{\rtf1\mac\ansicpg10000\cocoartf824\cocoasubrtf330 {\fonttbl\f0\froman\fcharset77 TimesNewRomanPSMT;\f1\fnil\fcharset77 Univers-CondensedBold;\f2\fnil\fcharset77 Univers-CondensedLight; \f3\fnil\fcharset77 Univers-CondensedBoldOblique;\f4\fnil\fcharset77 Univers-CondensedLightOblique;\f5\ftech\fcharset2 Symbol; \f6\fmodern\fcharset77 CourierNewPSMT;} {\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;\red0\green0\blue255;} {\info {\title EDGARD VAR\'e9SE - COMPOSER, SOUND SCULPTOR, VISIONARY} {\author J. Bradford Robinson} {\*\company }}\vieww9000\viewh8400\viewkind0 \deftab720 \pard\tqc\tx4536\tqr\tx9460\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \f0\fs24 \cf0 \ \pard\pardeftab720\sl420\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \f1\b\fs19 \cf0 \ \f2\b0 \ \ Press Release\ \f1\b \ \ \pard\pardeftab720\sl420\qc\pardirnatural \f3\i\fs24 \cf0 EDGARD VAR\'e9SE - COMPOSER, SOUND SCULPTOR, VISIONARY\ \fs20 Exhibition in the Tinguely Museum, Basel, April 28 through August 27, 2006\ \pard\pardeftab720\sl420\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \f2\i0\b0\fs19 \cf0 \ \pard\pardeftab720\sl420\qj\pardirnatural \f1\b \cf0 Occasion and Collaboration\ \pard\pardeftab720\sl420\qj\pardirnatural \f2\b0 \cf0 From April 28 through August 27, 2006, the Paul Sacher Foundation and the Museum Tinguely in Basel will mount a joint exhibition entitled \f4\i Edgard Var\'8fse - Composer, Sound Sculptor, Visionary \f2\i0 . The two institutions will thereby pay tribute to the founder and initiator Paul Sacher, who would have celebrated his one-hundredth birthday on April 28, 2006. They will build on their earlier collaboration for the exhibition \f4\i The Master's Hand: Drawings and Manuscripts from the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York \f2\i0 (1998).\ Established in 1986, the Paul Sacher Foundation is an international center for documentation and research on contemporary music. In the seven years since the death of its founder it has acquired an additional number of important collections. One of them is the posthumous estate of Edgard Var\'8fse, which, thanks to private patronage, it was able to purchase in 2003 from the Chinese-American composer Chou Wen-chung (New York), Var\'8fse's assistant and the administrator of his estate. Since then the collection has been thoroughly sorted and catalogued, and the public is now to be offered its first comprehensive glance at the documentary legacy of this path-breaking twentieth-century composer.\ \pard\pardeftab720\sl420\qj\pardirnatural \f1\b \cf0 \ Var\'8fse: a thumbnail sketch \f2\b0 \ Edgard Var\'8fse was born in Paris on December 22, 1883. While still a boy he witnessed the transition to a century dominated by technical innovation and the political turmoil of two world wars. For years he was considered an isolated maverick on the contemporary music scene. Only toward the end of his life did he achieve final recognition as such leading postwar avant-garde figures as Pierre Boulez and John Cage discovered his music and drew on his achievements. By the time of his death, on November 6, 1965, he was regaled with honors and awards. He left behind a small but impressive body of works that has challenged artists and scholars time and again in the forty years since his death to come to grips with his art.\ The son of an engineer, Var\'8fse developed a close affinity to the natural sciences from early childhood. Instead of taking up a technical profession, however, he soon turned entirely to music. At first he lived in the artistic capitals of Paris and Berlin, but in 1915 he emigrated to the United States. Thereafter he only returned to Europe for periods of work. A natural crossover figure, he drew inspiration from talking to leading physicists and acoustical engineers and befriending such artists and writers as Antonin Artaud, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, Le Corbusier, Henry Miller, Joan Mir\'97, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, and Joseph Stella. Again and again he made ever-new attempts to probe the musical potential of scientific concepts and the visual and spatial perception of modern art.\ "I need an entirely new medium of expression: a sound-producing machine, not a sound-reproducing one." Var\'8fse's primary concern was not the reproduction of music. He saw himself as a revolutionary creator of new sounds, preferred the term "organized sound" to "music," and far transcended the bounds of conventional orchestral instruments in his quest for new timbres. He was particularly interested in the use of machines to generate music. Although the relevant technology had not yet been invented, he was already probing the possibilities of electronic sound production in the late Twenties.