Extending Space in Varèse's Interpolations: Extended Stereo Space

EXTENDING SPACE IN VARÈSE’S INTERPOLATIONS: EXTENDED STEREO SPACE JAIME E. OLIVER LA ROSA 1. INTRODUCTION HE ELECTRONIC INTERPOLATIONS for Déserts, were developed in two stages: first in 1954, at Schaeffer’s Studio D’Essai in Paris, and later in 1961, in the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Studio (CPEMC) in New York. Varèse arrived in Paris with sounds he had recorded in factories in New York and with the first interpolation completed and the second one incomplete. He first worked with Ann McMillan in New York, then with Pierre Henry in the Studio D’Essai, and Bülent Arel in the CPEMC. According to Risset, Varèse wanted to make a new version, but due to several complications, he only re-worked the Paris versions in 1961. It is unclear what was the nature of this re-working of the original T Extending Space in Varèse’s Interpolations 263 tapes. After Varèse’s death, Ussachevsky proposed to make a new version of the interpolations, but “Louise Varèse was not sure that Varèse would have approved of it” and he did not make this version.1 2. ETHICAL AND AESTHETIC CONSIDERATIONS There is an ethical issue to consider when approaching the spatialization of a historical work recorded on magnetic tape: Do we have the right to spatialize the work of a composer who is no longer present? Sound diffusion is regarded both as a compositional and performance practice. As a performance practice it is generally understood as the projection of sounds in a space.2 This practice is generally conceived as a “live” practice, where sound projection of a mono or stereo source is achieved manually with a mixer and a set of speakers. Some composers3 have suggested the use of a computer to diffuse sound, as computers provide us with the possibility of controlling sound diffusion with more precision than manual control. We know from his writings that Varèse had thought of sound in space beyond the technological possibilities of his time. Varèse was constantly demanding from technology, what technology couldn’t yet provide. It is clear from Varèse’s writing that sound projection and spatial concerns were a central metaphor in his work: . . . a sense of sound-projection in space by means of the emission of sound in any part or in many parts of the hall, as may be required by the score.4 I shall add a fourth [dimension of music], sound projection—that feeling that sound is leaving us with no hope of being reflected back, a feeling akin to that aroused by beams of light sent forth by a powerful searchlight—for the ear as for the eye, that sense of projection, of a journey into space.5 Furthermore, Varèse later said, “for the first time I heard my music projected into space,”6 referring to the premiere of Poéme électronique at the Phillips Pavilion, in which “three layers of sound material [were projected] through 350 loudspeakers.”7 Considering on one hand that sound diffusion as a performance practice allows a person to distribute a stereo or mono piece into a larger number of speakers, and, on the other, that Varèse clearly had the desire of projecting his music into space, multichannel versions of his work are valid and desirable explorations. 264 Perspectives of New Music 3. PROCEDURE TO EXTEND THE STEREO SPACE Like a lot of early electronic music, the interpolations were realized in two channels or stereo. The technique was so unusual at the time, that in order to achieve the stereo radio transmission, two radio stations were used. In the interpolations, sounds do not move in space by dynamically changing the relative amplitudes of the mono channels. Sounds are generally placed in one of the channels and not in the other one. It is, in any case, extremely clear from the tape that Varèse produced two differentiated sound streams intended to be perceived from independent sound sources. In order to respect this original realization, my approach looked to find a way of extending the original stereo version, therefore obtaining a technique that could also be extended to...