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44-407: 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

88-409: 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,

132-580: 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

176-401: 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

220-574: A religiously based play. Musicologist Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 228037635 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:32:27 GMT Musical expression At a practical level, this means making appropriate use of dynamics , phrasing , timbre and articulation to bring

264-500: 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

308-469: 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:

352-498: 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,

396-410: 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

440-585: 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)

484-648: 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

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528-429: 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

572-639: 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

616-646: 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

660-452: 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

704-518: 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

748-456: 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)

792-499: 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

836-525: 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

880-426: 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

924-539: 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 "),

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968-543: 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

1012-536: 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

1056-514: 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

1100-554: 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

1144-457: 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

1188-519: 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

1232-441: 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

1276-466: 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,

1320-410: 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

1364-450: 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

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1408-439: 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

1452-429: 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

1496-523: 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

1540-408: 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

1584-629: 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

1628-430: 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

1672-399: 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,

1716-485: 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

1760-466: 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

1804-598: 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

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1848-556: 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

1892-454: 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

1936-454: 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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