Abstract
The article explores the genesis of Poème électronique by Edgard Varèse, drawing on previously unknown or overlooked sources recently identified in the Varèse collection at the Paul Sacher Stiftung (Basel). These sources fall into two categories: (1) Varèse's musical manuscripts and sketches, and (2) the technical plan for the sound spatialization of the entire piece, developed by Philips engineers. Varèse's sketches and drafts for Poème électronique have long been neglected, and the complete spatialization plan, once thought lost, has only recently been rediscovered. These findings shed light on a largely unrecognized, complex creative process that spanned from the initial musical sketches to the final performance within the Philips Pavilion at the Brussels Expo in 1958, a building for which Le Corbusier was commissioned and which his assistant Iannis Xenakis designed.
A focal point of this study is a short section of the piece, labeled by Varèse as section F, which serves as a case study. Varèse composed this section by integrating diagrams for electronic sounds with conventional scores, including fragments from his unpublished Étude pour Espace (1947a). The spatialization plan for section F, in alignment with Varèse's manuscripts, evokes vertical sound movements reminiscent of falling drops. The article offers a formal analysis of Poème électronique based on these drafts and the control score for sound spatialization.