Transcript Musique Concrete

Musique Concrete
What Is It?
• Musique Concrete is a genre of music that is
created by manipulating recorded sounds
• Sounds are often derived from recordings of
musical instruments, voices, nature, synthesizers,
or ordinary objects
• Composers use concrete sounds for their abstract
musical value, not for their context (a piece using
the sound of a barking dog will not be about a
barking dog. It will simply explore the sound of
the barking dog itself.)
How It Began
• In the late 1940’s, musicians Pierre Schaeffer and
Pierre Henry were working for a French
broadcasting station and began experimenting
with changing the sounds they recorded
• Schaeffer coined the term musique concrete
based on the idea that concrete sounds were the
building blocks to create a piece of music
• Around the same time, Karheinz Stockhausen was
experimenting with gramophones and tape
recorders in Germany
How Did They Create It?
•
Schaeffer and Henry realized that recordings, first on 78rpm shellac disks, and later
on quarter-inch analogue tape, allowed them to do things they could not do
before. They could speed sounds up; they could slow them down; they could
make them louder or quieter; they could repeat a sound, cut pieces out of it, filter
it… and then, they could do the whole lot again playing the sound backwards.
•
So they could take concrete sounds; sounds from real life objects: the rattle of a
saucepan lid, the rush and roar of a railway engine, a baby crying, the ring of a
knife tapping a wine glass - they could use any sound from real life - and turn it
into music.
•
Once you had learned how to cut and edit tape using a razor blade; once you had
the patience to sit for hours, recording, altering tape speed, re-recording, cutting,
sorting, joining tiny pieces of tape to make your finished work; once you had
wasted a few hours getting two [or three] mechanical tape recorders to start at the
same time, you could get your music to sound something like you wanted.
See How It’s Done
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4ea0sBrw
6M
Significant Composers/Works
• Pierre Schaeffer-Etudes de bruits
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTf0yE15zzI
• Pierre Henry-Le voile d’Orphee 1
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAxGbZgzuAU
• Schaeffer/Henry-Orphee 53 (opera)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJq3jItducg
• Edgar Varese-Poeme electronique
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AR_od3KMb4