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Heading photo caption: Edgard Varèse (photo: G Ricordi London Ltd)
Ionisation, composed by Edgard Varèse in 1931, is one of the most celebrated percussion ensemble compositions of the early 20th century. The work presented the important notion that unpitched percussion (with piano and other pitched instruments coming in at the end) could stand alone as a serious form of concert music - a relatively unexplored concept at that time. Ionisation has also enjoyed a strong performance and recording history, which continues to the present.1Many musicians would no doubt agree with the New York Times critic Steve Smith, when he stated that 'Ionisation is a "sacrament" for percussionists'.2Its performance is a re-enactment of a great rite of passage for what was then a fresh and previously unrecognized musical ensemble.
Much has been written about Ionisation, and yet the work continues to stimulate inquiry. The present essay will briefly examine the tarole, one instrument included in the work. New research clarifies some questions about this instrument, and serves to reinforce the accepted performance practice. This research also provides additional insight into Varèse's attention to detail and hands-on knowledge of the acoustical and mechanical nature of percussion instruments.
Pitch Relationships
The reconceptualization of pitch was one of Varèse's great insights. He was able to reinvent the role of concert percussion in a radical and refreshing manner, primarily by establishing pitch relationships between instruments of individually indeterminate pitch. It was, perhaps, a way to push pre-existing instruments to their limits, while Varèse awaited those fabled 'instruments obedient to my thought and which with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspected sounds, will lend themselves to the exigencies of my inner rhythm'.3Varèse's biographer, Fernand Ouellette, wrote that the attraction of percussion 'was to take up a position on the side of the life, the beauty, and the richness of sound'.4In Ionisation, this richness found expression in several ways, one of which was the exploration of pitch relationships between instruments that produce single indeterminate (non-specific) pitches.
The score - published by Henry Cowell in 1934 - offers a description of several instruments. And while these indications are offered in both...