pierre schaeffer - "etude aux chemins de fer"

[Supremee022]

This is Sampling!

[PTKrzystek]

I dare someone to make a dubstep remix of this song.

[theabcsofstds]

@PTKrzystek fuck off

[metabog]

Hehe, we just analyzed this in a university lecture. 

[Bodhi186]

1940's dubstep

[licq1]

i don't know.. i mean, the concept might be revolutionary, but the composition itself isn't that particularly great?

[fritagogo1]

Premier morceau écouté en classe électroacoustique au conservatoire...

Mon grand père était cheminot sur ces machines ! J'ai composer un morceau moderne sur cela en musique électronique... Les sons sur cette bande magnétique sont construits pour faire une séquence organisée comme une composition... Rien n'est fait au hasard ! Tout est structuré ! Écoutez bien 2 fois ! A+

[Jagged85]

Actually, this wasn't the first "musique concrete" piece, but rather, it was the first widely known one. It was in fact pre-dated by four years in Egypt by a musician called Halim El-Dabh. In 1944, he produced the first ever piece of "musique concrete" electronic tape music. You can listen to some of it it here:

watch?v=U32UMZWRTMM (skip to 9:22)

As you can see, El-Dabh's piece lacks percussion instruments, but instead relies more on sampling, manipulating and arranging human voices.

[Jagged85]

Further to my previous post, while El-Dabh's 1944 piece was not widely known outside of Egypt, his later work at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in the 1950s had a big influence on quite a few pop/rock musicians at the time, like Frank Zappa for example.

[kdowns350]

@Jagged85 i am interested in this, but the link was wrong. i searched the composer but couldn't find this work. will you please re-find it?

[Jagged85]

@kdowns350

It looks like the video was taken off for some reason. I'll see if I can find it online somewhere, or if not, I guess I could just upload it myself some time.

If I had to describe it for now, I'd say it's somewhat similar to this Schaeffer piece, but with heavily-edited (and eery-sounding) chanting voices instead of trains. Of course, Schaeffer was unaware of El Dabh's earlier work at the time, so it's more of a coincidence, but it's an interesting piece of history nevertheless.

[Jagged85]

@kdowns350

Okay, I've just uploaded it myself a few minutes ago. You can check out Halim El-Dabh's 1944 electronic tape music piece here:

watch?v=j_kbNSdRvgo



[giacomocampioni]

i like trains whooooooooooooooo

[gtsmprn]

I can't believe this has so many views. I love this composition though.

[KoreaForeigner]

@gtsmprn

why cant you believe it?? are you so much more super-futuro-inteliigent and us mere mortals???

[gtsmprn]

@KoreaForeigner No... It's just because this is extremely odd compared to most music.

[DIEgojevy]

now i want to watch the good, the bad and the ugly

[AyumuVanguard]

@xXZanjiXx Music is sound art. Maybe this isn't the same kind of music as music you would dance to or hear on the radio in your car, but it's still very much so actual music. Everything has rules and structures if you look hard enough. Think about what this piece does and what it doesn't do. Those are the rules, and this is music.

[franull]

Genious

[TPsynth]

Music is just sounds arranged into patterns , its not music until it goes in your ears and YOU hear it as music. Rhythm and repetition only sound more musical to you because thats what you been hearing music defined as since you where a baby.

Is a songbirds mating call music? Most would say yes. Then how about a whales song or a turkeys? Yes its all music and the more sounds you hear as music the more enjoyable your life will be.

[65attila]

It seems that what is being heard here is the Musical Portion of Cage's 4'33 while being performed on Amtrak.

[Oscar301]

Interesting to a point, but would've been better to mash the sounds up completely so the sense of train noises is lost and new creations emerge from the chaos. That would've been "futuristic." This is just farting about

[TheAstronomican]

yo i herd this playin in da club. finally found it!

[setamonkeytoy]

I like it, it's like anti matmos. using instruments to create every day sound rather than every day sounds to create the effect of instruments. isn’t this one of matmos's big influences

[xXZanjiXx]

sorry i cant accept this as music.. with distancing from any rules or structures, music is not possible.

if its recorded only with bells and suchs things, like Kirke182 said, then maybe its very artful to simulate these sounds but again: this is no music.

[davejay10]

@xXZanjiXx conventional rules of music, time signature, chord structure, etc do not apply here.

[xXZanjiXx]

@davejay10 well then it would be similar, if you define a potato soup as a painting; distancing from rules like it has to be on a canvas or need to be done with oil paint... potato soup is colorful, too - just like the etude is made with sounds.... but i wouldnt say either, that potato soup is art.

really, i pondered a lot about the whole thing and i dont like the existence of art just by defining it.

