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Pierre Schaeffer

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Musicology (from Greek μουσική mousikē 'music' and -λογια -logia , 'domain of study') is the scholarly study of music . Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology , sociology , acoustics , neurology , natural sciences , formal sciences and computer science .

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74-407: Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer ( English pronunciation: / p iː ˈ ɛər ˈ h ɛ n r iː m ə ˈ r iː ˈ ʃ eɪ f ər / , French pronunciation: [ʃɛfɛʁ] ; 14 August 1910 – 19 August 1995) was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist , acoustician and founder of Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète ( GRMC ). His innovative work in both

148-426: A BMus or a BA in music (or a related field such as history) and in many cases an MA in musicology. Some individuals apply directly from a bachelor's degree to a PhD, and in these cases, they may not receive an MA. In the 2010s, given the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of university graduate programs, some applicants for musicology PhD programs may have academic training both in music and outside of music (e.g.,

222-510: A graduate school , supervising MA and PhD students, giving them guidance on the preparation of their theses and dissertations. Some musicology professors may take on senior administrative positions in their institution, such as Dean or Chair of the School of Music. The vast majority of major musicologists and music historians from past generations have been men, as in the 19th century and early 20th century; women's involvement in teaching music

296-409: A historically informed performance perspective and aim to recreate an approach that might have been recognised at the time. There are some general principles. Looking at the rhythm of a piece, slow rhythms tend to be serious while quick ones tend towards light and frivolous. In the melodic line, small intervals typically represented melancholy while large leaps were used to represent joy. In harmony,

370-580: A Concrete Music ") in 1952, which was a summation of his working methods up to that point. His only opera, Orphée 53 (" Orpheus 53 "), premiered in 1953. Schaeffer left the GRMC in 1953 and reformed the group in 1958 as the Groupe de Recherche Musicale[s] (GRM) (at first without "s", then with "s"). In 1954 Schaeffer founded traditional music label Ocora ("Office de Coopération Radiophonique") alongside composer, pianist, and musicologist Charles Duvelle , with

444-435: A PhD from Harvard University . One of her best known works is Feminine Endings (1991), which covers musical constructions of gender and sexuality, gendered aspects of traditional music theory, gendered sexuality in musical narrative, music as a gendered discourse and issues affecting women musicians. Other notable women scholars include: A list of open-access European journals in the domains of music theory and/or analysis

518-413: A close focus, as in the case of scholars who examine the relationship between words and music for a given composer's art songs . On the other hand, some scholars take a broader view and assess the place of a given type of music, such as the symphony in society using techniques drawn from other fields, such as economics, sociology or philosophy. New musicology is a term applied since the late 1980s to

592-401: A finished product. The Qwartz Electronic Music Awards has named several of its past events after Schaeffer. Pierre himself was a prize winner at the awards more than once. Commercial release of Schaeffer's work was limited at best; Schaeffer released his work to the public primarily to disseminate a new and avant-garde form of music. The original production of his marketed work was done by

666-532: A historical instrument is usually part of conservatory or other performance training. However, many top researchers in performance practice are also excellent musicians. Music performance research (or music performance science) is strongly associated with music psychology. It aims to document and explain the psychological, physiological, sociological and cultural details of how music is actually performed (rather than how it should be performed). The approach to research tends to be systematic and empirical and to involve

740-507: A religiously based play. Musicologist Musicology is traditionally divided into three branches: music history , systematic musicology , and ethnomusicology . Historical musicologists study the history of musical traditions, the origins of works, and the biographies of composers. Ethnomusicologists draw from anthropology (particularly field research ) to understand how and why people make music. Systematic musicology includes music theory , aesthetics , pedagogy , musical acoustics ,

814-731: A strong record of publishing in peer-reviewed journals. Some PhD-holding musicologists are only able to find insecure positions as sessional lecturers . The job tasks of a musicologist are the same as those of a professor in any other humanities discipline: teaching undergraduate and/or graduate classes in their area of specialization and, in many cases some general courses (such as Music Appreciation or Introduction to Music History); conducting research in their area of expertise, publishing articles about their research in peer-reviewed journals, authors book chapters, books or textbooks; traveling to conferences to give talks on their research and learn about research in their field; and, if their program includes

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888-442: A student may apply with a BMus and an MA in psychology). In music education, individuals may hold an M.Ed and an Ed.D . Most musicologists work as instructors, lecturers or professors in colleges, [universities or conservatories. The job market for tenure track professor positions is very competitive. Entry-level applicants must hold a completed PhD or the equivalent degree and applicants to more senior professor positions must have

