[California Studies in 20th-Century Music 01] • Treatise on Musical Objects by Schaeffer, Pierre -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Subvention Title Copyright Dedication Contents The Treatise on Musical Objects and the GRM, by Daniel Teruggi Translators’ Introduction, by Christine North Pierre Schaeffer’s Treatise on Musical Objects and Music Theory, by John Dack Acknowledgments Preface Introductory Remarks: The Historical Situation of Music

Need for a Reappraisal Three New Phenomena The Three Dead Ends of Musicology A Priori Music Musique Concrète Experimental Music No-Man’s-Land Divergence of Disciplines Music as Interdiscipline Resources for Musical Experimentation The Aims of Musical Experimentation: Objects, Structures, Languages Musical Research

Book One. Making Music

1. The Instrumental Prerequisite

1.1. Homo Faber or Homo Sapiens 1.2. Neanderthal Music 1.3. The Instrumental Paradox: The Birth of Music 1.4. From the Instrument to the Work 1.5. From the Instrument to the Musical Domain: Musical Civilizations 1.6. Concrete and Abstract in Music 1.7. Registers and Musical Domains 1.8. Limitations of “Musical Catechisms”

2. Playing an Instrument

2.1. Definition of an Instrument 2.2. Composition of Instruments 2.3. Simple or Multiple Instruments 2.4. Instrumental Analysis 2.5. Triple Nature of the Instrument 2.6. The Electronic Instrument 2.7. Musique Concrète 2.8. Confusion over Instruments 2.9. Critique of the Electronic Instrument 2.10. Critique of “Musique Concrète” 2.11. Faults Common to Both Musics 2.12. Concept of the Pseudo-instrument

3. Capturing Sounds

3.1. The Paradox of Discovery 3.2. Mystery of the Cylinder and Powers of the Ear 3.3. The Historical Contribution of Radio Broadcasting 3.4. The Myth of Sound Reproduction 3.5. From One Sound Field to Another 3.6. The Physical Object in the Transformation 3.7. Transformations in the Sound Field 3.8. Properties of Recorded Sound 3.9. Fidelity 3.10. Timbre of the Equipment 3.11. The Sound Recordist as Interpreter 3.12. Musicians Have No Ear 3.13. Prose Composition and Translation 3.14. “Radiogenicity” 3.15. Advice from an Elder 3.16. Nothing New under the Sun

4. Acousmatics

4.1. Relevance of an Ancient Experiment 4.2. Acoustic and Acousmatic 4.3. The Acousmatic Field 4.4. On the Sound Object: What It Is Not 4.5. Originality of the Acousmatic Approach

Book Two. Hearing

5. “What Can Be Heard”

5.1. To Hear (Entendre) According to Littré 5.2. To Perceive Aurally (Ouïr) 5.3. To Listen (Écouter) 5.4. To Hear (Entendre) 5.5. To Understand (Comprendre)

6. The Four Listening Modes

6.1. The Functional Aspect of the Ear 6.2. Littré (Cont.): The Communication Circuit 6.3. The Individual and Objects: Perceptual Intentions 6.4. Stages and Outcomes of Listening: Diversity and Complementarity 6.5. Two Pairs: Subjective-Objective and Concrete-Abstract 6.6. Two Pairs of Listening Modes: Natural and Cultural, Ordinary and Specialized 6.7. Exclusives of Specialized Listening 6.8. Comparison between Specialized Modes of Listening

7. Scientific Prejudice

7.1. The Prestige of Logic 7.2. Practice: Musical Communication 7.3. An Option for Music: A Language in Itself 7.4. Another Option: Synthetic Music 7.5. From Physics to Music 7.6. The System 7.7. Ambitions and Inadequacies of Physics 7.8. Possible Musical Experimentation

8. The Hearing Intention

8.1. Pleonasm 8.2. The Two Pathways 8.3. The Hearing Intention from a Scientific Point of View 8.4. The Stumbling Block 8.5. Correlations 8.6. The Hearing Intention from a Philosophical Point of View 8.7. On Some Musical Hearing Intentions 8.8. Musical Listening Modes 8.9. Final Summary of Intentions

