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VARSE'S DRUM: THE TAROLE IN IONISATION

Brian Holder

Tempo / Volume 67 / Issue 266 / October 2013, pp 65 - 68DOI: 10.1017/S0040298213000867, Published online: 08 October 2013

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0040298213000867

How to cite this article:Brian Holder (2013). VARSE'S DRUM: THE TAROLE IN IONISATION. Tempo, 67, pp 65-68doi:10.1017/S0040298213000867

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varses drum: the tarole in

ionisation

Brian Holder

Abstract: Edgard Varses Ionisation was a groundbreaking composition that presented uniqueideas and problems concerning percussion orchestration. This article examines correspondence

between Varse and Nicolas Slonimsky about the tarole a snare drum used in the work. In oneletter Varse sketched this instrument in order to show its relationship with a more commonorchestral snare drum of the period. This information provides insight into performance practiceand the orchestral conception of the work.

Ionisation, composed by Edgard Varse in 1931, is one of the most cele-brated percussion ensemble compositions of the early 20th century. Thework presented the important notion that unpitched percussion (withpiano and other pitched instruments coming in at the end) could

stand alone as a serious form of concert music a relatively unexploredconcept at that time. Ionisation has also enjoyed a strong performanceand recording history, which continues to the present.1 Many musicianswould no doubt agree with theNew York Timescritic Steve Smith, whenhe stated that Ionisation is a sacramentfor percussionists.2 Its perform-ance is a re-enactment of a great rite of passage for what was then a freshand previously unrecognized musical ensemble.

Much has been written aboutIonisation, and yet the work continuesto stimulate inquiry. The present essay will briefly examine the tarole,one instrument included in the work. New research clarifies somequestions about this instrument, and serves to reinforce the acceptedperformance practice. This research also provides additional insight

into Varses attention to detail and hands-on knowledge of the acous-tical and mechanical nature of percussion instruments.

Pitch Relationships

The reconceptualization of pitch was one of Varses great insights.He was able to reinvent the role of concert percussion in a radicaland refreshing manner, primarily by establishing pitch relationships

between instruments of individually indeterminate pitch. It was, per-haps, a way to push pre-existing instruments to their limits, while

Headingphotocaption:Edgard

Varse

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1 An examination of published scores and available recordings can be found in ErikHeine and David Steffen, Ionisation: a Comparative Analysis of Published Editions andRecordings, Percussive Notes (June 2009), pp. 526.

2 Steve Smith, Banging Out a Revolution in Just 91 Measures, New York Times (13 July,2010).

Tempo67 (266) 6568 2013 Cambridge University Press

doi:10.1017/S0040298213000867

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Varse awaited those fabled instruments obedient to my thought andwhich with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspectedsounds, will lend themselves to the exigencies of my inner rhythm .3

Varses biographer, Fernand Ouellette, wrote that the attraction ofpercussion was to take up a position on the side of the life, the

beauty, and the richness of sound.4 In Ionisation, this richness found

expression in several ways, one of which was the exploration ofpitch relationships between instruments that produce single indeter-minate (non-specific) pitches.

The score published by Henry Cowell in 1934 offers a descrip-tion of several instruments. And while these indications are offered in

both English and French (for the purpose of clarity), subjectiveelements remain.5 Pitch relationships are one aspect of the instrumen-tation that has remained unclear. One such relationship can be foundwithin the membranophone instruments, two of which, the tarole andcaisse claire, are played by the ninth member of the ensemble. Thescore indicates: Tarole: Petite caisse plate dune sonorite aigue,(Tarole: a small, shallow drum of high pitch), though the translation inthe score is Tarole is a flat military drum, with snares.6 While that infor-mation is ambiguous, it is traditional for the tarole to have a higher pitchthan the caisse claire. This performance practice is reinforced by therecording made by Nicholas Slominsky shortly after the premire in1933.7 This practice also has continued to receive support from numerouspercussionists, such as Thomas Siwe, who wrote in 1994 that the taroleor piccolo snare drum should be the highest of the snare soundingdrums.8 Siwe also directed a notable recording ofIonisation, in whichthe pitch relationship between the two instruments is clear.9

The identification of the tarole as the higher-pitched drum is inter-esting, because the instrument nomenclature was troublesome to

artists of the 1930s and needed to be readdressed decades later.Archival evidence has been discovered that now reinforces this pitchrelationship, strengthening the current performance practice and clari-fying the nature of this instrument. Numerous letters were exchanged

between Varse, Nicolas Slonimsky (who premired the work and towhom it was dedicated by Varse) and Henry Cowell (who publishedthe score in a 1934 edition of hisNew Music Orchestra Edition). In someof these letters Varse sketched examples of the instruments heintended to use in the composition and this information can informour selections when performingIonisation.

Problematic InstrumentationDuring the late 1920s and early 1930s Varse was in constant contactwith both Slonimsky and Cowell, through their mutual participationin the Pan American Association of Composers. Ionisation waspremired and performed several times during 1933 by Nicolas

3 Edgard Varse. The Liberation of Sound in Leo Treitler, ed., Source Readings in MusicHistory (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1998), p. 1339.

4 Fernand Ouellette, Edgard Varese (New York: Da Capo Press, 1981), p. 46.5 His descriptions were given in the 1934 edition of the score, and were reprinted in Morris

Goldenberg, Modern School for Snare Drum with a Guide Book for the Artist Percussionist(Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 1955), p. 163. The 1934 edition will be referenced throughoutthis paper, as it is readily available.

