Zappa had this record and would put chalk marks on the vinyl where the loud parts came in to cut to them when trying to impress his friends with this music. The average teen in the 50s was listening to Elvis and Pat Boone...

@MrTheBaron

3 жыл бұрын

At the final months of his life, the last work Frank did was producing an album of Varèse performed by the Ensemble Modern, with whom he had worked with for The Yellow Shark. The session even saw Nicolas Slonimsky, the conductor of the premiere performance of Ionisation and a friend of Frank, take up the baton and conduct the piece. That album has yet to be released.

Performed this many years ago, forgot how much groove there is to certain sections. Grade A club smasher.

@iainctduncan

3 жыл бұрын

Same here! one of my most memorable musical experiences in my life. what a trip.

@KonStafylides

3 жыл бұрын

Hey man, freshman musicology student, just wanna say I love your comments. I just saw you commenting on Webern's symphony Op. 25, it's nice to see people that aren't a) lmao frank zappa or b) holy fuck im 145 years old and love this

@patrickkeenan8443

3 жыл бұрын

@@KonStafylides I love Webern. He really was on top of his pointilistic serial banger game. Whenever I hear his 5 bagatelles dropped in the club I lose my shit.

@KonStafylides

3 жыл бұрын

@@patrickkeenan8443 Keep it up lmfao

@m.s.g1890

Жыл бұрын

@@KonStafylides Zappa

Frank and Ruth. I'm still a fan. They're still my heroes.

When you watch a clip like this on KZread, you’ll never be interrupted with advertisements.

@sonicsabbath

3 жыл бұрын

Adblock plus does that

@talastra

2 ай бұрын

@@sonicsabbath That's not the joke :)

@talastra

2 ай бұрын

Hilarious. Well done. I smiled for the first time today :)

This is by far the best, and only, version I have heard of this piece.

You know I've been a musician for over 50 years and I've done a lot of experimental music ambient music electronic music I love experimenting but I've listened to this and others and it doesn't make me cry. Mussorgsky makes me cry.

BRAVO! Awesome work, ladies and gentlemen!

I have a theory about why the teenage Zappa loved this so much. Listen to it. The snare drum has a definite motif. Zappa’s first instrument was marching band drum. He was taught the rudiments, and the recorded evidence shows that he wasn’t a bad drummer. The snare drum is basically the lead instrument in this piece, with the sirens an important supporting instrument. Zappa grew up with a father who worked as a contractor for the Department of Defense. He spent the earliest years of his life growing up next door to Edgewood Arsenal in the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. He must have got used to the sound of sirens; they used to be used all the time. I had friends as a kid who lived in Cork city in Ireland, and sirens were used every morning to alert dock workers that it was time to clock in. You could hear them all over the city. They must have been used even more frequently in US military installations, if only for emergency drill purposes. The teenage Zappa hears a piece of modern music that incorporates snare drum, his own instrument, and sirens, the sound he most didn't want to hear. No wonder he wanted to become a composer.

@jsbrules

5 жыл бұрын

I should hate to make another silly comment, but: surely we must all agree that Zappa continued to be very good at the "rudiments".

@robvillevoye6076

5 жыл бұрын

Zappa was a schild of the cold war thearetenings in the 50/60ties and thus, growing up in a military zone used to the alarms of danger. Read his own whritings in the Great Frank Zappa book or in 'the negatieve dialect of poodle playing'. My english is not so good but I do understand where he got his musical conuntation . Overall: Zappa learnt me so much about art . Look further than what society is trying to get you focussed on. Edgar Varesse, stockhausen, Nam June Paike and Zappa and all those fantastic minds have shown me another way of thinking listening being. The modern day composer refuses to die.

@AndreaMercurioMusic

4 жыл бұрын

I know it's old but, what a fascinating theory Alex ! I really liked that !

@jfleminator

4 жыл бұрын

Cool. Can we get a psychoanalysis for why he might have liked webern, stravinsky, amd the shaggs?

@zolarczakl3880

4 жыл бұрын

@@jfleminator I believe Zappa liked the Shaggs because they were so horribly bad, they were a force to reckon with.

Wonderful piece - what an ending!

AWESOME job! Bravo!

