GarlosPalombini
University of Sussex
Music Faculty
Arts Building
Falmer
Brighton BNI 9QN UK
The name of the Frenchintellectual (writer, musi-
cologist,researcher,and composer|PierreSchaeffer
(Fig.I)remains attachedto musique concrdte,which
he createdin Paris during the late 1940s.Musique
conc€tesought to explore the musical possibilitiesof
soundssampledon 78 rpm recordsand,from 1951
onward,on tape.Outside Franceat least,little has
beensaidabout Schaeffer'sthinking. Therearesev-
eral reasons:a largepart of his literary cuvre is out
of print; apartfrom two articlespublishedin the
long-departed Gravesaner Bliitter, Schaeffer'stexts
remain untranslatedinto English;his writing is any-
thing but simple. Pierre Schaefferaddresses himself,
with the refinement of a writer, to one of the great
questionsof our time-the relationshipbetweenhu-
man beingsand technology.He doesthis from a
privilegedposition of someonewho is both an artist
and a technician, and, being furtherrnore an intellec-
tual, he is capableof articulating the artist'sand the
technician'sexperiences.
In I94l Schaefferdraftedsome obsewationson
what he termed " relayarts": radio and cinema.His
argumentcan be summarizedas follows {Pienet
1969,pp.91-92,Schaeffer1989,p. 75-771: The evolu'
tion of thesearts unfolds in three stages.ln the first,
art is deformedby the instrument, whosefascinating
novelty inclines us to ignore its precariousness. In
the second,art is transmitted by the instrument,
whoseinadequaciesbecomeincreasinglyapparent:
technicalprogressis never fast enough,andthe
greaterthe resemblancebetweenimageandmodel,
the more refinedand demandingour perceptionbe-
comes.In the third stage,art is in't'ormedby the in-
strument,whose limitations and possibilitiesfinally
ComputerMusic )ournal, l7:3, pp. 14-19,Fall 1993,
O 1993MassachusettsInstitute of Technology.
t4
Machine SongsV:
PierreSchaeffer-
FromResearch into
Noisesto Experimental
Music
revealthemselves;the doublerole of the medium
then surfaces:retransmission,in a specificmanner, of
what we were usedto perceivingdirectly; expression,
in a specificmanner/of what we were not used to
perceiving.
In 1942PierreSchaefferjoined /acquesCopeau
and his pupils in the foundation of the Studio d,Essai
de la RadiodiffusionNationale, which becamea
center of the Resistancemovement in French radio,
being responsible,in August 1944,for the first
broadcastsin liberatedParis.The Studio d'Essai
was renamedas Club d'Essaide la Radiodiffusion-
T6l€vision Frangaisern 1946.Two yearslater,
Schaeffer startedresearchinto noisesat the Club
d'Essai.Researchinto noisesbecamepublicly known
as musique concrdtein 1949,and two yearslater, the
work of Schaeffer,composerPierreHenry, and sound
engineerfacquesPoullin won official recognition:
The Groupe de Recherchesde Musique Concrdte,
Club d'Essaide la Radiodiffusion-T€l6vision
Frangaisewas born.
The rest of this article outlines Pierre Schaeffer,s
1948-1953work, that is, the period between the be-
ginning of his researchinto noisesand the writing of
"Vers une musique exp6rimentale,'(Schaeffer I9S7),
the "manifesto" of his experimentalmusic..
into Noises(1g4S4gl
Research
Schaeffer'sresearchinto noisescommencedas an ex-
periment with the sound-effectswarehouseat the
Frenchradio facility:
I cannot overemphasizethis deal you make
with your conscience,which leadsyou to grab
three dozensof objectsin order to make noise,
with no dramatic justification at all, with no
Computer Music lournal
 Fig. 1 Pierre Schaet'fer.
preconceivedidea at all, with no hope at all.
