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Concepts of Experimental Music Pierre Schaeffer and John Cage a comparison

Simon Kamphans Wormser Str. 51 50677 Kln E-Mail: simon@nomysound.de 2007

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Table of Contents

1. One Label, two concepts an outlook............................................................................. 1 2. Different approaches to 'experimental music' ............................................................... 1 2.1 A terminological review...................................................................................................1 2.2 Pierre Schaeffer's concept of 'experimental music'..........................................................3 2.3 John Cage's concept of 'experimental music'................................................................... 5 3. Emancipation of noise......................................................................................................7 4. Reception of 'experimental music'................................................................................... 8 5. Conclusion....................................................................................................................... 9 6. Bibliography...................................................................................................................11

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1. One Label, two concepts an outlook Cage and Schaeffer contemporary of each other at the beginning of the 21st century differed strongly in their personalities and at the first glance in their compositional styles also. John Cage, coming from an American background, and Pierre Schaeffer, having his roots in Europe, were exponents of 'experimental music' with whom an emancipation of noise in Western music has developed. In the meantime one tends to use the label 'experimental music' quite broadly though this has actually changed over the decades. As Schaeffer and Cage have had a decisive influence on the development of 'experimental music' it will be enlightening to analyze and compare their respective notions of 'experimental music'. What were their concepts of an 'experimental music' and how did they differ? What was their personal musical approach? How did these composers influence each other?

2. Different approaches to 'experimental music' 2.1 A terminological review Before looking for answers to these questions some definitional approaches are to be brought forward. The etymological roots of 'experimental music' can be found in the Latin experimentum which stands for trial or test and is derived from the verb experiri which means to test or to try. This is connected to experience, Latin experientia, which refers the knowledge gained by repeated trials. These trials often reveal some scientific claim1. According to the Handwrterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie2 it is since the late 19th century that the term 'experiment' has been established as an emphatic expression in the field of compositional problems. The word has been used to label an extraordinary, new compositional technique. In this generalising meaning the emphatic term of 'experiment' is often used to describe the work by American composers of the beginning of the 20th century. In the eyes of the American musician and musicologist Vladimir

1 See Online Etymological Dictionary <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php> 2 Handwrterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie, editor: A. Riethmller

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Ussachevsky the act of experimenting and exploring has never been revolutionary for an American composer, for he usually feels quite at home in the undetermined and the new. In the course of the 20th century the term musical 'experiment' has been used more and more naturally in its futuristic meaning. Since 1950 the word is being used in a more scientific way in the compounds: 'experimental music', 'musique exprimentale' and 'experimentelle Musik'. This is due to the increasing influence of scientific notions and methods on musical composition. Under the influence of Pierre Schaeffer and Andr Moles the term soon was used as a generic term for 'musique concrte', 'elektronische Musik' and 'music for tape'. Vladimir Ussachevsky adopted this generic term in the same sense as given by Schaeffer and Moles for the United States in 1958. Christoph von Blumrder states in his article in the Handwrterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie that after 1960 the sense of the term experimental music has been broadened as a consequence of the mixing of its more scientific and more metaphorical approaches. This is also to be found in Frank Mauceri's From experimental music to musical experiment where he writes that the term experimental music today is far less argumentative than 50 years ago. Today, 'experimental music' is characterized as radically new but it is also posited as an historical category, a tradition in its own right3. Looking up this term in the New Grove Dictionary of American Music [a.k.a. NGA] one will find following definition: A tradition of 20th-century musical practice (largely but not exclusively American), the
fundamental characteristic of which is continuing search for radically new modes of composition, music making, and musical understanding. [...] Although experimental music is related to 'coventional' contemporary music, the term is used for a bolder, more individualistic, eccentric, and less highly crafted kind of musical exploration. [...]4.

Problematic about definitions like in the NGA is that they do not characterize a function or a methodology of experimental music but they are trying to define something like a style of music making, a general category that functions in opposition to another gerneral category, 'classical' music5.
3 Mauceri 1997, p. 190. 4 Rockwell 1986. 5 Mauceri 1997, p. 189.

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After this short survey over different definitions of 'experimental music' it is now time to concentrate on the concepts of Pierre Schaeffer and John Cage.

2.2 Pierre Schaeffer's concept of 'experimental music' In the year 1953 Pierre Schaeffer and his colleague Andr Moles proposed 'experimental music' for the First International Decade of Experimental Music6 as a collective term for all electro-acoustic music including 'musique concrte', 'elektronische Musik' and 'music for tape'. Schaeffer saw a scientific meaning in this new technique of composing. Hence he called the sonic material 'matriel exprimental' since it used to be explored and composed in a scientific manner7. Until today the term 'musique exprimentale' is treated in France the same way as Schaeffer and Moles did8. But how did Schaeffer come to his notion of 'experimental music'? For finding an answer to this question one has to go back some time in the life of Pierre Schaeffer. He started as a radio engineer in 1935 and was the head of the radio station in Paris at the end of World War II. Around 1948 he did some researches into noises by experimenting with transforming and combining natural sounds recorded on disks in a way that they were disconnected from the perception of their original source. This counts as the hour of birth of the 'musique concrte'. Musique concrte starts from concrete sound material arranged in such ways that some music emerges from it, as opposed to musique abstraite, which starts from an abstract representation, the score, and is played later.9 Some three years later Schaeffer found himself in a period of reflection.
The label musique concrte started being questioned by Schaeffer: concrete pieces seemed to have the value of experiments, rather than that of accomplished aesthetic products. The notions of

6 The First International Decade of Experimental Music was organized by the Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrte de la Radiodiffusion-Tlvision Franais and held 1953 in Paris. 7 See von Blumrder 1981, p. 10. 8 See ibid. , p. 11. 9 Ricard and Herrera 2004, p. 2.

