1958 Brussels World Fair

I was recently reading Dr. Miller's blog at http://www.indabamusic.com/#!/artists_in_residence/scott-miller which specifically has an entry on collaborative works. He referenced the 1958 Brussels World Fair which seemed to me, a very good place to start.

Royal Philips electronics had asked famous architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) to design the Philips pavilion for the World's Fair to be held in Brussels. Le Corbusier ended up designing the visuals inside of the space, and the design of the building (from a sketch of Le Corbusier) and some of the music in the entrance and exit (Concrèt PH) was a man working for him by the name of Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001).

"Suddenly there sprang to my mind, out of the unknown, the notion of an 'Electronic Poem,' " Le Corbusier said later. "A work capable of profoundly affecting the human sensibility by audio-visual means. . . to bring together on the creative level, by means of electronics, speed, number, color, sound, noise, unlimited power." Of course there had to be music; very bold, very special music. "Sounds, noises, unlimited power," Le Corbusier brooded, "a new creation opening all before it. . . . Suddenly I thought of Varese."
(http://www.sfsound.org/tape/varese.html)

Edgard Varèse (1883-1965) is known as the "Father of Electronic Music" and is credited with coining the term "organized sound". He composed "Poème Electronique" for the Philips pavilion to accompany images encountered when walking through the structure.

About 350 speakers were used in the installation and were used to spatialize the music to correspond with images, location of the audience and to utilize the acoustic of the physical structure itself.

Poème Electronique with images!

More photos of the 1958 Philips pavilion.