(Schaeffer195O,p. 321
These experimentsled to the creation of six ,,noise
6tudes"_(or
"primitive 6tudes"):Etude aux chemins
Etude pour orchestre,Etude aux toumiquets,
/e fer,
Etudes pour piano (Etude viollete, Etude noire), and,
Etude aux casseroles.Thesepiecesshedlight on the
great possibilitiesaffordedby the use of sampled
soundsas compositional material.
The Etude aux chemins de fer posedthe problem
of musically organizingsoundsproducedby six loco-
motives at the Batignollesstation. Schaefferrecorded
the stokers'improvisation. Rhythmic leitmotivs
were then isolated.Montage {mixing)attempts led to
both dramatic and musical sequences.Dramatic se-
quences,referring the listener back to events(depar-
ture/ stopping,etc.),were consideredunmusical by
Schaeffer.He discovereda way to obliteratethe refer-
ent though, by the following means.A fragmenthav-
ing a particular envelope shapewas followed by
another fragment that, although having the sameen-
velope,had undergonespectraltransposition.Thus, a
musical architecture emerged.Dramatic sequences
were not eliminated, but the disceming listener was
expectedto prefer the musical ones.The generalpro-
cedurefollowed in the creation of this 6tude is thus
describedby Schaeffer(1952,p. 2l ):
To distinguish an element (to hear it in itself,
for the sakeof its texture, its matter, its colourl.
To repeatit. Repeatthe same sonic fragment:
there is not an event any more, there is music.
An accidentalfinding at the early stagesof research
into noisescontainedall the seedsof musique
concrdte(Schaeffer 1952,p.16): a bell soundwas re-
cordedafter its atrack, being thus renderedunrecog-
nLable. AJter the Etude aux chemins de fer, the
studio was emptiedof heterogeneous soundsources;
sound recordingswere raisedto the status of compo-
sitional raw material, and Schaefferfocusedon their
transformation(variation of playback speed,back-
ward playing, cutting, looping of a singlegroove,
etc.).Thesemanipulations tended to make the origi-
nal sourceof the soundsunidentifiable, but they
could also act on the idea of the referent:the engine
sound,recordedat 78 rpm and played at 83 rpm,
could become"casting in a smelting fumace,,
(Schaeffer 1952,p. 23). Nevertheless,Schaefferpre-
fened not to enlargeupon the latter possibility.
The Etude pour orchestrebrought him back to the
domain of soundsthat, like the bell sound,were mu-
sical in the traditional sense.The raw material was
providedby an orchestratuning up. Difficulties with
montageled Schaefferto call on a soloist ',enjoying
all the instrumental easeof ordinary music,,
(Schaeffer 1952,p.241,so as to establisha dialogue
with the orchestralfragments.He observedthat, al-
though the sonic matter (soundas unaffectedby the
flow of time) of piano and that of orchestralparts
were essentiallysimilar, the manipulations under-
gone by the orchestralmaterial had createdshapes
(evolutionsof sound matrer in time) that were radi-
cally different from those of traditional sounds.
In the Etude aux tourniquets,Schaefferrevertedto
a recordingproducedat the early stagesof research
into noises,when GastonLitaize was askedto prepare
a scorefor A-fricanxylophone, four bells, three zanzas,
and two whirligigs. The recordingof Litaize,spiece
was treatedin the samemanner as the orchestralre-
cordingin the previous6tude-fragments were ex-
tractedand transformed.The Etude aux tourniquets
owes its existenceto the montageof this material.
In the two Etudespour piano, the instrument was
exploredas a sourceof conventional and unconven-
tional sounds.Soundswhose sourcewas rendered
unidentifiable were combined with a seriesof chords
Palombini 15
 that retaineda certain similarity with the original pi- composercan do no better than manufacture his ma-
ano sound.These chords,createdby PierreBoulez, terial, experimentwith it, and finally put it together.
