pierre schaeffer - "etude aux chemins de fer"

The first piece of "musique concrete," composed by Pierre Schaeffer in 1948 out of sounds produced by trains.

This is posted as a reference to a series of articles on the problems of composition posed by musique concrete. The article on Peirre Schaeffer can be found here:

http://againstthemodernworld.blogspot.com/2007/11/case-study-pierre-schaeffer...

If you like this music, please purchase the album:

http://www.amazon.com/L-Oeuvre-Musicale-Pierre-Schaeffer/dp/B00005Y972

Category:

Music

Tags:

• pierre
• schaeffer
• etude
• aux
• chemins
• de
• fer
• musique
• concrete
• cinq
• etudes
• bruits

[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.

[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".

[Supremee022]

This is Sampling!

[theabcsofstds]

@PTKrzystek fuck off

[PTKrzystek]

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

[metabog]

Hehe, we just analyzed this in a university lecture.

[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.

[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.

[Bodhi186]

1940's dubstep

[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