[Usulgurt]

sound is Good, but sound+video iz better

[cutxoutxheart]

this work was an assemblage of sounds of train wheels, engines, and whistles.

This composition combined train sounds which he found in the effects library with real sounds of trains arriving at a Paris station.

[funkberto]

1948 .THE BIRTH OF ''SAMPLING''

[freedom5370]

mercì

[SevereThroatCancer]

This is my first time listening to Pierre Schaeffer and I must say that I'm rather impressed. I'm looking up some experimental(/noise) artists to learn more about it and I like this thus far. Even though it's rather direct and recognisable, I still like it, a lot!

[frshproduce]

So far ahead of his time. God bless this man.

[Swars23BX]

That's not music...

Just some sounds and nothing more.

lollllllll

Like it anyway

[11thsarge]

Hmm... I don't know exactly at all if Schaeffer used actual trains for this recording or not, but what does make me think is his use of acousmatic sounds. It definetly wouldn't be like him to use a sound that imeadiatly hints at the source. But then again it was the first the first of his etudes. So, I dunno, something to think about.

[Jazz11Bum]

On the contrary kids, musique concrete is a philosophical stance in which the sound is simply appreciated for what it is, sound. It seeks to avoid any association with the theory behind the creation. So in fact, you are both actually referring to abstract theory, which the musique concrete movement (led of course by monsieur Schaeffer) sought to reject.

[kelseyturk]

lol I guess he never found the proof.

[fussbudget]

@kelseyturk HAHA 1190 rep.

[PracticePad1]

what is the nature of this piece? and the idea behind it?

[daniel1982]

Steampunk

[centinex88]

Now with high speed trains and even MagLev trains, the "song" would only be 10 seconds long =))))

[Smashi5]

Good one :D

[anastas91]

LOL

[stevecam1]

this is something that you have to sit down and listen to

i thought this was just a piece of sounds thrown together but when i actually listened to it i heard the music

[scaryfishdude]

Man, I LOVE this stuff.

[TheNecropheliacs]

Pierre Schaeffer is a true pioneer in the use of the recorder (or perhaps the wire in his case) as the instrument. Also of note, in the 21st century there is still a musique concrete underground for those who tire of pop.

[Kirke182]

From what I understand this was not done with trains. It is sounds of a stylus riding in the grooves of records.

[apopcollapse]

Um, when a stylus rides in the groove of a record, it plays the sound recorded on that record, in this case, the sound of trains.

[Kirke182]

I guess I didn't explain this well. There are NO trains recorded. Schaeffer recorded bells, whistles and a steam engine onto records and used the sound of the stylus in the groove to supply the sound of a train for the bells, whistles and steam engine he had recorded. That's why it's musique concrete. Just recording trains and playing them back is not musique concrete. if your source says he recorded trains your source is wrong.

[apopcollapse]

Um, musique concrete occurs when specific, usually "found," sounds are arranged into a musical composition. Whatever was recorded, whether trains or bells and whistles, the fact that Schaeffer arranged the sound loops into a structure is what makes it musique concrete. However, these are clearly sounds from field recordings of trains, and I think the burden falls upon you to back up the absurd claim that no train sounds were used with a concrete citation.

[MrNiclos]

excuse me but you make a mistake. For this Piece, P. Shaeffer was going to Gare d'Austerlitz to record trains. In 48, the sound-recording systems was very loud, big as a truck.

[djseekcanada]

@Kirke182...

yea he worked at the french national radio..he had access to an extreamly large amount of sound effects on tape/vinyl that had been pressed and recorded over the years...and recorded all the sounds together. speeding up and slowing down..reverb..echo...what ever else effects they had back in the day :)

[kariiiba]

@Kirke182 The manipulation of the source material, by looping, repeating, and cutting up the tape recording is what makes it music concrete, as it is music made from concrete or 'real' sounds, as opposed to instruments. I'm pretty sure in this case the source material is recordings of trains (among other things), hence the title, which translates to Railroad Study.

[Kirke182]

@kariiiba No, sir, that is not the definition of musique concrete which has nothing to do with taping or looping. In fact, Schaeffer's earliest compositions of musique concrete, including this one, were done with phoonographs and locked groove records. Look it up.

[infeted14]

you must be joking!

[FFFKeys]

No, this was done really with trains. Schaeffer organised an equipe of machinsts for this record.

[homsie33]

LOL.

Primitively put, you are right...

