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biography
pronunciation:
[varez]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1883–1965)
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| biography:
| Composer, born in Paris, France. While studying engineering in Paris, he also pursued musical studies with prominent teachers. There and during a stay in Berlin (1908–15), he made a name as a composer and conductor, and numbered Debussy among his sponsors. A visit to New York in 1915 turned into a lifetime's stay, and meanwhile all his early pieces were lost or destroyed. In the USA he became a leader of the avant-garde, helping found the International Composers' Guild and the Pan-American Society. He composed a handful of works of spectacular originality and aggressive Modernism, including Amériques (1921–2), Offrandes (1921), and one of the first all-percussion works, Ionisation (1931). Audience rejection and personal depression led to a long creative hiatus, but in the 1950s he emerged to become a prime influence on the new generation. Later works included the Poème électronique written for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. |
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