Treatise on Musical Objects

Composer, writer, and electronic engineer Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) was the inventor of musique concrete-music created by combining and manipulating recorded sounds, rather than being played on conventional musical instruments. Christine North is a translator of French poetry and academic texts. John Dack is Senior Lecturer in Music and Technology at Middlesex University.

• The Treatise on Musical Objects and the GRM, by Daniel TeruggiTranslators’ Introduction, by Christine NorthPierre Schaeffer’s Treatise on Musical Objects and Music Theory, by John DackAcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroductory Remarks: The Historical Situation of MusicBook One. Making Music1. The Instrumental Prerequisite2. Playing an Instrument3. Capturing Sounds4. AcousmaticsBook Two. Hearing5. "What Can Be Heard"6. The Four Listening Modes7. Scientific Prejudice8. The Hearing IntentionBook Three. Correlations Between the Physical Signal and the Musical Object9. Ambiguities in Musical Acoustics10. Correlation between Spectra and Pitches11. Threshold and Transients12. Temporal Anamorphoses I: Timbres and Dynamics13. Temporal Anamorphoses II: Timbre and Instrument14. Time and DurationBook Four. Objects and Structures15. Reduction to the Object16. Perceptual Structures17. Comparative Structures: Music and Language18. The Conventional Musical System: Musicality and Sonority19. Natural Sound Structures: Musicianly Listening20. The Reduced Listening System: Musical Dualism21. Musical ResearchBook Five. Morphology and Typology of Sound Objects22. Morphology of Sound Objects23. The Laboratory24. Typology of Musical Objects (I): Classification Criteria25. Typology of Musical Objects (II): Balanced and Redundant Objects26. Typology of Musical Objects (III): Eccentric Sounds27. Working at Our InstrumentBook Six. Theory of Musical Objects28. Musical Experience29. Generalizing Music Theory30. Theory of Homogenous Sounds: Criterion of Mass31. Theory of Fixed Masses: Dynamic Criterion32. Theory of Sustainment33. Theory of Variations34. Analysis of the Musical Object as It Generally AppearsBook Seven. Music as a Discipline35. Implementation36. The Meaning of MusicPenultimate Chapter: In the Search of Music ItselfPostscriptIndex

"[Christine North and John Dack's] English translation is as effective as Schaeffer’s text, which in turn exercises its full correlative power to English readers to the extent that the translators have rendered it."