music or techno into the category of music, illustrating how unnecessarily restrictive definitions of music can be. Music does not necessarily need to follow a preconceived structure, and if it did the potential for creative expression would be severely curtailed. In fact, it may be what it lacks (structure, melody, repetitive rhythm) that help listeners appreciate the gamut of music. It is almost as if the listener can create his or her own musical structures on top of Varese's when listening between the lines.