[proveyouwrong02]

@Kirke182 you dickhead

[FreshlyRoastedBeans]

@Kirke182 lolz

[musikal7]

Can anybody tell me why people enjoy this? I'm not saying it sucks, but I fail to appreciate this "music".

[brealistic1970]

Art is in the eye- and ear- of the beholder.

I sense so many more modern musical pieces in this work... it's quite amazing. And I thought Kraftwerk started this...

[LeBobBob]

Well without this experimentation and manipulation of sounds and using the technology he did in the way in which it was we wouldnt be where we are today in terms of music. Think back in the 1940's and you heard this. It would have been, and it was infact mind blowing to hear something so new and different.

[philgreener]

Its the apreciation of an experimental aproach to sound. I find it fascinating, however I wont be listning to it on my ipod on the way to a lecture :p

[TWORable]

@philgreener Why? I have lot of his stuff on my MP3 player .

[MountAnalogue]

To be honest Schaeffer's work was done more in approaching experimentation and developing other ways of thinking about sound as art, rather than creating music itself.

[infeted14]

hello there i have a uni project where I need to compose a piece of music using this as a major influence, using techniques schaeffer uses, i have logic and an i mac, as well as access to recordings - what does schaeffer do here to the original recordings, can anyone help me?

[apopcollapse]

Follow the link to the article. He recorded the sound of trains onto records, then controlled playback of these - essentially, he constructed a primitive analog "sampler".

[MountAnalogue]

wunderbar!

[RADIOKLOW]

A very rare composition. What a chance to find it here. Many thanks for this ! I agree with 62Olohn, the black and white perfectly corresponds to the trains of the smoke age !

[62OLOHN]

Wonderful idea to present the Etude aux chemins de fer this way, a beautiful experience of pure musical presence in black image corresponding to the atmosphere of vapour trains !

Best regards from Ö*l+*O?*

[RADIOKLOW]

What a plesaure to find this beautiful video about a fondamental masterpiece of concrete music at its first age !

Congratulations !

[Colonsigmoide]

Awesome!

[Adrmania]

I love more Pierre Schaeffer

[jambi00102]

Todo tipo de música es simplemente impresionante y hermosa. Pensaba que no iba a encontrar nada de esto.

[guillermosf5]

ni, yo!! suerte

[TheBasilio]

no es musica, solo experimentos que maduraron 10 años despues.

[7Row7enn7]

sad how little the world remembers schaeffer, and electronic music in general. it is the future of music

[roketjack]

That's too bad.

[youaresognarly]

@7Row7enn7 slow down there, its the origin and influence to a lot of genres. Would hardly say it is the future. People will learn from it and take an aspect. 

[danielpuigrj]

This is not a good example of musique concrète. Not because of the piece itself, but in regard to the quality of the recording you posted.

Sound quality is poor, all the spatialization of the sound is lost (i.e. movement of the sound between the two stereo channels). And — this must be stressed — that is a REAL loss when you want to hear music that depends only on the loudspeakers to be executed, was created to be like that and relying on the quality of the recording.

[pabloblack888]

it was recorded off multiple 78rpm acetates, and no tape recording was involved then, thtas why the quality isn't that clear, i'm sure pierre schaeffer didnt mind

[MohammedanVibration]

Was this originally a stereo piece?

[cochleatopic]

nope. mono. i believe these early pieces were originally conceived for radio broadcast.

[MyticMusic777]

this actually isnt the frist piece of musique concrete.luigi russolo in i belive 1911 made the first piece which was altered sounds of a train as well.before there were electronics developed for in home use many composeres already had the idea to compose with electronics well lugi got ahead of em all in italy.

[magicrucksack]

at 0:03 and 0:54 it sounds like clint eastwoods good the bad and the ugly oo ee oo ee ooooo wah wah wah

[7Row7enn7]

RIP Mr. Schaeffer. A genius of musical theoretics! (By the way, I'm the writer of his Wikipedia article, along wit several other musicians. If you have any information on him then let me know.)

[easternslavic]

The fuck.

[ApostateChristian]

It's art. ^^;

[easternslavic]

A monkey throwing paint at a wall is considered art nowdays.

[ApostateChristian]

But, my dear Slavic, this is altogether a different FORM of art! The form AND the content are VASTLY different!

[easternslavic]

Meh just sounds like a guy putting a bunch of random sounds together. I guess I just don't get art. This is kinda like that number 9 crap Yoko pulled.

[ApostateChristian]

That Yoko crap really WAS awful. I just shuddered thinking about it.

[BPMontana]

so where is the line drawn between crap and art?  Or can crap be art? And art be crap? :O!