provided a continuity in parallel to which "denatu- For Schaeffer,the two approachesare not incompat-
ralized" sounds,that is, soundsthat had been trans- ible: "Were I a composer,then I should have liked,
formed so as to render their sourceunrecognizable, basedon the 6tude Noire or Pathetiquet to createan
could evolve discontinuously. original work, of which the concrete6tude would
The readingof Schaeffer'sdiaries(Schaeffer1950, have been the sonic blueprint and the inspiring at-
pp. 4243, 1952,pp.27-281suggests that the Etude mosphere" (Schaeffer1952,p.36). How the concrdte
aux casseroles(Etudepathd,tique)was createdin a composercould profit from the abstractapproach
more leisurely mood. More than 500 recordshad was not so clear to him. In his next work, the Surte
been gatheredtogether,providing Schaefferwith no.14 (Suitepour quatorceinstrumentsl, started in
abundantraw material. A trip to Washingtoninter- August 1949,the following working hypothesiswas
rupted his work. On the eve of his departure,he pro- assumed:if even fragmentsof noisescan lend them-
duceda "virtuosity exerciseon four fadersand eight selvesto musical construction by means of electro-
ignition keys" (Schaeffer 1952,p.281,mixing record- acousticmanipulations, a less arid material should
ings of SachaGuitry's singing and coughing, abarge, producebetter results.
American harmonica,and Balinesepriests. fean-Michel Damassehelped Schaefferin the or-
chestrationof a score fior14 orchestralinstruments.
To some extent/ the scorewas shapedby the man-
Musique Goncrtte (1948.581 ipulations envisaged.Once recorded,the suite was
"decomposed,shortened,magnified, dissected,in-
The interest generatedby the conceft de bruits, a verted, exploded,pulverized" (Schaeffer1952,p. 391.
broadcastby the Frenchradio (Tuesday,5 October Its montageprovedproblematic, though. The suite
i948) of the etudesAux tourniquets,Aux chemins de had the following movements:prologue,courante,
fer, Pour orchestre,Pour piano, and Aux casseroles, rigaudon, gavotte, andsphoradie.Eachof these
led to the publication of the article "Introduction a la pieceswas an experimentwith a particular technical
musique concrdte" (Schaeffer1950),in which he felt procedure,and the relation between original score
reassuredenoughto replacethe phrase"researchinto and final result was made increasinglyremote in
noises"by the more ambitious"musiqueconcrbte." eachsuccessivemovement. In the prologue,no more
He had neverthelessbeenusing this term in his jour- than reverberations/echo,doublings,and rhythmic
nals since l5 April (cf.Schaeffer1950,p.39)or 15May counterpoint were added.The sphoradieln turn was
1948(cf.Schaeffer1952,pp. 2I-22ll meant as " arressayof expressionproperly speaking"
More than the simple use of sampledsoundsas {Schaeffer1952,ibid.), freely employing various tech-
musical material, musique concrdterepresentsan in- nical procedures.The aim of the suite was to demon-
version in relation to the traditional musical ap- strate the existenceof a new music. What emerged,
proach.According to Schaeffer,the traditional (or however,were the contradictionsof musique
"abstract") composerfollows a path that leadshim concrbte.Schaefferconcludedthat, despitehaving
from the abstractto the concrete.The traditional discoveredpowerful techniques,musique concrdte
piece is mentally conceived,symbolically notared, lacked a theoretical grounding.A method was neces-
and finally performed.In musique concrbte,the ef- sary/as well as criteria to classify the infinity of
fects createdby different mannersof exciting sound- sonic material available.
producingbodies,and by electroacoustic In the courante,Schaeffersystematicallyused the
manipulations of recordingsof thesesounds,cannot looping-groovetechnique,an effectsimilar to that of
be conceiveda priori; besides,traditional notarion, a scratchedrecord.Soundsthus isolatedappearedto
accounting essentiallyfor pitch, is inadequate;the him as words in the state of liberty they enjoy in a
performeris unnecessary.The new (or "concrdte") dictionary:separatedfrom their contexrs(decon-

16 Computer Music lournal

 textualized),they were heard in themselves.More
than a compositionaltechnique,the looping-groove
was a meansof aural analysisand the sourceof a par-
ticular kind of listening, upon which Schaefferwould
later enlarge(Schaeffer 1966,pp,9I-156i Chion
1983, pp. l8-20, 33-34),He noted that the precondi-
tion to musique concrdtewas that the samplesbe iso-
lated not only from dramatic or anecdotalcontext,
but also from their original musical context. Para-
doxically, the works that followed were undeniably
dramatic.
