Editing Ionisation (Varèse) (section)

==Music==
''Ionisation'' features the expansion and variation of [[rhythm]]ic [[Cell (music)|cells]], and the title refers to the [[ionization]] of [[molecule]]s. As the composer later described, "I was not influenced by composers as much as by natural objects and physical phenomena".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schuller |first=Gunther |date=Summer 1965 |title=Conversation with Varèse |url= |journal=[[Perspectives of New Music]] |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=34 |doi=10.2307/832501 |jstor=832501}}</ref> Varèse also acknowledged the influence of the Italian Futurist artists [[Luigi Russolo]] and [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]] in the composition of this work.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Radice | first=Mark A. | title="Futurismo:" Its Origins, Context, Repertory, and Influence | journal=[[The Musical Quarterly]] | volume=73 | issue=1 | pages=1–17 | year=1989 | doi=10.1093/mq/73.1.1}}</ref>

Both [[Chou Wen-chung]]<ref>{{cite journal | last=Bernard | first=Jonathan W. | title=Review of ''The New Worlds of Edgard Varèse: A Symposium'' (ed. Sherman Van Solkema, contributions by [[Elliott Carter]], [[Chou Wen-chung]] and Robert P. Morgan) |journal=[[Journal of Music Theory]]| volume=24 | issue=2 | pages=277–283 | date=Autumn 1980 | doi=10.2307/843507|jstor=843507}}</ref> and Jean-Charles François<ref>{{cite journal | last=François | first=Jean-Charles | title=Organization of Scattered Timbral Qualities: A Look at Edgard Varèse's ''Ionisation'' |journal=[[Perspectives of New Music]]| volume=29 | issue=1 | pages=48–79 | date=Winter 1991 | doi=10.2307/833066|jstor=833066}}</ref> have analyzed the structure and [[timbre]] features of ''Ionisation'' in detail. András Wilheim has noted that only the last 17 measures of ''Ionisation'' include musical tones of the "traditional tonal system", where any five successive chords contain the 12 tones of the [[chromatic scale]].<ref>{{cite journal | last=Wilheim | first=András | title=The Genesis of a Specific Twelve-Tone System in the Works of Varèse | journal=Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae | volume=T. 19 | issue=Fasc. 1/4 | pages=203–226 | year=1977 | doi=10.2307/901798 | jstor=901798}}</ref> Holder writes, "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... its performance is a reenactment of a great rite of passage for what was then a fresh and previously unrecognized musical ensemble."<ref name=":1" />

[[Frank Zappa]] said that ''Ionisation'' inspired him to pursue a career in music, and that it was on the first long-playing album he purchased.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Martinez |first=Nicholas |date=4 November 2016 |title=To the Beat of His Own Drum: The Reception and Influence of Edgard Varése’s Ionisation |url=https://theclassicjournal.uga.edu/index.php/2016/11/04/to-the-beat-of-his-own-drum-the-reception-and-influence-of-edgard-vareses-ionisation/ |access-date=2022-09-05 |website=The Classic Journal |publisher=[[University of Georgia]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zappa |first=Frank |date=June 1971 |title=Edgard Varese: The Idol of My Youth |url=https://www.afka.net/Mags/Stereo_Review.htm |journal=[[Sound & Vision (magazine)|Stereo Review]] |volume=26 |issue=6 |pages=61–62 |access-date=2022-09-05}}</ref>

[[Jack Skurnick]], director of [[EMS Recordings]], produced early post-war recordings of Varèse; this piece appears on the first Varèse LP, EMS 401: Complete Works of Edgar Varèse, Volume 1. ''Ionisation'' had also been the first work by Varèse to be recorded in the 1930s, conducted by [[Nicolas Slonimsky]] and issued on 78rpm Columbia 4095M.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia|url=https://archive.org/details/gramophoneshopen010034mbp|url-access=limited|last=Darrell|first=R. D.|publisher=The Gramophone Shop|year=1936|location=New York City|pages=[https://archive.org/details/gramophoneshopen010034mbp/page/n505 484]}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The World's Encyclopaedia of Recorded Music|last=Clough|first=Francis|last2=Cuming|first2=G. J.|publisher=Sidgwick & Jackson|year=1952|location=London|page=634}}</ref> The players for the recording included, in addition to the composer himself on the sirens, [[Carlos Salzedo]] on Chinese blocks, [[Paul Creston]] on anvils, [[Wallingford Riegger]] on guiro, [[Henry Cowell]] on piano, and [[William Schuman]] on the lion's roar.<ref>{{cite book|last=Slonimsky|first=Nicolas|author-link=Nicolas Slonimsky|title=Perfect Pitch: A Life Story|url=https://archive.org/details/perfectpitch0000unse|url-access=registration|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1988|location=London, England|isbn=0-19-315155-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/perfectpitch0000unse/page/138/mode/2up 138]}}</ref>

[[Sidney Finkelstein]] wrote in the EMS LP liner notes about the work:
{{quote|[''Ionisation''] is built on a most sensitive handling and contrast of different kinds of percussive sounds. There are those indefinite in pitch, like the bass drum, snare drum, wood blocks, and cymbals; those of relatively definite musical pitch, such as the piano and chimes; those of continually moving pitch, like the sirens and 'lion's roar.' It is an example of 'spatial construction,' building up to a great complexity of interlocking 'planes' of rhythm and timbre, and then relaxing the tension with the slowing of rhythm, the entrance of the chimes, and the enlargement of the 'silences' between sounds. There are suggestions of the characteristic sounds of modern city life.}}