[otacon451]

he was a sound engineer and had to splice the tape by hand to collage it. ono was probably doing a sort of fluxus piece

[chazillah]

Art can be crap. Doesn't need to be good to certain individuals to be art. Art is a creation, and you are allowed to like it or hate it. But it's still art. Art is an opinion, not a fancy "show-and-tell".

[zekesteronimyster]

whats the point of being racist? i really dont get it..

[groslucas]

Just "racist" against mediocre and degenerated music from black (and white!) american pop music. I have a lot of respect for sacred "primitive" music from Africa...as well as the beautiful works of experimental music (Stockhausen, Schaeffer, Boulez, Russolo...etc)...

If a black man compose a beautiful piece of contemporary music, i will be the first one to enjoy it...

If a white man defecate a mediocre pop song, i will be the first one to run away...

Provocation makes pro fessional vocations!

[mrbenLETHBRIDGE]

idiocy - how can you honestly claim to be open minded and yet with one sweeping gesture lump and dismiss jazz/blues/funk/hiphop together. You just made me laugh.

[Gwellane]

Steve Reich peut lui dire merci avec son "Different trains"...

[Animalll2003lll]

ah man ta gueule. c tellement francais et stupide ce que tu viens de dire. je déteste cette vibe. pouce en bas. tu crois que les francais ont genre inventé des trucs et que tout le monde doit leur payer du respekt culturel? réveille toi, la france ne produit plus rien de bien depuis longtemps. tout ce qui sors de la france pue la défaite depuis ravel. c juste médiocre. changez votre mentalité et votre culture pour arriver au 21e siècle. écoute plus james brown ou du punk. peace.

[psychodingo]

thanks ! it is very interesting to discover this  "atonal" music( I don't know if the word is correct )

[note360]

This music isn't atonal really. True it doesn't have a tonality really, but that is not the true meaning behind atonal. It is really classical electronic music. Musique Concrete

[morelli6]

Actually, in Schoenberg's terms it would be right to say atonal...atonal means absence of tonality which can be clearly seen in this piece. The right word for the music of the second viennese school, composers like messiaen, and so one would be pantonal because all the tonalities are being used without distinction. However, the 'common' word is atonal.

[Animalll2003lll]

yeah wtver dude. just don't be so kind or too tactful with these terms, it's like you ask them if you should call them "lord" or "king", that's just too correct. just call this self indulgent shit wtver you want. this music clearly sucks you can say it out loud, it won't hurt anyone. it's just going to help them to move away from that shit. eh les français, bougez, ça suce cette musique. vous sucez quand vous faites ça. arrêtez la musique contemporaine c retardé. bonne chance!IRCAM=LOL

[groslucas]

This is better than all the nigger music that we are forced to listen to on the radio...music of degenerated monkeys like JAZZ, FUNK, BLUES, RAP, HIP HOP..etc

This is true European Music...SIEG HEIL PIERRE SCHAEFFER

Skinhead from Ecuador - INKA PODER!!!

[kowalsky111]

lol ,who forces you to listen to black music? you poor boy, maybe someone in the world is gentle enough to kill that guy so you can have your nigger free world in , where, equador?

[blah825]

you racist twat

[kowalsky111]

you noticed the slight ironic touch of my comment?

[takigan]

Well said Animal2003

[guacanagari]

Gracias Merci Thanks you Grazie Obrigado

[jpmahone]

fuck this gets the dance floor pumpn every time!

[55Rossi]

lol

[chooseychasey]

Kanye called and will be sampling it soon.

[THEMANOUTOFTHECAVE]

@jpmahone I'd still love to see a disco playing house tunes and then this coming up. Just to see the horror on people's faces. XD

[akenaton97]

DJ Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer

[Schoum59]

Merci pour le partage de ce document culturel.

[HyperspaceGrrl]

Thanks for sharing this! I just have to point out, however, that this isn't the first example of Misque Concrete. The genre dates back to at least the twenties. I'm sure if any audio recordings survive from that time, but the performances are well doccumented.

[Leitmotivation]

dancehit!

[VanMocen]

judging by the year this was made, well done. im saying this cause there are far better examples of musique concrete in more recent years.. but well done nevertheless :)

[Tonymostrom]

Incomparable.

[charlyzoller]

the big boss

[saltinthesoup]

Very good to hear this, i'm shure that Kraftwerk were inspired by this (compare Trans Europa Express).

[serialclone]

Good point.

[cincopuntouno]

I agree with you... Great!

[lorenawalker]

Invalorable documento

[jesusenfille]

Vive pierre schaeffer pour andréa!!!