Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist and acoustician. His innovative work in both the sciences—particularly communications and acoustics—and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end of World War II, as well as his anti-nuclear activism and cultural criticism garnered him widespread recognition in his lifetime.
Amongst the vast range of works and projects he undertook, Schaeffer is most widely and currently recognized for his accomplishments in electronic and experimental music, at the core of which stands his role as the chief developer of a unique and early form of avant-garde music known as musique concrète. The genre emerged in Europe from the utilization of new music technology developed in the post-war era, following the advance of electroacoustic and acousmatic music.
Schaeffer's writings are often oriented towards his development of the genre, as well as the theoretics and philosophy of music in general.Today, Schaeffer is considered one of the most influential experimental, electroacoustic and subsequently electronic musicians, having been the first composer to utilize a number of contemporary recording and sampling techniques that are now used worldwide by nearly all record production companies. His collaborative endeavors are considered milestones in the histories of electronic and experimental music.
Wikipedia
“We live in an age dominated by the problem of limits.”
Interview (Television) with Michel Polac - August 1, 1987 ("The Summers of the Right to Reply")
Interviews
Context: We live in an age dominated by the problem of limits. We are witnessing the end of progress. We have reached the saturation point. Are we going beyond these limits? Are we going to take the risk? There is much work to do to maintain the planet.
Pierre Schaeffer: an Interview with the Pioneer of Musique Concrete (Records Quarterly magazine, vol. 2, n° 1; 1987)
Interviews
“Barbarians always think of themselves as the bringers of civilization.”
Pierre Schaeffer: an Interview with the Pioneer of Musique Concrete (Records Quarterly magazine, vol. 2, n° 1; 1987)
Interviews
Pierre Schaeffer: an Interview with the Pioneer of Musique Concrete (Records Quarterly magazine, vol. 2, n° 1; 1987)
Interviews
“Something new has been added, a new art of sound. Am I wrong in calling it music?”
The Liberation of Sound: An Introduction to Electronic Music (Prentice-Hall edition, 1972)
Electronic Musician magazine, December 1986
Interviews
The Old Man and His Movements (Times Press, 1964)
Literary works
Electronic Musician magazine, December 1986
Interviews