962-686: A substantial, intensive fieldwork component, often involving long-term residence within the community studied. Closely related to ethnomusicology is the emerging branch of sociomusicology . For instance, Ko (2011) proposed the hypothesis of "Biliterate and Trimusical" in Hong Kong sociomusicology. Popular music studies, known, "misleadingly", as popular musicology , emerged in the 1980s as an increasing number of musicologists, ethnomusicologists and other varieties of historians of American and European culture began to write about popular music past and present. The first journal focusing on popular music studies

1036-530: A wide body of work emphasizing cultural study, analysis and criticism of music. Such work may be based on feminist , gender studies , queer theory or postcolonial theory, or the work of Theodor W. Adorno . Although New Musicology emerged from within historical musicology, the emphasis on cultural study within the Western art music tradition places New Musicology at the junction between historical, ethnological and sociological research in music. New musicology

1110-500: A wide range of emotional responses in the listener. Chabanon rejected the rhetorical approach to music, because he did not believe that there was a simple correspondence between musical characteristics and emotional affects. Much subsequent philosophy of music depended on Chabanon's views. Around the start of the 19th Century, the idea of music as a kind of 'ultimate language of the emotions' gained currency. The new aesthetic doctrine of Romanticism placed sublime, heightened emotion at

1184-469: A worldwide coverage in order to preserve African rural soundscapes. Ocora also served as a facility to train technicians in African national broadcasting services. Over the years, Schaeffer mentored a number of students who went on to have successful careers, including Éliane Radigue and the young Jean Michel Jarre , who called his mentor the first disc jockey . His last " étude " ( study ) came in 1959:

1258-498: A writer, penning various articles and essays for the Revue Musicale , a French journal of music. His first column, Basic Truths , provided a critical examination of musical aspects of the time. An ardent Catholic , Schaeffer began to write religiously based pieces, and in the same year as his Basic Truths he published his first novel: Chlothar Nicole — a short Christian novel . The Studio d'Essai , later Club d'Essai,

1332-425: Is a field of study that describes the elements of music and includes the development and application of methods for composing and for analyzing music through both notation and, on occasion, musical sound itself. Broadly, theory may include any statement, belief or conception of or about music ( Boretz , 1995) . A person who studies or practices music theory is a music theorist. Some music theorists attempt to explain

1406-410: Is a list of Schaeffer's musical works, showing his compositions and the year(s) they were recorded. Apart from his published and publicized music, Schaeffer conducted several musical (and specifically musique concrète-related) presentations via French radio. Although these broadcasts contained musical pieces by Schaeffer they cannot be adequately described as part of his main line of musical output. This

1480-669: Is available on the website of the European Network for Theory & Analysis of Music . A more complete list of open-access journals in theory and analysis can be found on the website of the Société Belge d'Analyse Musicale (in French). Musical expression Musical expression is the art of playing or singing with a personal response to the music . At a practical level, this means making appropriate use of dynamics , phrasing , timbre and articulation to bring

1554-585: Is because the radio " essays ", as they were appropriately named, were mainly narration on Schaeffer's musical theories philosophies rather than compositions in and of themselves. Schaeffer's radio narratives include the following: Schaeffer's literary works, fiction and non-fiction, span a range of genres. He predominantly wrote treatises and essays, but also penned a film review and two plays. An ardent Catholic , Schaeffer wrote Chlothar Nicole (French: Clotaire Nicole ; published 1938)—a Christian novel or short story—and Tobias (French: Tobie ; published 1939)

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1628-499: Is concerned with the composition, performance, reception and criticism of music over time. Historical studies of music are for example concerned with a composer's life and works, the developments of styles and genres (such as baroque concertos), the social function of music for a particular group of people, (such as court music), or modes of performance at a particular place and time (such as Johann Sebastian Bach's choir in Leipzig). Like

1702-648: Is not verifiable as to whether or not he ever actually attended this university. Later in 1934 Schaeffer entered his first employment as an engineer, briefly working in telecommunications for the Postes et Télécommunications in Strasbourg . In 1935 he began a relationship with a woman named Elisabeth Schmitt, and later in the year married her and with her had his first child, Marie-Claire Schaeffer. He and his new family then officially relocated to Paris in 1936 where began his work in radio broadcasting and presentation. It