6 Edgar Varese, Ionisation (San Francicso: New Music Orchestra Series, 1934).7 Available on compact disc. Ionisation (Symposium Records, 2000).8 Thomas Siwe, Edgard Varses Ionisation: Analysis and Performance Problems,Percussive

Notes (October, 1994), p. 73.9

Historic Works for Percussion Ensemble (19311942) (Equilibrium Records, 2002).

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Slonimsky, the self-identified failed wunderkind of progressiveAmerican art.10 The two artists collaborated closely on the project,and ran into numerous problems. In February of that year,Slonimsky began to assemble the instrumentation, and enlisted theassistance of Henry Cowell. Slonimsky had some questions as tothe exact nature of several instruments, including the tarole. On 14

February, Cowell responded to Slominskys query, and wrote thata tarle [sic] is a special sort of flat, small snare drum.11 Cowell sub-sequently went off in search of the various instruments needed forIonisation. He was having a hard time locking down xylophones andsnare drums, however, and the chimes had to be specially made.12

He told Slonimsky:

I went to Fischers three times about the instruments they are very unco-operative, and we can get only SOME of the instruments for Varse there.They have no xylophone or snare drum for us. . . . The tubular chimeswhich Varse drew for us and said to get at Fischers are not there theysaid they would have to make them for us.13

The reader will note that Cowell referenced a drawing made byVarse and shown to both Slonimsky and Cowell.Besides the several aforementioned percussion instruments, Varse

also scored for sirens specifically Sterling type H hand operatedsirens. Yet, he wrote in the 1934 score that if unobtainable, substituteTheremins electric instruments, or any similar instruments.14 Thesesirens were difficult to obtain, and it was only for the second perform-ance of the work that Varse personally acquired the required sirensfrom the Sterling Siren Fire Alarm Company. His published compro-mise leads one to believe that securing instruments was an ongoingand likely aggravating ordeal (not to mention securing performers an entirely different problem that will not be explored here). It is a

curious addendum to the score, and few performers take Varse upon the offer to use the theremin.15

The Sketch

Towards the end of 1933 Slominsky suggested to Varse that, as thescore was so unusual, the published version should contain a state-ment as to the exact nature of the instrumentation. On 17December 1933, Varse wrote a revealing letter to Slonimsky, thank-ing the conductor for his assistance and agreeing to such an explica-tory note.16 Furthermore, Varse felt that this was most needed forwhat he called the unusual instruments: bongos, tarole, string-drum,

claves, maracas, anvils.17 He suggested that Slonimsky should writethe descriptive notes regarding each instrument, and later Varsewould translate these into French for Cowells publication. Butthere was still some confusion on the exact nature of the tarole,

10Slonimsky, Nicholas, in Nicholas Slonimsky, ed., Bakers Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (New York: Schirmer, 1992), p. 1726.

11 Henry Cowell, letter to Nicolas Slonimsky (14 February, 1933), Nicolas Slonimsky collec-tion, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Call no.: ML31.S6.

12 Henry Cowell, letter to Nicolas Slonimsky (16 February, 1933), Nicolas Slonimsky collec-tion, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Call no.: ML31.S6.

13 Henry Cowell, letter to Nicolas Slonimsky (16 February, 1933).14 Edgar Varse, Ionisation.15 There is at least one recording of Ionisationthat used the Theremin in place of the siren.

See Heine and Steffen, Ionisation.16 Edgar Varse, letter to Nicolas Slonimsky (17 December, 1933), Nicolas Slonimsky collec-

tion, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Call no.: ML31.S6.17 Ibid.

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which required Varse to add a handwritten addendum to this typedletter. At the bottom of the page, Varse spelled out the relationship

between a snare drum and a tarole. He wrote: Definition of a Tarole:a small drum, flat and slender. To further his point, Varse drew apicture of a snare drum and a tarole (while also apologizing for hisartistic ability) and indicated that the latter should be one-half the

height of the snare drum. His illustration is reproduced here asFigure 1.

The sketch is quite fascinating, both in terms of musicological inter-est and as a display of Varses general artistic skills and attention todetail. The sketch also offers clarity. For Varse, the tarole was aninstrument identical to a snare drum, the only difference being thedepth of the drum shell. This difference would impact the pitchrange, which situates his instrumental preference within theIonisation pitch hierarchy. The other aspects of the drum drum

shell diameter and tuning mechanisms indicate that the tarole andthe snare drum were intended to have a similar timbre.

Lastly, it is interesting to note that in this drawing Varse created animage of two drums with T shaped tension rods (known to someNorth American percussionists as knuckle busters) which appeararound the upper rims. This mechanism suggests that the drumheads would be tensioned equally. This type of drum today calledsingle tension is antiquated, and rarely found in the concert hall.

Conclusions

Performance practice continues to grow as a topic of interest withinthe milieu of 21st-century percussion performance, and this sketchcertainly presents a more informed look at the nature of Ionisationas Varse conceptualized it. It clarifies his intended pitch relationship

between the tarole and the snare drum, and provides specific directiontowards instrument selection. The sketch also informs the frustrationgenerated by the unique and iconoclastic instrumentation that Varseenvisioned. The instrument thus gives us a glimpse of the percussionensemble of the 1930s, an era in which much of what we today takefor granted was new, fresh, and not without some mystery. With hissketch, Varse has provided us with some clarity and more food forthought when it next comes time for a performance of his Ionisation.

Figure 1:

Left to right, caisse claire and tarole.Courtesy of Electra Yourke

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