Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) was a pioneering French composer and figure in the field of electroacoustic music, best known for founding the concept of musique concrète. Born into a musical family, Schaeffer initially pursued telecommunications and worked as a technician for radio stations, co-founding Studio d'Essai during World War II, which served as a pivotal platform for the French Resistance and his experimental compositions. Musique concrète involves the manipulation of recorded sounds from everyday life, challenging traditional musical structures by focusing on the inherent musicality of sounds themselves. Schaeffer's influential works, such as "Études des bruits" and "Symphonie pour un homme seul," exemplified his innovative techniques, combining various sound samples while encouraging listeners to appreciate sounds independently from their origins.
In 1960, he shifted his focus from composition to theoretical studies, culminating in his notable treatise, "Traité des objets musicaux," which explored the nature of sound and its perception. Schaeffer's ideas contributed significantly to the evolution of contemporary music and inspired a generation of composers, including Pierre Henry and John Cage. His legacy continues to influence the fields of electroacoustics and experimental music, emphasizing the importance of sound in its purest form.
Pierre Schaeffer
- Born: August 14, 1910
- Birthplace: Nancy, France
- Died: August 19, 1995
- Place of death: Les Milles, Aix-en-Provence, France
French classical music and film-score composer
Schaeffer was a major figure in French radio broadcasting, and he was the inventor of musique concrète, which highlights the musical potential in sounds recorded from the everyday world. Schaeffer expanded the concept of music to include sounds of all types, even those usually considered noises.
The Life
Although Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer (pyehr SHAY-fehr) was born into a musical family, he was captivated by telecommunications. A graduate of the École Polytechnique, he worked as a technician for various radio stations until 1941, when he became a cofounder of Studio d’Essai. It was the primary broadcasting station for the French Resistance during World War II, and it was Schaeffer’s first laboratory for musique concrète.
Musique concrète is constructed from the inherent properties of mechanically recorded sounds. Schaeffer used radio equipment to pioneer this groundbreaking style of composition in such works as Études de bruits. In 1951 Schaeffer established what would become the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, with whom he explored the musical potential of every kind of sound and developed original strategies for composing. His research drew from physics and philosophy as well as his knowledge of music. In fact, by 1960 Schaeffer had abandoned composition to devote himself to theoretical work on objets sonores, or sound objects, and music perception. He documented his theories in his Traité des objets musicaux (1966; treatise on musical objects).
In 1968 Schaeffer returned to practical composing, joining the Paris Conservatory as a professor of electroacoustic composition. He was the force behind several influential projects in the French artistic community. Before his death in 1995, he established a foundation to continue his research and to make his archives available to scholars worldwide.
The Music
As an electroacoustic composer, Schaeffer worked with acoustic signals collected by electrical equipment, usually a tape recorder, and emblazoned them on a fixed medium such as magnetic tape. Musique concrète was his term for music consisting of recorded sounds spliced together in such a way that reveals the musicality innate to the sounds. The rhythms, melodies, and formal structure of an ideal musique concrète work derived from the properties of the sounds heard in the piece.
Though he did not always succeed, Schaeffer sought to turn from traditional abstract schemes, such as classical forms, to concrete sound as the structural foundation of his music. He wanted to demonstrate that all sounds were inherently musical, even everyday sounds, such as locomotive noises. He believed that listeners could train themselves to hear and think beyond the parameters of traditional music and come to enjoy the music of their surroundings.
A first step in this direction would be to mentally isolate sounds from the sources that produce them, in what Schaeffer called the acousmatic reduction. Achieving this reduction would enable the listener to concentrate on the inherent characteristics of sounds, as opposed to their relationships to objects and situations.
Études des bruits. One of the earliest known works of musique concrète, Schaeffer’s Études des bruits premiered on French radio in 1948. The original version comprises five “Studies in Noise” (including Étude au piano, Étude aux chemins de fer, Étude aux tourniquets, Étude pathétique, and Étude violette). Each study consists of recorded, or sampled, sounds collected on disc and tape and subjected to various manipulations. Schaeffer’s methods included fading the sounds in and out, altering the speeds and volumes of the recordings, playing sounds backward, and superimposing multiple sounds. In contrast to these cutting-edge techniques, with which Schaeffer compiled the material for the études, the forms of the pieces remember traditional styles. For instance, Étude aux chemins de fer (railroad study) seems to be a set of variations on locomotive noises, in an overall binary form (two parts plus a coda). Schaeffer revised this piece in 1971, condensing five pieces into four.
