Musique concrete

Musique concrète (French for "concrete music" or "real music") is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sonorities derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical" (melody, harmony, rhythm, metre and so on). The theoreticalunderpinnings of the aesthetic were developed by Pierre Schaeffer, beginning in the late 1940s.

The French composer and theorist Pierre Schaeffer is credited with originating musique concrete in five works for tape alone (known collectively as Cinq études de bruits, or Five Studies of Noises) including Etude violette (Study in Purple) and Etude aux chemins de fer (Study of Railroads). The works werepremièred at a concert given in Paris on the 5th of October 1948 (Chion 1983). The development of musique concrete was facilitated by the emergence of new music technology in post-war Europe. Access to microphones and magnetic tape recorders (created in 1939), afforded by an association with the French national broadcasting organization, at that time the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française, gaveSchaeffer and his colleagues an opportunity to experiment with recording technology and tape manipulation.

Schaeffer developed an aesthetic practice that was centred upon the use of sound as a primary compositional resource and emphasized the importance of play (jeu) in the creation of music. Schaeffer's use of jeu, from the verb jouer, 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 central to the musique concrète aesthetic (Dack 2002).

Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète

In 1951 Schaeffer, along with the engineer Jacques Poullin, and composer-percussionist Pierre Henry, established the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (Research Group onConcrete Music) at RTF in Paris, the ancestor of the ORTF (Lange 2009, 173).

At RTF the GRMC established the first purpose-built electroacoustic music studio. It quickly attracted many who either were or were later to become notable composers, including Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Jean Barraqué, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgar Varese, Iannis Xenakis, Michel Philippot, and Arthur Honegger.Compositional output from 1951 to 1953 comprised Étude I (1951) and Étude II (1951) by Boulez, Timbres-durées (1952) by Messiaen, Étude (1952) by Stockhausen, Le microphone bien tempéré (1952) and La voile d’Orphée (1953) by Henry, Étude I (1953) by Philippot, Étude (1953) by Barraqué, the mixed pieces Toute la lyre (1951) and Orphée 53 (1953) by Schaeffer\Henry, and the film music Masquerage (1952) bySchaeffer and Astrologie (1953) by Henry. In 1954 Varèse and Honegger visited to work on the tape parts of Déserts and La rivière endormie (Palombini 1999).

Between 1952 and 1956 Schaeffer's commitments to RTF led him to appoint Philippe Arthuys with responsibility for the GRMC, with Pierre Henry operating as Director of Works. Pierre Henry’s composing talent developed greatly during this periodat the GRMC and he worked with experimental filmmakers such as Max de Haas, Jean Gremillon, Enrico Fulchignoni, and Jean Rouch, and with choreographers including Dick Sanders and Maurice Béjart (Gayou 2007, 206). Schaeffer returned to run the group at the end of 1957, and immediately stated his disapproval of the direction the GRMC had taken. A proposal was then made to "renew completely thespirit, the methods and the personnel of the Group, with a view to undertake research and to offer a much needed welcome to young composers" (Gayou 2007, 207) .
Groupe de Recherches Musicales

Following the emergence of differences within the GRMC Pierre Henry, Philippe Arthuys, and several of their colleagues, resigned in April 1958. Schaeffer created a new collective, called Groupe de Recherches...