About two yearslater, looking back on this period,
Schaefferwould observethat the method for
musique concrdtewas latent in the works createdbe-
tween the first €tudesand the Suite no. 14 (Schaeffer
1952,p.53). If, in the next pieces,musiqueconcrdte
becamea counterfeit of itself this was becausehis
thinking neededto mature, and machinesneededto
be conceived,built, and experimentedwith; the con-
struction of new machines and the developmentof
theoretical knowledge through the study of sonic
fragments and of rules for composingthese,were pre-
conditions for further developments.
Symphoniepour un homme seul11949-1950), cre-
ated in collaborationwith PierreHenry, was a reac-
tion to the Suite no. 14, insofar as the raw material
was mostly noises.The dramatic element,that is, the
referential characterof thesenoises,playedan essen-
tial role in the Symphonie.However, two listenings
were envisaged:one dramatic, the other abstract.
When Schaefferbegun his next major work,
Orphd,e{1951),also with PierreHenry, the repertoire
o{ recordedsoundshad been extendedby the latter to
the point of becoming almost unmanageable.It was
clear that, in musique concrdte,two complementary
scoreswere feasibie:a listening score/accountingfor
aural results; and an operativescore/accountingfor
the electroacousticmanipulations to which these
soundsowed their existence.
The starting point of.Orphde was a cinematic idea:
"the tearing of Orpheus'veil, an excessivelyslow
tearing, whence a noise ariseswhich constitutesthe
main component of one of the sequences"(Schaeffer
1952,p.89|. Schaefferexpectedto follow rigorouslya
plan he would preparefor this piece (the scenariofor
the Symphonieunderwent various writings), but he
also hopedfor studio godsends.A score,however,
was problematic: "How to imagine a priori the thou-
sandunpredictabletransformationsof the concrete
sound,how to choosefrom among a hundred
samples,if neither a classificationnor a notation has
yet beendefined?"{SchaefferL952,p.87}. Prior to no-
tation, the problem posedby Orph1ewas: How to
structure sampledsoundsl How to establisha "con-
crete" structrue that is not basedon cyclical repeti-
tion (first 6tudes)or on a series{initial sequenceof
the Symphoniel?
Contrary to what was expected,no solutions to
the problemsof musique concrdtewere providedby
technical developmentssuch as )acquesPoullin's
potentiomAtred'espace(a devicefor controlling the
trajectoryof soundsbetween four ioudspeakers)and
phonogdnes{machinesthat allowed chromatic or
continuous transpositionof soundsrecordedon tape
while ieaving their durations unchanged|.
At this point, Schaefferdefined the notion of
pseudo-instrument:if a particular sampleretains a
certain invarianceafter electroacousticmanipula-
tions, it may play the role of a pseudo-instrument.
"Some soundshave,for instance,an attack that may
be characterizedby portamento, forcefulness,or
openingout (that is, by moving swiftly from piano to
forte).If thesecharacteristicsremain throughout the
modulations the soundsundergo,such sound sources
may play the role of orchestralinstruments"
(Schaeffer 1952,p.95).A music conceivedin terms
of such pseudo-instrumentswould facilitate a listen-
ing score.Also from this period are his first com-
ments on the relation between music, linguistics,
and Gestalt psychology{Schaeffer1952,pp. 100-103).
Orpheealso representeda tentative answer to one
of the problemsposedby musique concrdte:the ab-
senceof the visual element that characterizedthe
traditional concert."Infact, musique concreteapart,
everythinghappenedas at the Opera" (Schaeffer
1952,p.110).Olivier Messiaen,Henry Michaux and
Claude Levy-Strauss,all advisedSchaefferto extract
the full consequences of musique concrete,breaking
ties with traditionalmusic.