I am delighted anyone undertakes a performance of Edgar's wonderful landmark work! Bravo for you ! I have studied and been an admirer or Edgar since 1969! Thank you for keeping Varese alive and in the halls.

totally awesome!

awesome. just awesome...

I haven't heard this piece since I was in college. Great job here. The different timbres, articulation, and style are perfect. One might think that a percussion piece would be all loud - boom bang boom- but not this one. Superb camera work too.

Great Work, perfect!!

That had to have been the most sensitive and moving performance of an air raid siren I’ve ever heard.

@adude9882

2 ай бұрын

I found it tastefully understated.

La meillleure version! Bravo!

@ensembleinter

7 жыл бұрын

Merci !

magnifique!

Perfect tempo. Textural clarity.

Perfectly done.

Nicely done. Well played, recording sounds great and nice videography.

this is my favourite roadtrip song

Very catchy! Genius' masterpiece!

It's awesome listening to all the different timbres of the percussion instruments, and the variety of sound that can be coaxed from each instrument depending on how it is played. Great audio quality too :)

So much percussion. Nice.

Wonderful playing.

Kudos on the multiple cameras for a Varese piece !

Another classic side with percussion.

incredible.

Magnifique

Excellent recording!

To me, it seems to be about aerial bombing. It could be considered as an audio complement to 'Guernica'. Building up to it - banging the drums of war, air-raid sirens, the deafening explosions, sirens becoming wails of despair, then just an eerie silence. But it's open to virtually limitless interpretations.

@charliem9579

5 жыл бұрын

I agree this would be a good soundtrack for viewing Guernica.

@EtcEtcAndEtc

5 жыл бұрын

@Jack Clare don't be such an absolutist, there is no rule on how you 'should' listen to music. Often the composer may intend the music to conjure images. Music is rarely entirely abstract. Plenty of stuff in music can be explained and discussed, but you may be uncomfortable with the fact that you will rarely reach a definite conclusion, as to receive a clear answer you must first ask a clear question!

@austinshoupe3003

3 жыл бұрын

There's pretty strong evidence that the composer didn't have any real world imagery for this. He was a descendent of the futurists, who believes heavily in breaking from pitch as the dominant tool of music. The sirens were selected because that have the smoothest glissando, not for any cheesy programmatic purpose.

@Travmann777

3 жыл бұрын

@@EtcEtcAndEtc 2 years later and I feel the need to add on to what I feel the original commenter was referencing. Could you describe a what something tastes like? Yes, but you will never convey the entirety of what it means to experience that sense in words. Words are approximations of experiences of the senses, and sometimes it's best to just experience something as it is without putting barriers in the way of that experience. But it's also fun to put words to these experiences we have, and we do, and that's ok. I'm with you, absolutists are always no fun. :)

@jwc3o2

3 жыл бұрын

@@Travmann777 waitaminnit - "absolutists are ALWAYS no fun"? well, isn't that "a what something"!

Fantastic recording. Glad the mixing was capable of making all instruments properly audible unlike many other recordings available on KZread.

@ensembleinter

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks !

@jeffryphillipsburns

8 ай бұрын

Mixing? Real composers don’t depend on mixes to patch holes in their scoring. An important part of composing is writing in such a way as to achieve a proper balance-without the artificial use of mixing boards.

@2112426gh

7 ай бұрын

That runs a cold second to... Musicians capable of Dynamics! Ie all the instruments can be heard in a proper fashion, as the composer intended.

Probably one of the best performances of this piece I've ever heard wooooow

This is beautiful. I don't believe that I'm able to comprehend entirely what's going on. But the sheer sounds of the instruments as they go along in the composition are very stimulating. I would love to hear that in a concert hall.

@BethanyLowe8773

2 жыл бұрын

If you're enjoying it, you're understanding it! Maybe not true of all pieces of music but here the sound and the vibe are all important :)

@jeffryphillipsburns

8 ай бұрын

@@BethanyLowe8773 It depends what you mean by “understand”. I think DerUfen means he doesn’t see how the piece is structured. It also depends what you mean by “sound”. A melody by Puccini is just a series of sounds (at least as performed), but the timbre of the voice singing and the timbre of the orchestral instruments accompanying are secondary to the pattern of the sequence of pitches (in other words, to the structure of the melody). You don’t have to be able to articulate analytically that structure, but if you can’t apprehend it synthetically, you”ve missed the melody entirely.