Book Three. Correlations between the Physical Signal and the Musical Object

9. Ambiguities in Musical Acoustics

9.1. An Ambiguous Concept 9.2. Sight and Hearing 9.3. The “Theory of Theories” 9.4. Traditional Doctrine: Acoustic Basis of Music 9.5. The Acoustics of Music 9.6. Psychoacoustics and Experimental Music 9.7. Investigate or Use the “Black Box”

10. Correlation between Spectra and Pitches

10.1. The Traditional Doctrine 10.2. Helmholtz’s Resonators 10.3. Fourier’s Series 10.4. The Perception of Pitches 10.5. Experiments on Residuals 10.6. Experiment on Unisons 10.7. Musical and Psychoacoustic Calibrations 10.8. Pitch Differentiation Thresholds: Importance of Context 10.9. Conclusions: The Various Pitch Structures 10.10. Sound Mass and Filtering Appendix: Experiment on Unisons

11. Thresholds and Transients

11.1. Transient Phenomena 11.2. Physicists’ Musical Postulates 11.3. Critique of the Approach to Music through Transients 11.4. The Ear as a Device 11.5. Temporal Thresholds 11.6. Mechanical Time Constant of the Ear 11.7. Time Constant of the Ear’s Physiological Power of Integration 11.8. Pitch, Articulation, and Timbre Recognition Thresholds 11.9. Comparison between Time Thresholds and Duration of Transients 11.10. Spatialization 11.11. Mechanism and Function

12. Temporal Anamorphoses I: Timbres and Dynamics

12.1. Time Localization 12.2. Beginnings of Sounds 12.3. The Spliced Piano 12.4. Scissor Attack 12.5. Cutting Sounds Other Than Percussive 12.6. General Interpretation of These Findings 12.7. Laws of Perception of Attack 12.8. Effect of Dynamic on the Perception of Timbres

13. Temporal Anamorphoses II: Timbre and Instrument

13.1. Timbre of an Instrument and of an Object 13.2. Timbre of Piano Notes 13.3. Concept of a Musical Instrument: Law of the Piano 13.4. Experiments on the Timbre of the Piano: Transmutations and Filtering 13.5. Timbres and Causalities 13.6. Causalities and Harmonic Structures: Functional Anamorphoses 13.7. Causality and Music

14. Time and Duration

14.1. A Long Digression 14.2. Rhythms and Durations 14.3. Experiment on the “Seven Dissymmetrical Sounds” 14.4. Duration and “Information” 14.5. Sound Played Backward 14.6. Temporal Symmetry and Dissymmetry: Aspects of Temporal Anamorphosis 14.7. Hearing Time 14.8. Musical Durations 14.9. Duration and Information

Book Four. Objects and Structures

15. Reduction to the Object

15.1. From Experiment to Explanation 15.2. Transcendence of the Object 15.3. The Naive Theory of the World: Époché 15.4. The Sound Object 15.5. Reduced Listening 15.6. Gestalttheorie 15.7. Gestalt, Form, Structure 15.8. The Object-Structure Pair

16. Perceptual Structures

16.1. The Two Infinities 16.2. Ambition for the Elementary 16.3. Significance of Values 16.4. Code and Language 16.5. Linguistic Structures, Musical Structures 16.6. The Levels of Language: Signification and Differentiation 16.7. Phonemes: Or Distinctive Features 16.8. From the Phoneme to the Musical Note 16.9. Sound Object and Phonetics 16.10. Direction of Research

17. Comparative Structures: Music and Language

17.1. The Higher Level 17.2. Language 17.3. The Rules of Language 17.4. Application of the Rules of Language to Music 17.5. Permanence and Variation in Musical Structures 17.6. Values and Characteristics 17.7. Divergences 17.8. Language Systems and Speech 17.9. The Two Exclusives in Language Systems 17.10. A Possible Musical Language System: Pure Music, Musical Writing 17.11. Instrumental Music

18. The Conventional Musical System: Musicality and Sonority

18.1. A Delightful Assortment 18.2. A Dangerous Intersection 18.3. Musicality and (Traditional) Sonority 18.4. Instrumental Overview 18.5. What Is Your Favorite Instrument, and Why? 18.6. Identification and Description 18.7. Diabolus in Musica

