Density 21.5

Work for solo FLUTE by EDGARD VARÈSE, 1936. It was commissioned by the virtuoso flute player Georges Barrère (1876-1944) to mark his acquisition of a platinum flute, and first performed by him the same year in Carnegie Hall, N.Y. The title designates the atomic weight of platinum (its specific gravity is 21.5 times as dense as water). The melodic line is angular but strangely affecting, with prominent use of the TRITONE.