\ \f1\b \ The Exhibition \f2\b0 \ The exhibition, organized by Felix Meyer, Heidy Zimmermann, and Heinz Stahlhut, is divided into eight sections: "Imprintings \uc0\u8209 Points of Orientation," "Conductor and Initiator in New York," "Probing Uncharted Compositional Territory," "A Pan\u8209 American in Paris," "Approaching Electronics," "Against the Currents of the Day," "Contacts with the Post\u8209 War Avantgarde," and "Posthumous Impact and Reception." These sections cover, in roughly chronological order, the important way-stations in Var\'8fse's life and music as well as his artistic roots and subsequent impact. The main focus falls on his musical manuscripts, textual manuscripts, correspondence, and other documents from his estate. They are accompanied by many items on loan from international museums and private collections, including paintings, drawings, sculpture, and musical instruments, to illustrate his contacts with visual artists and his interest in new forms of sound production. In "Approaching Electronics," Var\'8fse's \f4\i Po\'8fme \'8electronique \f2\i0 is presented alongside a reconstruction of the series of pictures conceived by Le Corbusier. Augmenting the items on display are twelve "listening stations" with samples of Var\'8fse's music spread throughout the exhibition, as well as several monitors with films on Var\'8fse and his artistic milieu.\ The exhibition is accompanied by a large and richly illustrated catalogue containing thirty-two scholarly essays, statements from prominent contemporary artists and composers, and descriptions of all the items on display.\ \f1\b \ Cultural Program \f2\b0 \ The opening of the exhibition, on April 27, will receive a musical backdrop from the Ensemble Recherche, conducted by Johannes Sch\'9allhorn. The program will include Var\'8fse's well-known octet \f4\i Octandre \f2\i0 (1923) as well as an early \f4\i Sanctus/Gloria \f2\i0 for men's chorus and organ dating from the year 1904. The latter piece will be heard for the first time in an arrangement for wind sextet by Johannes Sch\'9allhorn.\ On May 10, 2006, the Basel Percussion Ensemble will present a riot of sounds and rhythms under the direction of Siegfried Schmid. Their program will include Var\'8fse's epoch-making \f4\i Ionisation \f2\i0 for thirteen percussionists (1931) alongside other early works for percussion and pieces inspired by Var\'8fse's example.\ \pard\pardeftab720\sl420\qj\pardirnatural \f4\i \cf0 D\'8eserts \f2\i0 (1949-54), Var\'8fse's last large-scale work, has gone down in music history as one of the earliest compositions to make use of taped sounds combined with sounds from conventional instruments. Originally Var\'8fse planned to give his score a visual pendant. This plan never materialized, but forty years later it gave rise to the film \f4\i D\'8eserts \f2\i0 by the video artist Bill Viola. His work will be screened on June 18, 2006, along with Var\'8fse's composition, performed by the Ensemble Phoenix.\ Another special occasion is the exhibition's closing event, when the Theremin virtuoso Lydia Kavina will demonstrate her unusual electronic instrument and perform Var\'8fse's \f4\i Density 21.5 \f2\i0 for unaccompanied flute.\ Finally, a small symposium will be held on May 24, 2006, providing an opportunity to exchange ideas. Here composers and musicologists under the aegis of Hermann Danuser will discuss aspects of Var\'8fse's sonic structures and his use of technology, drawing on recorded examples from \f4\i Am\'8eriques \f2\i0 , \f4\i Int\'8egrales \f2\i0 , \f4\i D\'8eserts \f2\i0 , and \f4\i Po\'8fme \'8electronique \f2\i0 .\ \ At the same time as the Var\'8fse exhibition, the museum will display selected sound reliefs and noise machines by the ingenious "meta-mechanician" Jean Tinguely. Also on display will be the sound installation \f4\i instant city \f2\i0 (2003-6), conceived by Sybille Hauert and Daniel Reichmuth in collaboration with Volker B\'9ahm.\ \pard\pardeftab720\qj\pardirnatural \cf0 \ \f1\b \ \f2\b0 For further information on the exhibition: \ Dr. Heidy Zimmermann, Paul Sacher Foundation: HYPERLINK "mailto:heidy.zimmermann@unibas.ch" \cf2 \ul \ulc2 heidy.zimmermann@unibas.ch\cf0 \ulnone \ Heinz Stahlhut, Museum Tinguely: HYPERLINK "mailto:heinz.stahlhut@roche.cm" \cf2 \ul \ulc2 heinz.stahlhut@roche.com\cf0 \ulnone \ \ \ Press: \ Matthias Kassel, Paul Sacher Foundation: HYPERLINK "mailto:Matthias.kassel@unibas.ch" \cf2 \ul \ulc2 matthias.kassel@unibas.ch\cf0 \ulnone \ Laurentia Leon, Museum Tinguely: HYPERLINK "mailto:laurentia.leon@roche.com" \cf2 \ul \ulc2 laurentia.leon@roche.com\cf0 \ulnone \ \f1\b \ \ \f2\b0 The exhibition catalogue in English: 508 pages, 250 mainly colour illustrations\ Price: CHF 59. \f5 - \f2 / \'a3 25.\'d0 (bookshop: \'a3 29.\'d0; Boydell & Brewer, Melton, Suffolk)\ \ \ Press photos may be downloaded on the website HYPERLINK "http://www.tinguely.ch" \cf2 \ul \ulc2 www.tinguely.ch\cf0 \ulnone \ \ \pard\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \f6\fs24 \cf0 \ \ \ \ \pard\pardeftab720\sl-20\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \cf0 \ \pard\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \cf0 \ \ \ \ \ \pard\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \f0 \cf0 PAGE \ \pard\tqc\tx4703\tqr\tx9406\pardeftab720\ri360\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \f6 \cf0 \ \pard\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \cf0 \ \pard\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \f2\fs20 \cf0 PAGE 1\ \pard\tqc\tx4703\tqr\tx9406\pardeftab720\ri360\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \f6\fs24 \cf0 \ \pard\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \cf0 \ \ \pard\pardeftab720\qj\pardirnatural \f2\fs19 \cf0 \ }