"I don't want to write any more for the old Man-power instruments and am handicapped by the lack of adequate electrical instruments for which I now conceive my music"

Edgard Varèse expresses a profound dissatisfaction with the limitations of traditional acoustic instruments, which he refers to as "Man-power instruments". This term reflects his view of conventional orchestral instruments as fundamentally bound by the physical capacities and endurance of human performers. The sounds produced by these instruments are constrained not only by the mechanics of their construction but also by the physiological limitations, breath, muscle, manual dexterity, of those who play them. For Varèse, these instruments have become inadequate vehicles for realizing the sonic visions that occupy his imagination.

Simultaneously, Varèse feels restricted by the technological landscape of his time. The "lack of adequate electrical instruments" reveals his frustration with the embryonic state of electronic music technology. He envisions new sound worlds, textures, and possibilities that existing instruments cannot produce. Varèse perceives electrical instruments not merely as novel tools, but as fundamentally transformative machines, capable of giving birth to entirely new forms of musical expression. The sounds he now imagines, or "conceives", are detached from the organic limitations of past instrumentation and require electronic means for their realization. In other words, his creative imagination has outpaced the available technology.

The statement highlights Varèse’s pioneering spirit and revolutionary thinking. More than mere nostalgia for lost sounds or a romanticization of the future, it is a decisive break with the past and a call for innovation. He advocates for the development of new instruments that transcend traditional boundaries and liberate composers from prior constraints. His words underscore a broader artistic impulse during the early twentieth century to seek new forms, new methods, and new auditory experiences, echoing the period’s technological optimism and its faith in the transformative potential of science and invention. Varèse’s vision would go on to inspire later generations in electronic and experimental music, affirming the deep connection between technological progress and artistic evolution.