“Musique Concrète” as one of the Preliminary Steps to Acoustic Ecology

Abstract

What are the theoretical and practical outcomes of “Musique Concrète” and their echoes in today’s practice of Acoustic Ecology? How does the discipline of Acoustic Ecology provide new elements for a better understanding of the foundations of “Musique Concrète”?

In his Studio d’Essai, in the 1940s, while experimenting with the genre of the Radio Play, Théâtre Radiophonique, and questioning the modifications brought to the act of listening by new audio technologies, Pierre Schaeffer discovered a new attitude (Acousmatic) and a new concept (the Sound Object), both of which were to form the basis for “Musique Concrète”.

“Musique Concrète” is not a renewal or a modernization of music through a renewal of its auditory material. The purpose is not to introduce new types of sounds and make them available for musical compositions. “Musique Concrète” is also not a renewal of music through new methods and techniques of composing. “Musique Concrète” is a renewal of music in the sense of what Schaeffer names as the primordial activity involved in music: Listen- ing. Exactly in the same way R. Murray Schafer names listening-to- the-environment as the foundation of Acoustic Ecology.