Pierre Schaeffer quotes

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Take a sound from whatever source, a note on a violin, a scream, a moan, a creaking door, and there is always this symmetry between the sound basis, which is complex and has numerous characteristics which emerge through a process of comparison within our perception.
Pierre Schaeffer
Perception
Sound
Noises have generally been thought of as indistinct, but this is not true.
Pierre Schaeffer
Thought
The world changes materially. Science makes advances in technology and understanding. But the world of humanity doesn't change.
Pierre Schaeffer
Change
Science
Technology
Humanity
Understanding
World
People who share the same language, French or Chinese or whatever, have the same vocal cords and emit sounds which are basically the same, as they come from the same throats and lungs.
Pierre Schaeffer
People
Language
Sound is the vocabulary of nature.
Pierre Schaeffer
Nature
Sound
Vocabulary
The impressionists, Debussy, Faure, in France, did take a few steps forward.
Pierre Schaeffer
France
Morally, the world is both better and worse than it was. We are worse off than in the middle ages, or the 17th and 18th centuries, in that we have the atomic menace.
Pierre Schaeffer
World
The moment at which music reveals its true nature is contained in the ancient exercise of the theme with variations. The complete mystery of music is explained right there.
Pierre Schaeffer
Music
Nature
Exercise
Mystery
Right
The only hope is that our civilization will collapse at a certain point, as always happens in history. Then, out of barbarity, a renaissance.
Pierre Schaeffer
History
Civilization
Hope
Will
The whole problem of the sound-work is distancing oneself from the dramatic.
Pierre Schaeffer
Sound
The world has just got more dangerous because the things we use have got more dangerous.
Pierre Schaeffer
World
Barbarians always think of themselves as the bringers of civilization.
Pierre Schaeffer
Civilization
In contrast, traditional classical music starts from an abstract musical schema. This is then notated and only expressed in concrete sound as a last stage, when it is performed.
Pierre Schaeffer
Music
Contrast
Sound
I'm very aware of what you're talking about as I was involved with the radio in Africa in the same period as I was doing Concrete - I was doing both at the same time.
Pierre Schaeffer
Time
Talking
Has it struck you that the music which is regarded as the most sublime in western civilization, which is the music of Bach, is called baroque?
Pierre Schaeffer
Music
Civilization