@irmin8196

5 ай бұрын

Spectralmusic hat auch etwas mit Mathematik zu tun! Diese Aufführung ist einfach nur grandios!

@talastra

2 ай бұрын

@@BethanyLowe8773 Sometimes understanding it is the opposite of enjoying it too.

still love it!!

Omg fantastic

Très bonne vidéo sur la ionisation de varese

quels beaux rythmes. magnifique version.

Thank you.

Merci la prof de musique

Superb!

Totally blown away! When i first heard the audio of this, I had my fair share of doubts if anyone would be able to pull this off live. You guys did a splendid job!

@jeffryphillipsburns

8 ай бұрын

What? You thought the “audio” was put together by overdubbing, splicing, and punching in? That’s not how a real composer works.

Awesome 👌

Awesome.

Studied Varèse at Juilliard back in the 70s.

Lovely.

"According to Varese, in order for the projection to yield a highly complex form, in other words, a cosmic distribution, what is necessary is a simple figure in motion and a plane that is itself mobile; otherwise, you get sound effects" Deleuze, Guattari- A Thousand Plateaus p.344

Delícia, ver os instrumentos em uma filmagem tão boa dá muito mais prazer do que só escutar, parabéns!

8 жыл бұрын

de onde voce é? no brasil raramente se escuta musica contemporanea. sempre param em stravinsky. o augusto de campos diz que estamos há 100 anos atrasado na musica!!!!!!

@demetriusgiovannisoares3822

5 жыл бұрын

uma pergunta retórica em tempos de patrulha politicamente correta: seria machismo dizer que é sempre um prazer assistir música clássica contemporânea e mulheres bonitas numa mesma sala de concerto? ok, podem jogar as bombas... rsrs

surpuissant !!!

Fantastic piece! Had to study it for my music degree in the 70s.

When you're in band practice and you ask your drummer to play a four on the floor

Wonderful! This piece is both an auditory and a visual delight!😀😀😀

This reminds me of my alma mater UCSD.....we'd have these strange concerts going on constantly. Varese was best man when Nicolas Slonimsky was married in the 30s....great bio fr latter: Perfect Pitch. Kind regards Dgunde, viola, piano, etc.....

Amazing music, awesome performance.

Surprisingly catchy.

J'adore ce morceau emblématique de Varèse starter de la carrière musicale de Zappa.

assolutamente fantastico! avanti 200 anni.

Le documentaire passé récemment sur Arte m'a fait découvrir la personnalité hors-norme de Franck Zappa : Un gars à la fois lucide, libre et créatif. Rafraichissant par les temps qui courent... C'est en quelque sorte sur ses "conseils" que je découvre ce morceau de Varèse (et c'est balèze).

@diezelle57

7 жыл бұрын

En effet, Varèse, c'est du balèze ! :)

Sussanna Mälkki is a brilliant conductor. Her Sibelius is fantastic!

I love this piece!

Susanna Mälkki has brought me here. I like her stile and her clothes and her way of leading this group. And I like the drummers, the percussion people. But I have to confess, I have it a little bit hard about that electric machine that now and then disturbes this concert. But Edgar wanted it this way . Brecht also wanted us not getting too envolved, to stop and think: "Wait, this is only a performance!"

magnific

art works of rhythms, frequencies and intensities

Nice performance. ps I also now know who has my Ludwig 'Coliseum' snare! Thanks for sharing!

BRAVO! Now I know why this was one of Frank Zappa's favorite compositions!

@johnappleseed8369

8 жыл бұрын

The one that made him decide to pursue music!

@VeggiePower303

4 жыл бұрын

But Zappa immediately thought , "I can do better than this." and he did.

@n.f.7342

4 жыл бұрын

did he though?

@jwc3o2

3 жыл бұрын

@@VeggiePower303 not "I can do better than" but more like "I can go somewhere from"...

Okay, this is the tightest and most civilized performance of this work I've seen on KZread, capturing far more of the spirit and accurate notes than the Boulez. Kudos to Ms. Mälkki. I'd love to work with you.

An awesome performance👏👏👏👏👏

WOAAAAH😍😍

I had a chance to play this at UBC with the perc ensemble, such a gas to play! And hard as hell to keep your place.

