Varèse, Edgard

Franco-American composer, music theorist, and sometime-conductor Edgard (Edgar) Varèse (1883-1965) came to the United States in 1915 and composed most of his mature music in America. In fact, most of what he wrote prior to the move has been lost and is presumed destroyed. Varèse pioneered 20th Century electronic music and had to wait for technology to catch up to his conceptualizations in order to realize performance of many of his works. His influence extended beyond "classical" music and both Charlie Parker and Frank Zappa acknowledged Varèse's contributions to their own work.