Star-struck

Musical Times, Autumn 2004 by Simeone, Nigel

Star-struck Varèxe: astronomer in sound Malcolm Macdonald Kahn & Averill (London, 2003); xx, 42-jpp; £24.95 PBK. ISBN 1 871082 79 x.

EDGARD VARESE was one of the most startlingly original voices of the aoth century, and Malcolm Macdonald's Varèse: astronomer in sound is an absorbing study of the composer's life and work. With any luck it might encourage more musicians to perform the music as well as to recognise Varèse 's innovative genius - as important 20th-century composers go, he must still be one of the least played despite the best efforts of Robert Craft, Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly and others.

There have been worthwhile books in English which are still useful sources of information for both his life (notably the translation of Fernand Ouellette 's Edgard Varèse and Louise Varèse's A looking-glass diary), and his music (Jonathan Bernard's exhaustive The music of Edgard Varèse). To these should be added at least two general books in French: Varèse by Odile Vivier, published in the Seuil 'Solfèges' series; and Edgar Varèse by Marc Bredel (Paris: Mazarine, 1984), an oddly elusive book. Macdonald's new volume is the most detailed life and works to appear in English, though the emphasis is very much on the works. It is hard to imagine the job being done with more eloquence or with greater care for detail (though for the most microscopic study of Varèse's compositional method, Bernard is your man). A couple of new works have emerged since most of the earlier studies were published - and with an output as famously slender as Varèse 's, every little helps.

Varèse distrusted detailed writing about his music, and indeed Macdonald - with admirable candour quotes the composer saying that 'analysis is sterile. To explain by means of it is to decompose, to mutilate the spirit of the work'. So whether Varèse would have liked this book is clearly a moot point, but the rest of us can derive a great deal from it, and I would hope that he would - at the very least - be impressed by Macdonald's boundless eagerness for the task. Each chapter begins with a chronological table which helpfully links biographical information with creative output. The events and works given in these are subsequently amplified and explored in the main text. One of Macdonald's greatest virtues is his breadth of knowledge, so for a work such as Ionisation it is most helpful to have such a fully-documented discussion of other music for percussion ensemble from the same period (and to learn of such rarities as the Scherzo of Alexander Teherepnin's First Symphony, scored for unpitchecl percussion and col legno strings) which places this most iconic of 20th-century works into a richlywoven historical and musical context. It a pleasure to report that once Macdonald delves into the music, his prose remains lucid and uncluttered, his judgments generally perceptive, and his avoidance of highly specialised analytical jargon is a feat as remarkable as it is welcome in a volume such as this, which is aimed at the intelligent reader rather than the professional music theorist. While there is much that can be said and done to explore Varèse's music using sophisticated analytical techniques, in a book such as this, Macdonald's commentaries, somewhat in the spirit of a latter-day Donald Francis Tovey (I intend this as a genuine compliment) are just what is needed. His real passion for Varèse's music is, I think, almost impossible to resist, but his writing never loses sight of the need to enlighten as well as to enthuse.

THE LACK of documentary support at the end of such a fine book is baffling and immensely frustrating, since Macdonald would have been the ideal man to have produced a scrupulouslydocumented list of works and a comprehensive bibliography. Incredibly, we have neither of these things - and surely I'm not alone in thinking that this is basic equipment in a book of this kind. I hope very much that if there is a second edition these lacunae will be addressed. As it is, the reader probably needs to have the worklist and bibliography from The new Grove (2001 edition) to hand. The lack of essential documentation at the end of the book certainly doesn't imply any sloppiness in the main text. Far from it, as Macdonald is meticulous in giving his sources in footnotes. And while the handwritten music examples may seem a little primitive to those suckled on extracts set using Sibelius and Finale, they are generally clear, and a good deal more accurate than some computergenerated specimens I have seen. In short, Varèse: astronomer in sound ? an essential acquisition for any decent library, a compelling, personal account of some extraordinary music, and an absorbing read.

BOOKS RECEIVED

Robert Adlington: Louis Andriessen: De Staat. Ashgate, £35 (CD included).

Murray Campbell, Clive Created & Arnold Myers: Musical instruments: history, technology & performance of instruments of western music. Oxford UP, £100.

Eric Clarke & Nicholas Cook, edd.: Empirical musicology: aims, methods, prospects. Oxford UP, £51.99 / £17.99 PBK.