Frank Zappa presents a Musical Tribute to Edgard Varèse - Déserts, NYC Palladium , April 17, 1981

00:00 Introduction by Frank Zappa 11:00 Déserts 37:05 Frank Zappa's Thanks Performed by the Orchestra of Our Time Joel Thome, Music Director/Conductor Déserts (1950–1954) is a piece by Edgard Varèse for 14 winds (brass and woodwinds), 5 percussion players, 1 piano, and electronic tape. The piece is scored for 2 flutes (both doubling piccolo), 2 clarinets (one doubling E-flat clarinet and one doubling bass clarinet), 2 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 2 tubas, and a percussion section of 5 players: 1. timpani, vibraphone, cymbals, tenor drum, claves 2. glockenspiel, snare, field, and tenor drums, 2 timbales or tom-toms, cymbals, cencerro, tambourine, Chinese blocks 3. bass drums, cymbals, field and tenor drums, cencerro, guiro, claves, tambourine, chimes 4. vibraphone, 3 gongs, lathes, guiro, tambourine 5. xylophone, chinese blocks, wooden drums, guiro, claves, maracas, lathes According to Varèse, the title of the piece regards "not only physical deserts of sand, sea, mountains, and snow, outer space, deserted city streets… but also distant inner space… where man is alone in a world of mystery and essential solitude." The first performance of the combined orchestral and tape sound composition was given at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris on December 2, 1954, with Hermann Scherchen conducting and Pierre Henry in charge of the tape part. This performance was part of an ORTF broadcast concert, in front of a totally unprepared and mainly conservative audience, with Déserts wedged between pieces by Mozart and Tchaikovsky. It received a vitriolic reaction from both the audience and the press. Igor Stravinsky was complimentary of the piece, speaking favourably of the piece's "form based on patterns of recurrence and incidence". Moreover, he appreciated the attempt to combine live instrumental music with electronic recording and considered it "the most valuable development in Varèse's later music." The Black Page - The Zappa Page https://www.facebook.com/zblackpage/