Diapason Concertino. Also known as the Tuning-Fork Concertino, this work originated as one of Schaeffer’s Études des bruits. In this piece, samples of an orchestra tuning up interact with piano improvisations. As such the concertino refers to classical concerto form, in which an orchestra interacts with a soloist. In a notable twist, Schaeffer captures both orchestra and soloist engaging in spontaneous activities, tuning and improvising, rather than the scripted dialogue of the traditional concerto. He revised the Diapason Concertino in 1971 into a four-movement version with traditional titles and ordering. As in a classical concerto, an Allegro serves as the opening movement, followed by an Andante and an Intermezzo. An Andantino concludes the work.
Symphonie pour un homme seul. The symphony for a man alone marks the beginning of the collaboration between Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, and it premiered in Paris in 1950. In 1955 Maurice Béjart set the Symphonie pour un homme seul to modern-dance choreography in the first musique concrète ballet. The Symphonie pour un homme seul’s final version consists of twelve movements with vaguely descriptive titles, such as “Erotica,” “Cadence,” and “Apostrophe.” The piece attempts to highlight the rhythmic and melodic aspects of human noises such as breathing and laughter, blending them with noiselike sounds produced by traditional musical instruments. Schaeffer and Henry wished their audiences to appreciate every sound in the piece for its own sake, and not for the meaning that might arise from the connection between a sound and the instrument that produced it. Thus, Symphonie pour un homme seul attempts to put Schaeffer’s acousmatic thesis into practice.
Musical Legacy
Musique concrète quickly won the curiosity of other artists. Schaeffer invited many composers, among them Pierre Henry, Luciano Berio, and Olivier Messiaen, to create their own musique concrète compositions at his studio. John Cage, who also worked with recorded sounds, was intrigued by Schaeffer’s work, but he was not wholly convinced by it. Schaeffer himself harbored some doubts about musique concrète, particularly as it pertained to the acousmatic thesis. He found that it was basically impossible for listeners not to think of the sources of sounds upon hearing them. He therefore dispensed with the term musique concrète in 1958, preferring simply to call his work experimental music.
Schaeffer’s Traité des objets musicaux inspired new research in electroacoustics, aesthetics, and music perception. The idea that sound, as opposed to the strategy for organizing sound, is the defining aspect of music inspired the work of several composers, including Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff.
Bibliography
Dack, John. “Pierre Schaeffer and the Significance of Radiophonic Art.” Contemporary Music Review 10, no. 2 (1994): 3-11. Describes the influence of Schaeffer’s work with radio on his compositions and the relationship that he perceived between music and machines. Clarifies the meaning of acousmatic.
Palombini, Carlos. “Pierre Schaeffer: From Research into Noises to Experimental Music.” Computer Music Journal 17, no. 3 (1993): 14-19. An overview of Schaeffer’s career, including his transition from technician to composer. Comments briefly on several of his early works and on a few of his theories, such as the pseudo-instrument.
Principal Works
film scores:Masquerage, 1952; Sahara d’aujourd’hui, 1957 (with Pierre Henry); Garabatos, 1964; Les Montréalistes, 1965.
tape recordings:Concertino-Diapason, 1948 (with J. J. Grünewald); Étude de bruits, 1948; Suite pour quatorze instruments, 1949; Variations sur une flûte mexicaine, 1949; Bidule en ut, 1950 (with Pierre Henry); La Course au kilocycle, 1950 (with Henry); Symphonie pour un homme seul, 1950 (with Henry); Toute la lyre, 1951 (with Henry); Orphée 53, 1953 (with Henry); Continuo, 1958 (with Luc Ferrari); Étude aux allures, 1958; Étude aux sons animés, 1958; Exposition française à Londres, 1958 (with Ferrari); Étude aux objets, 1959; Nocturne aux chemins de fer, 1959; Phèdre, 1959; Simultané camerounais, 1959; Le Trièdre fertile, 1975 (with Bernard Durr); Diapason Concertino, 1971; Bilude, 1979.
writings of interest:Traité des objets musicaux, 1966 (treatise on musical objects).