1776-470: Is often a part of music history, though pure analysis or the development of new tools of music analysis is more likely to be seen in the field of music theory. Music historians create a number of written products, ranging from journal articles describing their current research, new editions of musical works, biographies of composers and other musicians, book-length studies or university textbook chapters or entire textbooks. Music historians may examine issues in

1850-429: Is recognized today as an essential precursor to contemporary sampling practices. Schaeffer was among the first to use recording technology in a creative and specifically musical way, harnessing the power of electronic and experimental instruments in a manner similar to Luigi Russolo , whom he admired and from whose work he drew inspiration. Furthermore, he emphasized the importance of "playing" (in his term, jeu ) in

1924-490: Is sometimes considered more closely affiliated with health fields, and other times regarded as part of musicology proper. The 19th-century philosophical trends that led to the re-establishment of formal musicology education in German and Austrian universities had combined methods of systematization with evolution. These models were established not only in the field of physical anthropology , but also cultural anthropology . This

1998-500: Is typically assumed to imply Western Art music of the European tradition. The methods of historical musicology include source studies (especially manuscript studies), palaeography , philology (especially textual criticism ), style criticism, historiography (the choice of historical method ), musical analysis (analysis of music to find "inner coherence") and iconography . The application of musical analysis to further these goals

2072-639: The " Groupe de Recherches Musicales " (a.k.a. GRM; now owned and operated by INA or the Institut national de l'audiovisuel ), the company which he initially had formed around his creations. Other music was broadcast live (Pierre himself being notable on French radio at the time). Some individual tracks found their way into the use of other artists, with Pierre's work being fronted in mime performances and ballets . Now after his death, various musical production companies, such as Disques Adès and Phonurgia Nova have been granted rights to distribute his work. Below

2146-646: The " Study of Objects " ( Études aux Objets ). Schaeffer became an associate professor at the Paris Conservatoire from 1968 to 1980 after creating a "class of fundamental music and application to the audiovisual." In the aftermath of the 1988 Armenian earthquake , the 78-year-old Schaeffer led a 498-member French rescue team to look for survivors in Leninakan, and worked there until all foreign personnel were asked to leave. Schaeffer suffered from Alzheimer's disease later in his life, and died from

2220-452: The 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a backlash. "Most people like music because it gives them certain emotions such as joy, grief, sadness, and image of nature, a subject for daydreams or – still better – oblivion from “everyday life”. They want a drug – dope -…. Music would not be worth much if it were reduced to such an end. When people have learned to love music for itself, when they listen with other ears, their enjoyment will be of

2294-518: The French Radio Institution. This gave him a new studio, which included a tape recorder . This was a significant development for Schaeffer, who previously had to work with phonographs and turntables to produce music. Schaeffer is generally acknowledged as being the first composer to make music using magnetic tape . His continued experimentation led him to publish À la Recherche d'une Musique Concrète (French for " In Search of

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2368-456: The audience. This view has been present through most of musical history, though it was most clearly expressed in musical romanticism . However, emotion's role in music has been challenged on occasion by those like Igor Stravinsky who see music as a pure art form and expression as an irrelevant distraction. In the Baroque and Classical periods of music, music (and aesthetics as a whole)

2442-499: The breaking down of the structured production of traditional instruments, harmony , rhythm, and even music theory itself, in an attempt to reconstruct music from the bottom up. From the contemporary point of view, the importance of Schaeffer's musique concrète is threefold. He developed the concept of including any and all sounds into the vocabulary of music. At first he concentrated on working with sounds other than those produced by traditional musical instruments. Later on, he found it

2516-525: The chief developer of a unique and early form of avant-garde music known as musique concrète . The genre emerged in Europe from the utilization of new music technology developed in the post-war era, following the advance of electroacoustic and acousmatic music . Schaeffer's writings (which include written and radio-narrated essays, biographies, short novels, a number of musical treatises and several plays) are often oriented towards his development of

2590-426: The choice of dissonances used had a significant effect on which emotion was intended (or produced), and Quantz recommended that the more extreme the dissonance, the louder it should be played. A cadence normally represented the end of a sentence. The rhetorical approach to music begged the philosophical question of whether stirring the listener's passions in this manner was compatible with Aristotle's idea that art

2664-570: The collection and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. The findings of music performance research can often be applied in music education. Musicologists in tenure track professor positions typically hold a PhD in musicology. In the 1960s and 1970s, some musicologists obtained professor positions with an MA as their highest degree, but in the 2010s, the PhD is the standard minimum credential for tenure track professor positions. As part of their initial training, musicologists typically complete