19. Natural Sound Structures: Musicianly Listening

19.1. The Universal Symphony 19.2. The Repertoire of Causalities 19.3. The Language of Things 19.4. The Child with the Grass 19.5. The Musical in Embryo 19.6. The Child with the Violin 19.7. Overview of “Sonority” 19.8. Relationship between Musicianly and Natural Listening 19.9. Toward a Musicianly Classification of Sound Objects 19.10. From Sound to the Musical

20. The Reduced Listening System: Musical Dualism

20.1. Dilemma or Dualism 20.2. Argument for a General Musicology 20.3. Argument for Sound as Given 20.4. Musical Activity 20.5. Two Pitfalls 20.6. Musicianly Invention 20.7. Musical Invention

21. Musical Research

21.1. Fundamental Research 21.2. Interwovenness of Levels of Complexity and Sectors of Activity 21.3. Preparatory Exercises 21.4. How the Experimental System Works 21.5. Contents of the Traditional System 21.6. Origins of the Experimental System 21.7. Invariants in the Experimental System 21.8. Suitable Objects 21.9. Perceptual Field 21.10. Object and Structures 21.11. Meaning and Signification 21.12. Constituent Activities: The Four Axioms of Music 21.13. Synthesis of Musical Structures or the Invention of Musics 21.14. Properties of the Perceptual Musical Field 21.15. Contents of the Experimental System

Book Five. Morphology and Typology of Sound Objects

22. Morphology of Sound Objects

22.1. Theory and Practice 22.2. Prose Composition and Translation in Sound 22.3. Prose Composition 22.4. Translation 22.5. Example of a Classification 22.6. Morphology and Typology 22.7. The Form-Matter Pair 22.8. Objects with Fixed Form: Criterion of Matter 22.9. Objects with Fixed Matter: Criterion of Form 22.10. Evolving Sounds: The Norm

23. The Laboratory

23.1. Electroacoustic Prerequisites 23.2. The Electroacoustic System 23.3. Repercussions of the System on Fundamental Research 23.4. Description and Use of Sound Bodies 23.5. Factures: Invention of Sound Objects and Sound Recording 23.6. Preparing the Object 23.7. The Transpositions of the Object 23.8. Transmutations of the Object 23.9. Electronic Generators 23.10. The Bare Essentials Appendix A: The Time Regulator Appendix B: The Form Modulator

24. Typology of Musical Objects (I): Classification Criteria

24.1. The Parable of the Attic 24.2. The Search for Typological Criteria 24.3. Duration and Variation 24.4. Objects in Sheaves 24.5. Balance and Originality 24.6. Summary of Typological Criteria 24.7. A Study of the Diagram Column by Column 24.8. A Study of the Diagram Row by Row 24.9. Foundational Schema of the Typology of Sound Objects

25. Typology of Musical Objects (II): Balanced and Redundant Objects

25.1. Balanced Objects 25.2. Analysis Based on the Criterion of Facture 25.3. Analysis Based on the Criterion of Mass 25.4. Redundant or Not Very Original Objects 25.5. Pure Sounds 25.6. Summary Diagram of Redundant or Not Very Original Sounds

26. Typology of Musical Objects (III): Eccentric Sounds

26.1. Eccentric Sounds 26.2. Samples 26.3. Accumulations 26.4. Cells, Ostinati, and Fragments 26.5. Large Notes and Wefts 26.6. Unisons 26.7. Summary Diagram of Typology

27. Working at Our Instrument

27.1. Sound Reels 27.2. Makeup of a Translation Reel 27.3. Study of Internal Morphology 27.4. External Morphology 27.5. Relativity of Analyses 27.6. Typological Formulae 27.7. Prose Composition: The Study of Sustained Sounds 27.8. General Plan for a Reel of Sustained Sounds 27.9. Comments on the Experimental Technique

Book Six. Theory of Musical Objects

28. Musical Experience

28.1. Moving toward the Musical 28.2. The Sociological Factor in Musical Experience 28.3. Deconditioning Exercises 28.4. Reconditioning Exercises 28.5. Talking about Sounds, or the “Metalanguage” 28.6. Two Sorts of Musical Experiences 28.7. Inventing Objects 28.8. Experimental Reels 28.9. Studies on Objects

