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Treatise on Musical Objects

An Essay across Disciplines
by Pierre Schaeffer (Author), Christine North (Translator), John Dack (Translator)
Hardcover Paperback eBook
Price: $45.00 / £38.00
Publication Date: Jul 2017
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 624
ISBN: 9780520967465
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 6 music ex, 7 b/w halftones, 5
Series:
Endowments:
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About the Book

The Treatise on Musical Objects is regarded as Pierre Schaeffer’s most important work on music and its relationship with technology. Schaeffer expands his earlier research in musique concrète to suggest a methodology of working with sounds based on his experiences in radio broadcasting and the recording studio. Drawing on acoustics physics and physiology but also on philosophy and the relationship between subject and object Schaeffer’s essay summarizes his theoretical and practical work in music composition. Translators Christine North and John Dack present an important book in the history of ideas in Europe that will resonate far beyond electroacoustic music.

About the Author

Composer, writer, and electronic engineer Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995) was the inventor of musique concrète—music created by combining and manipulating recorded sounds, rather than being played on conventional musical instruments.

Christine North is a translator of French poetry and academic texts.

John Dack is Senior Lecturer in Music and Technology at Middlesex University.

Table of 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

Book One. Making Music
1. The Instrumental Prerequisite
2. Playing an Instrument
3. Capturing Sounds
4. Acousmatics

Book Two. Hearing
5. "What Can Be Heard"
6. The Four Listening Modes
7. Scientific Prejudice
8. The Hearing Intention

Book Three. Correlations Between the Physical Signal and the Musical Object
9. Ambiguities in Musical Acoustics
10. Correlation between Spectra and Pitches
11. Threshold and Transients
12. Temporal Anamorphoses I: Timbres and Dynamics
13. Temporal Anamorphoses II: Timbre and Instrument
14. Time and Duration

Book Four. Objects and Structures
15. Reduction to the Object
16. Perceptual Structures
17. Comparative Structures: Music and Language
18. The Conventional Musical System: Musicality and Sonority
19. Natural Sound Structures: Musicianly Listening
20. The Reduced Listening System: Musical Dualism
21. Musical Research

Book Five. Morphology and Typology of Sound Objects
22. Morphology of Sound Objects
23. The Laboratory
24. Typology of Musical Objects (I): Classification Criteria
25. Typology of Musical Objects (II): Balanced and Redundant Objects
26. Typology of Musical Objects (III): Eccentric Sounds
27. Working at Our Instrument

Book Six. Theory of Musical Objects
28. Musical Experience
29. Generalizing Music Theory
30. Theory of Homogenous Sounds: Criterion of Mass
31. Theory of Fixed Masses: Dynamic Criterion
32. Theory of Sustainment
33. Theory of Variations
34. Analysis of the Musical Object as It Generally Appears

Book Seven. Music as a Discipline
35. Implementation
36. The Meaning of Music
Penultimate Chapter: In the Search of Music Itself

Postscript
Index

Reviews

"[Christine North and John Dack's] English translation is as effective as Schaeffer’s text, which in turn exercises its full correlative power to English readers to the extent that the translators have rendered it."
— Association for Recorded Sound Collections Journal
"Pierre Schaeffer's text in a definitive form in English is invaluable to a wide range of communities of scholars practitioners and general readers. It will have the effect of ‘rewriting history’ as well as stimulating and informing current discussions on the state of sound music and media in the age of smart technology."—Simon Emmerson Professor of Music Technology and Innovation De Montfort University

"Schaeffer’s Treatise on Musical Objects is a landmark text not for one but for several disciplines: electroacoustic composition sound studies media theory music theory to name but a few. To have an English translation of this volume at long last is a cause for celebration. Christine North and John Dack have shown tremendous skill patience and care in rendering Schaeffer’s often challenging style into English doing justice to both the content of his ideas and the style in which they are expressed."—Eric Drott Associate Professor of Music Theory University of Texas at Austin

"Almost seventy years after the invention of musique concrète, this seminal text is still absolutely crucial for those curious about music sound composing and the experience of listening. Schaeffer’s astonishing book is at last available in English thanks to the wonderful work of John Dack and Christine North."—Robert Worby composer BBC Radio 3 and the Langham Research Centre

"The Treatise on Musical Objects is Pierre Schaeffer’s magnum opus a prescient work of sound studies before there was 'sound studies.' Its purview touches on nearly every aspect of sound and auditory culture. Beyond 'modes of listening,' 'sound objects,' or 'acousmatics,' there is so much more for readers to discover."—Brian Kane author of Sound Unseen: Acousmatic Sound in Theory and Practice

"Schaeffer’s treatise is a monumental groundbreaking investigation into listening considering in depth not only the sounds of music but the whole sound world. At last English-speaking readers can discover the seminal research of this unique personality which remains a classic fifty years after its initial publication. A translation triumph."—Denis Smalley Professor Emeritus City University of London        

Awards

  • 2018 Certificate of Merit for ‘Excellence for Best Historical Research in Recorded Classical Music, Association for Recorded Sound Collections