# Ecuatorial (Varèse)

Ecuatorial is a secular cantata for bass or male chorus and ensemble by French composer Edgard Varèse. Finished in 1934, it was revised in 1961.

## Background

Ecuatorial was born out of Varèse's fascination with electronic instruments. After the French premiere of Amériques in 1929, where the composer replaced the siren with an ondes Martenot, he decided to move electronic instruments to the foreground in upcoming compositions. Written between 1932 and 1934, it marked Varèse's first composition to feature both acoustic and electronic instruments. The title comes from the area of land where pre-Columbian art flourished, which he became more and more fascinated from the 20s onwards. It was dedicated to Louise Varèse, his wife, and premiered on April 15, 1934, in New York's Town Hall. The premiere was given by bass Chase Baromeo and conductor Nicolas Slonimsky. The concert was sponsored by the Pan American Association of Composers, an association founded by Varèse himself that was largely funded by Charles Ives and premiered many works by Varèse. In 1961, Edgard Varèse revised the composition, making several modifications to the scoring to facilitate its publication. The revised version was published by Colfranc Music Publishing in 1961 and, later, by Casa Ricordi.

## Structure

This cantata has a total playing time of 11 minutes. It is scored for a solo bass (or male chorus in the revised version) and an atypical ensemble: four trumpets, four trombones, a piano, an organ, two theremins (changed to two ondes Martenot in the revised version), and a large percussion section for six percussionists, consisting of timpani, two snare drums, two tenor drums, three bass drums, two tam-tams, a gong, cymbals, a suspended cymbal, temple blocks, and a tambourine.
The composition was initially scored for two special theremins which Leon Theremin had designed for this piece specifically. Among the differences with a normal theremin, the two theremins used in Ecuatorial included a fingerboard and had an extremely high-pitched range. Varèse was specially interested in these theremins as they would allow for glissandi and long-sustained notes. For the 1961 revised version, the composer would choose the ondes Martenot, which had become much more popular in France in the 40s and was generally easier for play for keyboard players. These two instruments would allow the composer to use notes as high-pitched as the E7, which is above the piccolo range. The other change made for Ecuatorial's first publication in 1961 was the optional change of the bass for a male chorus. Varèse stated in that regard that the chorus should be made up of "bass voices, above all, no church singers. At all costs avoid the constipated and Calvinists."
The text used for the bass or male chorus is translated into Spanish by Francisco Ximénez from the original Mayan Kʼicheʼ book Popol Vuh. The translation was included in Miguel Ángel Asturias's Leyendas de Guatemala. When the book was, in turn, translated into French in 1932, Varèse got a copy, which is where the quotations were extracted from. The composer chose to include the text in its original Spanish, as he had a good command of the language and preferred its authenticity over the French translation. According to Varèse, the text is part of the invocation of the tribe lost in the mountains, having left the City of Abundance. For this reason, Varèse specifies that a typical performance "should be dramatic and incantatory, guided by the imploring fervor of the text, and should follow the dynamic indications of the score." Varèse also emphasizes the importance of "primitive rude[ness]" when performing Ecuatorial. Varèse explores the contradiction, or rather juxtaposition of opposites, that involves using most primitive instruments, like percussion, together with most advanced instruments, such as the ondes Martenot. In Varèse's words, "I want to encompass all that is human... from the primitive to the farthest reaches of science".

## Reception

Ecuatorial received mixed to positive reviews by critics, who were surprised by Varèse's style and generally noted the used of the theremin in concert performances, which was a novel rarity at the time. The New York Times described the premiere in the following terms: "Mr. Varèse has written music that has power and atmosphere. ... It is sometimes unclear; a welter of sound obscures any central meaning in such pages. The theremins gave the work an unearthly quality at times; in some passages they were mere caterwauling." The New York Herald Tribune also described the "piercingly shrieking theremin instruments" and stated that "the plan and purpose of the outlines of the music and Mr. Varèse's scoring ... was not always clear, but there were many pungent, massively expressive measures." Despite generally having garnered a certain approval, the piece went unpublished and would not be performed again in the next twenty-five years.

## Recordings

The following is a partial list of recordings of Ecuatorial:
Recordings of Edgard Varèse's Ecuatorial :
| Bass (or male chorus) | Ensemble | Conductor | Date of recording | Place of recording | Record label | First release | Format |
| Kevin Deas | Asko|Schönberg | Riccardo Chailly | May 1997 | Concertgebouw, Amsterdam | Decca | 1998 | CD |
| Camerata Silesia | Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra | Christopher Lyndon-Gee | November 2005 | Grzegorz Fitelberg Hall, Katowice | Naxos | 2008 | CD |