Pierre Schaeffer – Musique Concrete

Composition 1 – Influences and composing the piece

Pierre Schaeffer is widely considered the pioneer of Musique Concrete. His ‘Five Studies of Noises’ is initially what inspired me, and is what I used as a template for my first composition. The aspect that inspired me most was the use of repetition to create rhythm. This is what I have tried to use to create the rhythmic parts of my own Acousmatics piece.

Using the ‘echo’ effect within Logic enabled me to create that repetition, and rhythmic aspect which I wanted in order to create the atmosphere I wanted. To make the most of the eight speaker system, I thought it would be a good idea to leave a lot of space for the echo effect to ring out and allow time to send the sound around the room.

Slowing the BPM of the paper sample down emphasised the sound of the paper being creased and scrunched, creating a sweeping sound. When diffusing this sound the low frequencies really became apparent and the low, atonal product of the paper sample in comparison to the higher more melodic sound produced by the water sample.

By chopping sections of the water sample and using ‘echo’ to repeat the sound, a rhythmic tapping was produced. This became its own sample and almost like a third recording and was used repeatedly during the composition. The droplet noise and the pouring noise were taken from the same sample and were alternated during the beginning of the piece as an introduction before introducing the paper sample.

Initially, the paper sample was designed to be the main focal point in the structure of the piece but I felt it was too overpowering, and the diversity of the different effects produced with the water sample were easier to use.

Schaeffer was the main influence for this piece and I feel I have captured a small element of his composing style and the audio samples, along with the methods used to process and place them within the composition have worked successfully.