L'Oeuvre Musicale

Finally available again, the complete works compilation of the groundbreaking work by the electronic music pioneer; released in collaboration between INA-GRM in France & EMF in the U.S..

"This 3-CD package is the definitive and complete collection of Pierre Schaeffer's musical works, beginning with the first of his musique concrète compositions, continuing with the collaborations with Pierre Henry, and concluding with Schaeffer's late works from the 1970s. In 1948, Pierre Schaeffer, then a radio engineer at Radiodiffusion Française, took a radio sound truck out to Batignolles, near Paris, to record railroad locomotives. He used those sounds in a sound collage called 'Etude aux Chemins de Fer' ('Railroad Study') and then named his new approach 'musique concrète'. He composed four other sound collages in 1948, using thin-metal instruments, wooden percussion, and two whirligigs ('Etude aux Tourniquets'), an orchestra tuning up ('Etude pour Orchestre'), noises derived from a piano that is played in a variety of ways ('Etude au Piano'), and pots, pans and voices ('Etude aux Casseroles'). The five compositions were then broadcast from Paris on October 5, 1948 as a 'Concert of Noises,' and the broadcast was so successful, and evoked such widespread interest, that Schaeffer was granted an assistant.

Pierre Henry worked with Schaeffer from 1949 to 1957. Their first collaboration was 'Symphonie pour un Homme Seul' ('Symphony for One Man Alone'), which was eventually used by Maurice Bejart in a 1955 performance by his dance company. Their next major collaborations were 'Orphee' and 'Orphee 53.' One of the special surprises to be found in these recordings is Pierre Henry's 'Echo d'Orphee, pour P. Schaeffer,' composed in 1988 as an homage to Pierre Schaeffer. Henry referred to it as a 'patchwork (of the existing) 'fragments' from 'Orphee' ('Orpheus 51 and 53,' a 1950 collaboration between the two composers) ... conceived in your style rather than mine ... a magnetic present.'

These discs also include Schaeffer's works from the late 1950s and 1970s, some of them revisions of his early music, some of them technically improved, some of them reworked and shortened. You'll also find an extensive and informative booklet in French and English, with essays and tributes by Schaeffer's colleagues (among them François Bayle, Michel Chion, François Weyergans, and Jean-Christophe Thomas), a history, bibliography, excerpts from his books, letters, and photographs. It's a rich collection of material.

Schaeffer was one of those people who changed the world, and this package will give you a good idea of how it happened.