29. Generalizing Music Theory

29.1. Traditional Music Theory 29.2. The Two Scores 29.3. Signs and Musical Thought 29.4. Objective of a Music Theory 29.5. Sound Architecture 29.6. The Four Musicianship Procedures 29.7. Typological Recapitulation (Sector 2) 29.8. Morphological Criteria (Sector 3) 29.9. Music Theory of Extreme Examples: Deponent Sound Objects 29.10. Musical Analysis of the Criteria (Sector 4) 29.11. The Three Dimensions of the Musical Perceptual Field 29.12. Final Diagram for the Theory: Types, Classes, Genres, Species of Sounds 29.13. Analogical Criteria

30. Theory of Homogeneous Sounds: Criterion of Mass

30.1. Experimental Material 30.2. Analogical Criteria from Traditional Musical Experience 30.3. Scientific Criteria: Additional Properties of Pure Sounds 30.4. Method of Approach 30.5. Harmonic Timbre and Mass 30.6. Classes of Mass in Homogeneous Sounds 30.7. Characteristic of Mass: Texture of a Sound 30.8. Species of Mass 30.9. The Two Pitch Fields 30.10. Pitch Calibrations 30.11. Temperament 30.12. Criterion of Harmonic Timbre: Classes and Characteristics 30.13. Species of Timbre 30.14. Importance of the Criterion of Mass

31. Theory of Fixed Masses: Dynamic Criterion

31.1. Concept of the Note 31.2. Method of Approach 31.3. Criterion of Attack: Genres of Forms 31.4. Criterion of Profile: Classes of Forms 31.5. Manipulations on Forms 31.6. The Dynamic Field 31.7. Dynamic Sound Species

32. Theory of Sustainment

32.1. Concrete Criteria 32.2. Sustainment Criteria 32.3. The Signature of Facture 32.4. Types of Grain 32.5. Genres of Grain 32.6. Species of Grain 32.7. Analogical Criteria: Classes of Grain 32.8. Allures 32.9. Typomorphology of Allures 32.10. Species of Allure

33. Theory of Variations

33.1. Musical Variation 33.2. Perception of Variations 33.3. Variation and Structure 33.4. Typology of Variations 33.5. Variation Criteria 33.6. Typology of Melodic Variations 33.7. Musical Tradition of Melodic Variations: Neumes 33.8. Classes, Genres, and Species of Melodic Variations 33.9. Mass Variations 33.10. Sustainment Variations 33.11. Structures of Variations

34. Analysis of the Musical Object as It Generally Appears

34.1. The Troublesome Example 34.2. Analytical Diagram 34.3. Summary Diagram 34.4. Layout of the Diagram 34.5. Evaluation of Criteria in the Perceptual Field 34.6. Musical Scales 34.7. Numbers and Nuances 34.8. Object Identification Chart 34.9. Meaning of the Analytical Diagram and How to Use It

Book Seven. Music as a Discipline

35. Implementation

35.1. How Should We Make and What Should We Listen For? 35.2. On the Right Use of a Music Theory 35.3. Attempt at an Exploration of Traditional Musics 35.4. Calibrations of Values 35.5. Simple Relationships 35.6. Reference Structures 35.7. Listening to Contemporary Musics 35.8. A Priori Musics 35.9. Serial Genetics in Electronic Music 35.10. Outside the Series 35.11. The Three Tiers 35.12. Musics 35.13. Tablatures 35.14. Music and Machines 35.15. The Two Musics 35.16. The Continuous and the Discontinuous 35.17. Polyphony and Polymorphy 35.18. Music and Aesthetics 35.19. Music and the Disciplines

36. The Meaning of Music

36.1. Orpheus 36.2. Musical Consumption 36.3. The Musical Environment 36.4. Musicians 36.5. The Inspiration of the Moment 36.6. From the Scribe to the Acrobat 36.7. The Experts 36.8. The Role of Orpheus 36.9. Respect for Humankind 36.10. Orpheus in the Underworld 36.11. A Spiritual Technique 36.12. The Meaning of Words 36.13. The Language of Things

Penultimate Chapter: In Search of Music Itself

Anamorphoses between Music and Acoustics Return to the Object and the Musical Endeavor The Four Listening Modes Beyond the Mark, Short of the Mark The Musical Relationship Back-to-Front Music The Composer’s Noise Typology of Contemporary Musics An Undesirable Teaching Method The Three Levels of the Score Music as Will or Representation The Target

Postscript Notes Index

← Prev
Back
Next →

← Prev
Back
Next →