Still in 1951,Schaeffer lecturedat the Darmstadt
festival,where the Symphonie was enthusiastically
received.His ideaswere likewise warmly welcomed
Palombini t7
by German technicians.To Schaeffer'sdisquiet, 7953,may have beenan attempt to reversethe situa-
though, musique concretewas assimilatedinto tion createdin Darmstadt, where musique concrdte
elektronische Musik, (electronicmusic), a distinctly had been assimilatedinto elektronischeMusik. The
German and systematizedaestheticdogma. Groupe de Recherchesde Musique Concrdtetried to
ln A la recherched'une musique concrdte,the rally musique concrdte,elektronische Musik, tape
year 1952is characterizedbya reflection on the ex- music, and world music under the banner of experi-
periencesof musique concrdte.The label musique mental music. What was in question,though, was
concrdtestartedbeing questionedby Schaeffer:con- Schaeffer'sown conceptof experimentalmusic.
cretepiecesseemedto have the value of experi- The GRMC had reachedan impasse.Since
ments/ rather than that of accomplishedaesthetic serialism presenteditself as a denial of tonality,
products.The notions of "concrete experiencein Schaeffersaw no point in applying serial method to
music" and "experimental method" {Schaeffer1952, concretematerial: the spectralcomplexity of con-
pp. 134-141)cameto the fore. crete soundscould in itself effacetonal relations; on
the other hand,he saw no reasonfor not experiment-
ing with tonic-dominant relations.His designto de-
Experimental Music119531 fine a compositionalmethod for musique concrdte
remainedunfulfilled, though. The GRMC was split
In 1951the Radiodiffusion-T6l6vision Frangaisehad between two aesthetictendencies:on one side,com-
offeredthe Croupe de Recherchesde Musique Con- poserssuch as PierreBoulez,to whom technology
crdte,which at the time consistedof Schaeffer,Pierre was a meansfor the improvement of the serial tradi-
Henry, and |acquesPoullin, the first electroacoustic tion; on the other side,composerslike Schaefferand
production studio ever.A workshop of musique PierreHenry, who were unable to passfrom dramatic
concrdteopen to outsiderstook placein October piecesto an envisionedabstraction,that is, a
l95l: PierreBoulezbrought in Michel Philippot and musique concrdtein which formal relationships
feanBarraqu€.Between1951and 1953,PierreBoulez, would come to the {ore. Musique concrdtewas a
Olivier Messiaen,and Karlheiz Stockhausencreated method for producing,recording,and transforming
"concrete" piecesthere.A serial tendencystartedde- sounds,disconnectingthem from the perceptionof
velopingwithin the Groupe.In the final part oI A la their original sources;it existedat the level of the
recherched'une musiclueconcrDte.Schaeffertried to material only. A theoretical corpuswas nevertheless
definepoints of contact and discrepancies betweenhis starting to take shape,partially owing to Andr6
approachand Schonberg'sdodecaphony.For Schae{fer, Moles's collaboration.
Schonbergwas an experimentalcomposerinsofaras The Decadefestival correspondedto a need within
his serialismhad none of the dogmatismthar charac- the concretegoup to bridge the gapbetween the two
terized"the lesserstudentsof Mr Leibowitz" opposingtendencies,to look back on its own hypoth-
{Schaeffer1952,p. 138).He put Schonberg's approach esis,and to take stock of intemational develop-
into the following terms: "If I imposemyself such a ments. Schaeffer'sexperimentalmusic proposeda
rule, what wiil result from it? An experiencewould preliminary discussionat three levels: the notion of
follow" (schaeffer1952,ibid.). Schaeffersaw experi- instrument, the notion of musical ncte, and the rela-
mentation and expressionas somehowopposed:the tion betweencomposition and performance-the
former implied the recognitionof the fact that the concert itself. Its main objectivewas to syncretize
creatorcould no longerbe sure of how his work the techniquesof musique concrdte,elektronische
would be perceivedby the listener,of whether or Musik, tape music, and world music into a coherent
not his message would get across. method.
