PIERRE SCHAEFFER, 1953: TOWARDS AN EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC

IN ANOTHER ARTICLE2, I have drawn a distinction between four phases of Pierre Schaeffer's work from 1948 to 1966: research into noises (1948-9), concrete music (1949-58), experimental music (1953-9) and musical research (1958-). In the present article I am examining the first stage in the transition from concrete music to musical research: the step whereby the Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrete rallied concrete music, electronic music, tape music and exotic music under the banner of experimental music. In 1951, Radiodiffusion-Television Frangaise offered the Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrete, which at the time consisted of Pierre Schaeffer, the sound engineer Jacques Poullin and the composer Pierre Henry, the first ever purposebuilt electroacoustic3 studio. The collaboration between Schaeffer and Poullin, then in its fourth year, had resulted in the creation of the keyboard phonogene, the slide phonogene (also known as chromatic and continuous phonogenes), a three-track tape recorder and the spatialization desk.4 The studio attracted diverse and important composers: between 1951 and 1953, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez and Olivier Messiaen created concrete pieces there. In 1953 the Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrete de la Radiodiffusion-Television Fran;aise, presided over by Schaeffer, organized the First International Decade of Experimental Music, which took place at UNESCO in Paris between 8 and 18 June. 'Vers une musique experimentale', a special issue of the Revue musicale edited by Schaeffer and devoted entirely to the event, was announced. The final proof, revised and approved by the authors and Albert Richard, editor of the periodical, was ready on 10 July 1953. Richard nevertheless decided to postpone its publication. Four years later, this issue was finally printed, with the addition of Richard's explanations and excuses ('Quatre ans apres. . .')5 and an introduction by Schaeffer, his 'Lettre a Albert