The 'Poeme electronique' of Edgard Varese

Varese created his Poeme electronique for the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World Fair. In a building designed by Iannis Xenakis, the work was played on an elaborate installation of "sound routes" that circled the performance space. A spectacle of colored lights and images designed by the architect Le Corbusier accompanied Varese's piece.;Although the Poeme electronique is considered an important work in Varese's career and in the history of electronic music, it has received little attention by scholars. This study approaches the piece as both a self-sufficient musical work and as a component of a larger composition of architecture, sound, light and image.;The dissertation contains an inventory and discussion of sources, including Varese's sketches and material related to Le Corbusier's script. Of particular interest is an interpretation of Varese's sketches that explores their relationship to the recorded Poeme electronique and to the unpublished Etude pour Espace of 1947.;With the aid of a transcription prepared for this study, an analysis is presented that considers both Varese's gestural language and the role of pitch. Contrary to previous interpretations of the work, the analysis demonstrates that the piece has a clear structure articulated by goal-directed pitched events.;The dissertation presents an overview of the Philips project. Chapter one provides a description of the technical means involved in realizing the work, including the contents of Varese's studio. Chapter three, based upon unpublished correspondence, traces the project from its conception to its final realization, with particular attention to the collaboration between Varese and Le Corbusier. Although published accounts claim that the artists intended their works to be unrelated, evidence reveals that they initially attempted to coordinate sound and image. The script influenced both the form and sound material of Varese's piece.;Varese's approach to sound and image in Poeme reflects his earlier approach to film and can also be traced back to his use of symbolic gestures in Arcana and Ameriques. This leads us to consider an aspect of the composer that is rarely acknowledged: timbre in Varese's music may serve to evoke meaning as well as to delineate form.