The First International Decadeof Experimental Vers une musique expdrimentale was a specialis-
Music, organizedby the Groupe de Recherchesde sue of La rcvae musicale meant to be published con-
Musique Concrdtein Parisbetween g and 1g Tune comitantiy with the Decadefestival, but was

18 Computer Music [ournal

 unpublisheduntil 1957(Schaeffer, ed. 1957).In the
like-titled article "Vers une musique experimentale"
(Schaeffer1957},Schaefferdefinedhis position in re-
Iation to serialism. It might be summarizedin the
following proposition: In principle, bur not in prac-
tice, it is unacceptableto apply serialism to tradi-
tional musical material.In principle, but not in
practice,it is acceptableto apply serialism to con-
crete material.
As applied to traditional material, serialismis in
principle unacceptablebecauseit appearsas a merely
destructive gesturethat aims at eliminating tonal re-
lationships. As applied to traditional material,
serialism is in practice acceptable,though, because
the notion of seriesmay simply vanish on the listen-
ing, giving rise to the perceptionof complex sounds
similar to those employed by musique concrdte.As
applied to concretematerial, serialism is acceptable
in principle, since from the moment one usessounds
"where scaledegreeno longer appearsas the single
dominant quality, the notion of seriesis more evi-
dently applicable,and the negativecharacterof
atonalismvanishes"(Schaeffered.1957,p. 23).As
applied to concretematerial, senalism is unaccept-
able in practice insofar as it displaysthe rigidity of a
method.
A distinction between method, techniques,and
aestheticis necessaryhere. By serial techniquesI un-
derstandproceduresthat can be identified in the mu-
sic of Bach,Beethoven,and Schaeffer,forinstance.
The systematicapplication of such proceduresin the
serial method, definesthe starting point of
Schonberg'sdodecaphony.Serialaestheticswould be
the personalusesdiversecomposersmake of the se-
rial method in order to expressthemselves.
What Schaefferobjectsto is the "desperateand
desperating"{Schaeffer1957,p.l8) rigor of serialism,
which, in his opinion, losesits raison d'€tre from the
moment complex soundsare introduced by musique
concrete.
Ajter the Decadefestival, Schaefferdistancedhim-
seUfrom the GRMC to direct the foundation and
managementof Radiodiffusionde la Franced'Outre-
mer. His return to Francein Ig57 coincidedwith the
publication of Vers une musique expdrimentale.ln
"Lettre i Albert Richard," dated 18 May 1957 and
publishedas an overturc to Vers une musique
exp&imentale, Schaefferrenounced the ideal of syn-
cretizing technique and proposedwhat he then called
the "method for researchafter musique concr0te."
The followingyeart he withdrew the term musique
concrdte,so as to detachhimself from its aesthetic
connotations.Simultaneously,Schaefferstarted de-
fining his work as musical research,and the Groupe
de Recherchesde Musique Concrdtewas restruc-
tured and rebaptizedas Groupe de RecherchesMusi-
cales,an altogetherdi{ferent institution, accounting
for altogetherdi{ferentaims.
References
Chion,M. 1983.Guidedesobietssonords-Pierre
Schaefferet la recherchemusicale.Paris:INA-GRM,
Buchet-Chastel.
Pierret,M. 1969.EntretiensavecPierreSchaeffer.Paris:
PierreBeUond.
Schaeffer,P. 1950."Introductioni la musiqueconcrdte."
Polyphonie 6, La musiquemecanisde, pp.3G-52.
Schaeffer,P. L952.A la recherche d'unemusique
concrete.Paris:Seuil.
Schaeffer,P. 1966.Traitd,desobietsmusicaux-Essai
interdisciplines.Paris
: Seuil.
Schaeffer,P.ed.1957.La rd,vuemusicale236. Versune
musiqueexpefimentale. Paris:Richard-Masse.
Palombini l9