Edgard Varèse

“Music is organized sound.”

“The present-day composer refuses to die.”

“To stubbornly conditioned ears, anything new in music has always been called noise.”

“I dream of instruments obedient to my thought and which with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspected sounds, will lend themselves to the exigencies of my inner rhythm.”

“My goal is the liberation of sound.”

“Our musical alphabet is poor and illogical. Music, which should be alive and vibrating, needs new means of expression, and science alone can infuse it with youthful vigor.”

“I was not influenced by anyone.”

“There is no such thing as an avant-garde. There are only people who are a little late.”

“My experimenting is done before I make the music. Afterwards it is the listener who must experiment.”

“Form is a result—the result of a process.”

“I am not a musician. I work with rhythms, frequencies, and intensities.”

“When new instruments will allow me to write music as I conceive it, taking the place of the linear counterpoint, the movement of sound-masses, of shifting planes, will be clearly perceived.”

“What I am looking for are new mechanical means which will lend themselves to every expression of thought and keep up with thought.”