- Schaeffer, Pierre
-
▪ 1996French composer, writer, and teacher (b. Aug. 14, 1910, Nancy, France—d. Aug. 19, 1995, Aix-en-Provence, France), developed musique concrète, a montage form using assemblages of recorded sounds. Educated as an engineer, he began a long affiliation with the French state radio in 1936. During World War II, Schaeffer helped found the Studio d'Essai, which became an important centre of resistance activity and of research in the medium of radio and where he developed a reputation as an innovative programmer. Among other organizations he founded was the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète, which later became the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. From the beginning of his career, Schaeffer was interested in the analysis of sounds, both natural and man-made, and in the 1940s he developed procedures for using recorded sounds, first on disc and then on tape, as the basic components of what he began to call musique concrète. Unlike traditional music, this method of composing did not depend on performers to interpret or realize what had been set down in notation. One of Schaeffer's best-known compositions was Symphonie pour un homme seul (1950), written with his colleague Pierre Henry. From 1968 Schaeffer taught electronic composition at the Paris Conservatory. Among his wide-ranging interests were philosophy, literature, the theatre, and the visual arts; he created music for ballet, film, and the stage. He also was the creator of a popular animated cartoon series with original music. His writings include novels, short stories, and essays, as well as theoretical works in music. Among his books on music are À la recherche d'une musique concrète (1952), Traité des objets musicaux (1966), and the two-volume Machines à communiquer (1970-72).
* * *
▪ French composerborn Aug. 14, 1910, Nancy, Francedied Aug. 19, 1995, Aix-en-ProvenceFrench composer, acoustician, and electronics engineer who in 1948, with his staff at Radio-diffusion et Télévision Française, introduced musique concrète in which sounds of natural origin, animate and inanimate, are recorded and manipulated so that the original sounds are distorted and combined in a musical fashion. The means of manipulation include changing the speed of the playback to alter pitch, playing the tape backward, cutting the tape so as to exercise precise control over duration, filtering out or reinforcing certain sound-wave frequencies, and other more complex manipulation. Schaeffer's 10-movement Symphonie pour un homme seul (1950; “Symphony for One Man Only”), produced in collaboration with Pierre Henry, was the first major concrete piece. This and other works of musique concrète reflect an approach to sound that had an important influence on composers of aleatory (aleatory music), or chance, music. His other works include the experimental opera Orpheé 53 (1953).Schaeffer taught electronic composition at the Paris Conservatory from 1968 until 1980. His writings include novels, short stories, and essays, as well as theoretical works in music, such as À la recherche d'une musique concrète (1952; “In Search of a Concrete Music”), Traité des objets musicaux (1966; “Treatise on Musical Objects”), and the two-volume Machines à communiquer (1970–72; “Machines for Communicating”).Additional ReadingSophie Brunet, Pierre Schaeffer (1969); Marc Pierret, Entretiens avec Pierre Schaeffer (1969).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
