In Search of a Concrete Music

Composer Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) was the inventor of musique concrete music created by combining and manipulating recorded sounds (rather than being played on conventional musical instruments). Translators: John Dack is Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Sonic Arts Department at Middlesex University. Christine North is retired as Lecturer in French at Middlesex University.

"Collects Schaeffer's journals and other writings about his musique concrete, which he created by manipulating recorded sounds." Harper's "One of the postwar period's most significant (and readable) grapplings with new artistic paradigms." -- Rob Young Frieze "Completely changed how I hear the world and, after more than 30 years, I am still living with the consequences." -- John Dack The Wire "One striking impression that emerges from reading this book is that [Schaeffer's] work merits a perspective with greater nuance." Times Higher Education "Captures these uneven rhythms of intuition and perplexity, and his imagination and wit." Los Angeles Review Of Books "Recommended." -- J. Behrens, Wolf Museum of Music and Art Choice

• Translators' Note I. First Journal of Concrete Music (1948--1949) Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 II. Second Journal of Concrete Music (195--1951) Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 1 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 III. The Concrete Experiment in Music (1952) Chapter 14. The Concrete Approach Chapter 15. The Experimental Method Chapter 16. The Musical Object Chapter 17. From the Object to Language Chapter 18. From the Object to the Subject Chapter 19. Inventory Chapter 2. Farewells to Concrete Music IV. Outline of a Concrete Musical Training Index