2738-505: The comparable field of art history , different branches and schools of historical musicology emphasize different types of musical works and approaches to music. There are also national differences in various definitions of historical musicology. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history of any type or genre of music, such as the music of India or rock music . In practice, these research topics are more often considered within ethnomusicology and "historical musicology"

2812-539: The condition in Aix-en-Provence in 1995. He was 85 years old. He is buried in Delincourt in the green Vexin region (55 minutes from Paris) where he used to have his countryside property. Schaeffer was thereafter remembered by many of his colleagues with the title, "Musician of Sounds". Sound is the vocabulary of nature. The term musique concrète (French for " real music ", literally " concrete music "),

2886-543: The core of artistic experience, and communicating these emotions became the aim of musical performance. Music was expected to convey intense feelings, highly personal to the vision of the composer. As the 19th century developed, musical nationalism extended these emotions beyond the personal level to embodying the feelings of entire nations. This emphasis on emotional communication was supported by an increasing confidence in using more complex harmony , and by instruments and ensembles capable of greater extremes of dynamic . At

2960-419: The creation of melody . Music psychology applies the content and methods of psychology to understand how music is created, perceived, responded to, and incorporated into individuals' and societies' daily lives. Its primary branches include cognitive musicology , which emphasizes the use of computational models for human musical abilities and cognition, and the cognitive neuroscience of music , which studies

3034-536: 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, and reflects on freely improvised sound , or perhaps more specifically electroacoustic improvisation , from

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3108-514: The early 1980s, Pierre Schaeffer distanced himself from the contemporary musical scene after criticizing the avant-garde of the 1950s, which intended to break with tradition. Schaeffer recognized the virtuoso Otavio Henrique Soares Brandão as his most faithful disciple, who under his guidance performed a reading of his work "Traité des Objets Musicaux". This reading aims to create an innovative piano and musical instrumental technique that does not break with tradition. Pierre Schaeffer wrote four texts on

3182-554: The feedback between two tape recorders and a microphone. Pierre's GRM student Jean Michel Jarre went on to great international success. Jarre's 1997 album Oxygene 7-13 is dedicated to Schaeffer. Pierre Henry also made a tribute to the man, composing his Écho d'Orphée, Pour P. Schaeffer alongside him for Schaeffer's last work and second compilation, L'Œuvre Musicale . His other notable pupils include Joanna Bruzdowicz , Jorge Antunes , Bernard Parmegiani , Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux , Armando Santiago , Elzbieta Sikora . In

3256-457: The finest parts of poetry, musick, and painting, are expressive of the passions, and operate on our minds by sympathy; that the inferior parts of them are descriptive of natural objects, and affect us chiefly by substitution’". In 1785, Michel de Chabanon proposed that music was best understood as its own language, which then prompted an emotional response linked to but not limited by the musical expression. The same music could be associated with

3330-519: The first of which was Lycée Saint-Sigisbert , located in his hometown of Nancy. Afterwards he moved westwards in 1929 to the École Polytechnique in Paris and finally completed his education in the capital at the École supérieure d'électricité , in 1934. Schaeffer received a diploma in radio broadcasting from the École Polytechnique . He may have also received a similar qualification from the École nationale supérieure des télécommunications , although it

3404-441: The genre, as well as the theoretics and philosophy of music in general. Today, Schaeffer is considered one of the most influential experimental, electroacoustic and subsequently electronic musicians , having been the first composer to utilize a number of contemporary recording and sampling techniques that are now used worldwide by nearly all record production companies. His collaborative endeavors are considered milestones in

3478-466: The histories of electronic and experimental music. Schaeffer was born in Nancy in 1910. His parents were both musicians (his father was a violinist; his mother, a singer), and at first it seemed that Pierre would also take on music as a career. However, his parents discouraged his musical pursuits from childhood and had him educated in engineering. He studied at several universities in this inclination,

3552-410: The music to life. Composers may specify these aspects of expression to a greater or lesser extent in the notation of their musical score . The nature of musical expression has also been discussed at a theoretical level throughout of the history of classical music . One common view is that music both expresses and evokes emotion, forming a conduit for emotional communication between the musician and

3626-450: The musician have, at bottom, the same aim in regard to both the preparation and the final execution of their productions, namely to make themselves the masters of the hearts of their listeners, to arouse or still their passions, and to transport them now to this sentiment, now that. Baroque composers used expressive markings relatively rarely, so it can be a challenge for musicians today to interpret Baroque scores, in particular if they adopt

