---
id: varese_poeme
title: "Poème Électronique"
year: 1958
category: "Sampling"
lang: en
canonical: https://nodemusic.cc/node/varese_poeme
source: node.music
---

# Poème Électronique (1958)

Sampling · https://nodemusic.cc/node/varese_poeme

## Summary

The apotheosis of Varèse’s “Organized Sound.” Edgard Varèse made music move through the Philips Pavilion via 425 speakers. The audience didn't just listen to the sound; they were inside it.

## Full text

The Philips Pavilion at Expo 58 is often credited to Le Corbusier, but its mathematical soul belonged to Iannis Xenakis. While the master was busy in India, Xenakis designed the pavilion's iconic 'stomach' shape using hyperbolic paraboloids based on the glissandi of his orchestral work *Metastaseis*. It was the first building in history modeled on a musical score.

Inside this concrete shell, Edgard Varèse's 'Poème électronique' was unleashed through 425 loudspeakers. The sound didn't just play; it traveled along complex 'sound routes' embedded in the walls, creating a physical sense of movement that predated Dolby Atmos by decades. When the pavilion was demolished, the spatial reality of the piece was lost forever, leaving stereo recordings as mere shadows of the original experience.

## People

- Iannis Xenakis (1922–2001) — Greek-French composer and architect.
- Edgard Varèse (1883–1965) — French-American composer.

## Connections

### Influenced by

- [Magnetophon](https://nodemusic.cc/node/tape_inv.md) - ENABLED
- [Ecuatorial](https://nodemusic.cc/node/varese_ecuatorial.md) - EVOLVED

### Influenced

- [Spatial Audio](https://nodemusic.cc/node/spatial.md) - INSPIRED
- [Institute of Sonology](https://nodemusic.cc/node/sonology.md) - ENABLED
- [UPIC](https://nodemusic.cc/node/xenakis.md) - COLLABORATED

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Po%C3%A8me_%C3%A9lectronique