SONIC TRANSPORTS: GLENN BRANCA ESSAY, PART 9

Arcana

I anticipate […] liberation from the arbitrary, paralyzing tempered system; the possibility of obtaining any number of cycles or if still desired, subdivisions of the octave, consequently the formation of any desired scale; unsuspected range in high and low registers; new harmonic splendors obtainable from the use of sub-harmonic combinations now impossible; the possibility of obtaining any differentiation of timbre, of sound-combinations; new dynamics far beyond the present human-powered orchestra […]

When new instruments will allow me to write music as I conceive it, taking the place of the linear counterpoint, the movement of sound-masses, of shifting planes, will be clearly perceived. […] There will no longer be the old conception of melody or the interplay of melodies. The entire work will be a melodic totality. The entire work will flow as a river flows. […] Not only will the harmonic possibilities of the overtones be revealed in all their splendor, but the use of certain interferences created by the partials will represent an appreciable contribution. The never before thought of use of the inferior resultants and of the differential and additional sounds may also be expected. An entirely new magic of sound![1]

– Edgard Varèse

FOOTNOTE

1. Edgard Varèse, “The Liberation of Sound” in Perspectives on American Composers. Benjamin Boretz and Edward T. Cone, eds. New York: W.W. Norton, 1971, pp. 25–27. (This essay is actually a series of excerpts from various lectures given by Varèse, compiled and edited by Chou Wen-chung. The first quote dates from 1939; the second, from 1936.)

Links to:

SONIC TRANSPORTS: Glenn Branca Essay, part 10

SONIC TRANSPORTS: Glenn Branca Contents

SONIC TRANSPORTS: Contents

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