3700-439: The same way as an orator making a speech in accordance with the rules of classical rhetoric. As a result, the aim of a piece of music was to produce a particular emotion, for instance joy, sadness, anger or calm. The harmony, melody, tonality, metre and structure of the music worked to this end, as did all the aspects under the performer's control such as articulation and dynamics. As Johann Joachim Quantz wrote, The orator and

3774-417: The scholarly concerns once associated with new musicology already were mainstream in musicology, so that the term "new" no longer applies. Ethnomusicology , formerly comparative musicology, is the study of music in its cultural context. It is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music. Jeff Todd Titon has called it the study of "people making music". Although it is most often concerned with

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3848-434: The science and technology of musical instruments , and the musical implications of physiology, psychology, sociology, philosophy and computing. Cognitive musicology is the set of phenomena surrounding the cognitive modeling of music. When musicologists carry out research using computers, their research often falls under the field of computational musicology . Music therapy is a specialized form of applied musicology which

3922-429: The sciences—particularly communications and acoustics —and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end of World War II, as well as his anti-nuclear activism and cultural criticism garnered him widespread recognition in his lifetime. Schaeffer is most widely and currently recognized for his accomplishments in electronic and experimental music , at the core of which stands his role as

3996-523: The standpoint of Schaeffer's work and research. In 1955, Éliane Radigue , an apprentice of Pierre Schaeffer at Studio d'Essai , learned to cut, splice and edit tape using his techniques. She then went on to work as an assistant to Pierre Henry in 1967. However, she became more interested in tape feedback and began working on her own pieces. She composed several works ( Jouet Electronique [1967], Elemental I [1968], Stress-Osaka [1969] , Usral [1969] , Ohmnht [1970] Vice Versa, etc [1970]) by processing

4070-408: The start of the 19th century, dynamic markings like " pp " and " ff " were most commonly used, but by the late century, markings like " pppp " and " ffff " began to appear on the score. Romantic composers also made increasingly detailed use of expressive markings like crescendos and diminuendos, accents and articulation markings. After the increasing dominance of expression and emotion in music during

4144-413: The structural relationships in the (nearly always notated) music. Composers study music theory to understand how to produce effects and structure their own works. Composers may study music theory to guide their precompositional and compositional decisions. Broadly speaking, music theory in the Western tradition focuses on harmony and counterpoint , and then uses these to explain large scale structure and

4218-519: The study of non-Western music, it also includes the study of Western music from an anthropological or sociological perspective, cultural studies and sociology as well as other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Some ethnomusicologists primarily conduct historical studies, but the majority are involved in long-term participant observation or combine ethnographic, musicological, and historical approaches in their fieldwork. Therefore, ethnomusicological scholarship can be characterized as featuring

4292-648: The techniques composers use by establishing rules and patterns. Others model the experience of listening to or performing music. Though extremely diverse in their interests and commitments, many Western music theorists are united in their belief that the acts of composing, performing and listening to music may be explicated to a high degree of detail (this, as opposed to a conception of musical expression as fundamentally ineffable except in musical sounds). Generally, works of music theory are both descriptive and prescriptive, attempting both to define practice and to influence later practice. Musicians study music theory to understand

4366-501: The theory, analysis and composition of music. The disciplinary neighbors of musicology address other forms of art, performance, ritual, and communication, including the history and theory of the visual and plastic arts and architecture; linguistics , literature and theater ; religion and theology ; and sport. Musical knowledge is applied within medicine, education and music therapy—which, effectively, are parent disciplines of applied musicology. Music history or historical musicology

4440-629: The topic: "Apropos de la Transcription pour Piano par Otavio Brandão de l'Étude aux Objets" (1988); "Réponse à Otávio", in text of the program of the Soares Brandão concert at Salle Pleyel in honor of Schaeffer's eightieth birthday (1990); "Declaration de Pierre Schaeffer sur Ibis et Otavio Soares Brandão" (1990); and "Déclaration de Pierre Schaeffer (Porte Parole)" (1993). Many rap albums, such as It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back by Public Enemy and 3 Feet High And Rising by De La Soul take ordinary sounds and use them to create

4514-430: The use of various devices and practices. Eventually, a unique variety of electronic instruments—ones which Schaeffer and his colleagues created, using their own engineering skills—came into play in his work, like the chromatic, sliding and universal phonogenes , François Bayle 's Acousmonium and a host of other devices such as gramaphones and some of the earliest tape recorders . In 1938 Schaeffer began his career as

