Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer (August 14, 1910–August 19, 1995) was a French composer, noted as the inventor of musique concrète. The term is often misunderstood as referring to simply making music out of "real world" sounds, or sounds other than those made by musical instruments. Rather, it is a wider attempt to allow new ways of musical expression. Traditionally, (classical / serious) music starts as an abstraction, musical notation on paper or other medium, which is then produced into audible music. Musique concrète strives to start at the "concrete" sounds, experiment with them, and abstract them into a musical composition. The importance of Scaheffer's work with musique concrète is threefold from the contemporary point of view. He developed the concept of including any and all sounds into the musical vocabulary. At first he concentrated on working with sounds other than those produced by traditional musical instruments. Later on, he found it was possible to remove the familiarity of musical instrument sounds and abstract them further by techniques such as removing the attack of the recorded sound. He was among the first to manipulate recorded sound in the way that it could be used in conjuction with other such sounds in the making of a musical piece. This could be thought of as a precursor to contemporary sampling practices. Furthermore, he emphasized the importance of play (in his terms, jeu) in the creation of music. Schaeffer's idea of jeu comes from the French verb jouer, which carries the same double meaning as the English verb play: 'to enjoy oneself by interacting with one's surroundings', as well as 'to operate a musical instrument'. This notion is at the core of the concept of musique concrète.
Schaeffer was born in Nancy. His parents were both engineers, and at first it seemed that Pierre would also take this as a career. He studied at the École Polytechnique and after a stint as a telecommunications engineer in Strasbourg from 1934, he found a job in 1936 at Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF) in Paris. It was there that he began to experiment with recorded sounds, convincing the radio station's management to let him use their equipment. He tried playing sounds backwards, slowing them down, speeding them up and juxtaposing them with other sounds, all techniques which were virtually unknown at that time. His first completed piece as a result of these experiments was the Étude aux chemins de fer (1948) which was made from recordings of trains. By that time, Schaeffer had founded the Jeune France group, which had interests in theatre and visual art as well as music. In 1942, he co-founded the Studio d'Essai (later known as the Club d'Essai), which played a role in the activities of the French resistance during World War II, and became a centre of musical activity afterwards. In 1949, Schaeffer met Pierre Henry, and the two founded the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC) which received official recognition from ORTF in 1951. They gave him a new studio, which included a tape recorder. This was a significant development for Schaeffer, who had previously had to work with turntables to produce his music. Schaeffer is generally acknowledged as being the first composer to make music using magnetic tape. His continued experimentation led him to publish A la recherche d'une musique concrète (The Search for a Concrete Music) in 1952, which was a summation of his working methods up to that point. Schaeffer left the GRMC in 1953, but reformed it in 1958 with Luc Ferrari and François-Bernard Mâche as the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). With the founding of the Service de Recherche de l'ORTF in 1960, of which he was made director, Schaeffer began to wind down his compositional activities in favour of sound research and teaching. One of his last pieces came in 1959, the Etudes aux Objets. In his new post, he continued to conduct his research into the sonic properties of objects, publishing an important work on the subject, Traité des objets musicaux, in 1966. In it, he attempts to classify all sound objects (objets sonores, sounds perceived as entities; NOT to be confused with sound-producing physical objects) producing by dividing their characteristics into seven categories, which he called mass; dynamic; harmonic timbre; melodic profile; mass profile; gain; and inflection. Up to now no English translation of this massive work has appeared, although Konrad Boehmer has translated large parts of the work into Dutch. Schaeffer took a number of teaching posts, including an associate professorship at the Paris Conservatoire from 1968 where he taught electronic composition. Towards the end of his life, he suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He died in Aix-en-Provence.
Olde skozey fetisch performance newly posted @ YouTube. It was the first ever Noise Pancakes at Pubis Noir. There were three audience members in attendance.
Cornelius Cardew et la liberté de l'écoute
curated by Jean Jacques Palix et Dean Inkster
LUNDI 22 JUIN 2009 / 20H30 : CONCERT AU CAC BRÉTIGNY /
Monday 22 June 2009 / 8.30 p.m.
MEDITATION ON WAGE LABOR AND THE DEATH OF THE ALBUM
de TERRE THAEMLITZ (Tokyo)
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Navette gratuite (free shuttle) pour le CAC Brétigny
au départ de Paris à 19h face à l'OPERA BASTILLE
retour prévu sur Paris vers 23h.
Sur réservation - info@cacbretigny.com –
tel 01 60 85 20 76
Dominique Petitgand, Angus Carlyle, François Martig & Philippe Petitgenêt, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, James Beckett, Jacob Kirkegaard, Frank Rothkamm Dominique Blais, Andrea Williams,Jodi Rose & Erik Minkkinen, Radio-Continental Drift Radio, Matmos
The “Encuentro de Arte Sonoro Tsonami” calls for sound artists, composers, performers, instrumentists and ensembles, to submit Works to be performed at the Encuentro de Arte Sonoro Tsonami 2009 that will take place October 20th-25th 2009, in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The “Encuentro de Arte Sonoro TSONAMI” its a showcase and exchange platform for the work of national and international artists that gather around sound in its many manifestations; Music, Performance, Multimedia, Sound Installations, and other manifestations that don..t have a place in mainstream or traditional communications media, and that does not pursue commercial or lucrative ends.
Cornelius Cardew et la liberté de l'écoute Cornelius Cardew and the freedom of listening curated by Dean Inkster & Jean Jacques Palix
DIMANCHE 7 JUIN 2009 DE 14H A 17H : CONCERTS AU CAC BRÉTIGNY / Concerts on Sunday 7 June 2009 / 2 p.m. - 5 p.m.
THE TIGER’S MIND (1967) de CORNELIUS CARDEW avec NINA CANAL, NADIA LICHTIG, MICHAEL MORLEY (NZ), & SARA STEPHENSON (NZ) et la participation de DAVID WATSON (NY)
VOLO SOLO (1965) de CORNELIUS CARDEW avec RHYS CHATHAM
TREATISE (1963-1967) de CORNELIUS CARDEW avec MARCUS SCHMICKLER (KOELN), JEAN JACQUES PALIX, MICHEL GUILLET, & SAMON TAKAHASHI
thank You very much for the connection - I'm feeling honoured. Pierre Schaefer was a great composer and a visionary artist, and especially the field of electronic music owes much to him!