@iainctduncan

5 жыл бұрын

nice performance this is too.

Écoute conseillée par un ami cher et c'est en cela qu'on reconnaît ces vrais amis ...

this piece was so good in Hannibal

the siren suggests urgency and carries with it a sense of disquiet!

"The present-day composer refuses to die." Edgard Varese

@MIDIPipe

3 жыл бұрын

Amén.

@jwc3o2

3 жыл бұрын

actually, i think it was "the present day composers refuse to die"...

Guauuu que relaaaaxx

Strong Character!

very interesting

Wonderful. I have only ever heard the original Varese recording (i have a 1970's vinyl re-release) and it is very powerful to see young musicians playing this piece so well.

Ensemble Intercontemporain has always played the bizarre pieces they choose in a wonderful way, but THIS performance is easily one of my favorite recordings in the world. the conductor is very good, keeping pace with the strange meter, her movements large enough to be noted by the performers without seeming gratuitous or self-important. Fantastic performance, I watch it every couple months and am moved and impressed each time. Thank you for this performance!

@davewestner

4 жыл бұрын

This really is an astounding recording, from a performance point of view as well as a technical point of view. Thanks to the engineer(s) that recorded this. I don't believe there is an engineering credit listed in this video unfortunately.

Percussionists are hella underrated so this is awesome to me as a percussionist, it’s cool that they have the majority of the spotlight! ✨

J'adore, tout simplement ! Rythme, scansion, pulsion et impulsion. Au commencement était l'action !

@tonyoseranguyen9221

2 жыл бұрын

FACT

it grooves

"Threnody for Frank Zappa ". "She dances in the wind "by Tony villodas composer

tres cool

Definitely will be a platinum album.

I can very easily understand this being the piece of music that started Frank Zappa's interest in composing.

@AlexReynard

2 жыл бұрын

@Uzair And now I feel old. But noticed! :)

@AlexReynard

2 жыл бұрын

@Uzair I'm almost 40. Try reading stuff you wrote in high school. That'll fry your skull for sure.

Génial !!

Give me Varèse any day! I think, he was not only way ahead of his time but will still be contemporary in the 23rd Century.... (if humanity makes it that far 🤔).

@charlesdavis7087

3 жыл бұрын

If one thinks of this as "Music," there may well never be a 23rd Century. Ingram Marshall composed a work having to do with the slamming of the prison doors in Alcatraz. This work I found very haunting and full of disjointed memories that didn't really want to be remembered. For me, the best part of Ionization was the few seconds after I realized it had ended. (What is a joke without a punch line? A Zen Koan.).

Wow

Does this have anything to do with war?

Gotta say. I'm gunna need a little more cowbell!

@MrIdontwanttomakeach

3 жыл бұрын

I wish I was an edgelord too

@charlesdavis7087

3 жыл бұрын

Personally, I'd rather listen to Varese being beaten with a cowbell for 7 mins and 27 seconds. Better him than me. Too bad Edgard didn't listen to his father and become an engineer.

@segmentsAndCurves

2 жыл бұрын

@@charlesdavis7087 Cry about it

C' est La Genialité!!!

I had recognised Edgard Varese as an influence on Frank Zappa. This made me interested in trying to find a piece of his work to listen to. After repeating the name many times, I gave up on Alexa.

This is so very much ahead of it's time, as is a lot of his work.

let's not forget that this work is dedicated to Nicolas Slonimski, who gave it its 1st performance in 1933 at Carnegie Hall & first recording on Columbia in 1934 (& that Slonimski guested on keyboards with Zappa when he was 83!)

This ensemble absolutely NAILED this piece. They've played it at the exact tempo I like to hear it (not too languorous the way Boulez performs it - which is possibly more accurate - but not too fast like other recordings.)

みんなブーレーズに憧れる

イオニゼーション大好きな曲です🎉🎉🎉😂😂😂😂

Music starts about 1:07

@00Haydz

4 жыл бұрын

Thx M8

I can definitely see the big influence in Frank Zappa's music. FZ had good taste. :)

@roadgrit801

3 жыл бұрын

I heard an interview with Zappa in which he said (after first hearing Varese) "Boy, that sounds great. I'm going to have to write some of that."