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4588-433: The way that music perception and production manifests in the brain using the methodologies of cognitive neuroscience . While aspects of the field can be highly theoretical, much of modern music psychology seeks to optimize the practices and professions of music performance, composition, education and therapy. Performance practice draws on many of the tools of historical musicology to answer the specific question of how music

4662-574: Was Popular Music which began publication in 1981. The same year an academic society solely devoted to the topic was formed, the International Association for the Study of Popular Music . The association's founding was partly motivated by the interdisciplinary agenda of popular musicology though the group has been characterized by a polarized 'musicological' and 'sociological' approach also typical of popular musicology. Music theory

4736-539: Was a reaction against traditional historical musicology, which according to Susan McClary , "fastidiously declares issues of musical signification off-limits to those engaged in legitimate scholarship." Charles Rosen , however, retorts that McClary, "sets up, like so many of the 'new musicologists', a straw man to knock down, the dogma that music has no meaning, and no political or social significance." Today, many musicologists no longer distinguish between musicology and new musicology since it has been recognized that many of

4810-399: Was coined by Schaeffer in 1948. Schaeffer believed traditionally classical (or as he called it, "serious") music begins as an abstraction (musical notation) that is later produced as audible music. Musique concrète, by contrast, strives to start with the "concrete" sounds that emanate from base phenomena and then abstracts them into a composition. The term musique concrète is then, in essence,

4884-485: Was founded in 1942 by Pierre Schaeffer at the Radiodiffusion Nationale (France) . It played a role in the activities of the French resistance during World War II, and later became a center of musical activity. In 1949, Schaeffer met the percussionist-composer Pierre Henry , with whom he collaborated on many compositions, and in 1951, he founded the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète ( GRMC ) in

4958-594: Was influenced by Hegel 's ideas on ordering "phenomena" which can be understood & distinguished from simple to complex stages of evolution. They are further classified into primitive & developed sections; whereas the particular stages of history are understood & distinguished as ancient to modern . Comparative methods became more widespread in musicology beginning around 1880. The parent disciplines of musicology include: Musicology also has two central, practically oriented sub-disciplines with no parent discipline: performance practice and research, and

5032-578: Was mainly in elementary and secondary music teaching . Nevertheless, some women musicologists have reached the top ranks of the profession. Carolyn Abbate (born 1956) is an American musicologist who did her PhD at Princeton University . She has been described by the Harvard Gazette as "one of the world's most accomplished and admired music historians". Susan McClary (born 1946) is a musicologist associated with new musicology who incorporates feminist music criticism in her work. McClary holds

5106-466: Was only effective because it imitated nature. Some writers on music in the 18th century stayed closely true to Aristotle, with Charles Batteux writing that the sole unifying principle of taste and beauty was the reproduction of the ideal form that lay behind natural things. However, this view was challenged by others who felt that the role of music was to produce an emotional effect. For instance, Sir William Jones wrote in 1772 that: "‘it will appear, that

5180-571: Was performed in various places at various times in the past. Although previously confined to early music, recent research in performance practice has embraced questions such as how the early history of recording affected the use of vibrato in classical music or instruments in Klezmer . Within the rubric of musicology, performance practice tends to emphasize the collection and synthesis of evidence about how music should be performed. The important other side, learning how to sing authentically or perform

5254-598: 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 musicians to manipulate recorded sound for the purpose of using it in conjunction with other sounds in order to compose a musical piece. Techniques such as tape looping and tape splicing were used in his research, often comparing to sound collage . The advent of Schaeffer's manipulation of recorded sound became possible only with technologies that were developed after World War II had ended in Europe. His work

5328-556: Was significant for Schaeffer's development, bringing forward many fundamental questions he had on the limits of modern musical expression . In these experiments, Pierre 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. He had begun working with new contemporaries whom he had met through RTF, and as such his experimentation deepened. Schaeffer's work gradually became more avant-garde , as he challenged traditional musical style with

5402-454: Was strongly influenced by Aristotle's theory of mimesis . Art represented the perfection and imitation of nature, speech and emotion. As speech was taken as a model for music, composition and performance in the Baroque period were strongly influenced by rhetoric . According to what has become known as the theory of affect , a musician was expected to stir feelings in his audience in much

5476-454: Was there that he began to move away from his initial interests in telecommunications and to pursue music instead, combining his abilities as an engineer with his passion for sound. In his work at the station, Schaeffer experimented with records and an assortment of other devices—the sounds they made and the applications of those sounds—after convincing the radio station's management to allow him to use their equipment. This period of experimentation

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