Electronic Pioneer

In 1928, Var�se returned to Paris to alter one of the parts in Am�riques to include the recently constructed ondes martenot. Var�se followed Ameriques by composing his most famous non-electronic piece in 1930 entitled Ionisation, the first piece to feature solely percussion instruments. Although it was composed with pre-existing instruments, Ionisation was composed as an exploration of new sounds and methods to create them. In 1933, while Var�se was still in Paris, he wrote to the Guggenheim Foundation and Bell Laboratories in an attempt to recieve a grant to develop an electronic music studio. His next composition, Ecuatorial, completed in 1934, contained parts for theremins, and Var�se, anticipating the successful receipt of one of his grants, eagerly returned to the United States to finally realize his electronic music.

Var�se wrote his Ecuatorial for 2 fingerboard theremins (electronic cellos), bass singer, winds and percussion in the early 1930's. It was premiered on April 15, 1934, under the baton of Nicolas Slonimsky. Then Var�se left New York, where he had lived since 1915, and moved to Santa Fe, San Francisco and Los Angeles. By the time Var�se returned in late 1938, Leon Theremin had returned to Russia. This devastated Var�se, who had hoped to work with Theremin on a refinement of his instrument. Var�se had also promoted the theremin in his Western travels, and demonstrated one at a lecture at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque on November12, 1936... UNM has an RCA theremin, which could be the same instrument!

When, in the late 50's, Var�se was approached by a publisher about making Ecuatorial available, there were very few theremins -let alone fingerboard theremins- to be found, so he rewrote / relabelled the part for Ondes Martenot. This new version was premiered in 1961.