- S. Kamphans: Concepts of Experimental Music, 2006 'concrete experience in music' and 'experimental method' [...] came to the fore.10

For Schaeffer 'experiment' and 'expression' were two opposites: Experimentation implied, according to his opinion the recognition of the fact that the creator could no longer be sure of how his work would be perceived the listener, of whether or not his message would get across11. Schaeffer's notion of the 'experimental method' originated from him being aware
'[...] that the problems of composition in ['musique concrte'] have been, historically, the point of departure of a musical research of another type, which gives as its authority the experimental method; and, reciprocally, that the choice of a living and complex material that is impervious to analysis, and a mode of composition that could only be executed empirically and by successive approximations, can be characteristic of another type of spirit'12.

The term 'experimental music' should do more in Schaeffer's opinion than being some kind of bridge between different approaches to concrete material13. Schaeffer saw the First International Decade of Experimental Music as a great chance of '[...] gathering as much information as possible on the subject, an bringing together in Paris [...]'14 the important exponents of 'experimental music' with all their different musical approaches. Furthermore he was eager 'to record the existence of a music in process of experimentation, acknowledging its tendencies and comparing results'15. Summing up, Schaeffer wanted the experimental procedure to be applied to the researchers themselves16. In this sense his concept of 'experimental music' suggests an introductory discussion split up in three fields of interest: the concept of musical instruments, notation and the relation between composition and performance, in other words the concert itself. 1958 Schaeffer abjured his term 'musique concrte' as he wanted to detach himself from upcoming aesthetic connotations. But he did not withdraw the term 'experimental music' though it missed its syncretic connotations.

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Palombini 1993, p. 18. Palombini 1993, p. 18. Gobin, 1999, p. 318. See Palombini 1993, pp. 549. Palombini 1993, p. 552. Palombini 1993, p. 552. See Palombini 1993, p. 552.

- S. Kamphans: Concepts of Experimental Music, 2006 In relation to concrete music, experimental music corresponded to the need to generalize the concrete approach, opening it up to new sounds and techniques, reassessing its principles and defining its method. [...] [E]xperimental music implied [for Schaeffer] a shift of priorities: stress was laid on verifying the postulates upon which these pieces were based. [...] Although striving towards the goal of a synthesis, Schaeffer's ideal of experimental music was historically placed amid the concrete/electronic controversy, which lasted from 1950 to 1955.17

A brilliant quote of Schaeffer's to end this chapter on his concept of 'experimental music' would be to mention his interview from 1969 when he described his attitude towards experiments in the compositional process: 'I tell you: I prefer an experiment, even aborted, to a successful uvre'18.

2.3 John Cage's concept of 'experimental music' Like Schaeffer John Cage did not write 'experimental music' right from the beginning of his musical career. He studied music amongst others as student of Arnold Schoenberg, the inventor of twelve-tone-music. Cage had quite a controversial relation to the term 'experimental music'. In the beginning he refused his music to be labelled as 'experimental'. This was because he had thought of the act of composing as a highly rational and especially conscious process and of experiments as sketches made before creating the finished work19. It implied for him that a composer of 'experimental music' had not mastered his job as a composer if he published an unfinished work. But later Cage realized that there is ordinarily an essential difference between making a piece of music and hearing one20. As a consequence of this understanding Cage no longer refused the term 'experimental music' for describing his work. From then on he used it himself to describe all kinds of music he was interested in. His explanation for this was: [...] [T]imes have changed; music has changed; [...] What has happened is that I have become a listener and the music has become something to hear.21
17 18 19 20 21 Palombini 1993, p. 557. Palombini 1993, p. 542. See Cage 1961, p. 7. Cage 1961, p. 7. Cage 1961, p. 7.

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As noted in Chapter 2.1 a well established definition of 'experimental music' implied something new against something old this was especially the case with the American composers and theorists22. Cage's thinking was quite attached to this: 'It must be very difficult for you in Europe to write [experimental] music, for you are so close to the centers of tradition'23. Nevertheless he confessed to the European influence on 'experimental music' by both Futurism and Dada24. At some point Cages concept of 'experimental music' was quite close to Schaeffer's as he demanded [...] centers of experimental music must be established. In these centers, the new materials, oscillators, turntables, generators, means for amplifying small sounds, film phonographs, etc., [are] available for use25. According to Christoph von Blumrder this is also confirmed by Cage in one of his other texts about percussion music of those days. There Cage combines the term 'experimental' with the posit to extend the field of sounds for percussion compositions by experimenting with all kinds of sound material26. However Cage did not bear the exact scientific experiment in mind:

Im Gegensatz zum Begriff des exakten [naturwissenschaftlichen] Experimentes das stets zur Kontrolle eines bislang Unbekannten aufgrund rationaler Druchdringung verhelfen soll, versteht Cage im Anschlu an die etymologische Wurzel [(See Chapter 2.1)] , (gewagtes) Unternehmen mit ungewissem Ausgang unter ,experimental das [musikalisch] Zufllige, Unerwartete, Ungeordnete.27

Cage visibly turned against rationality as a basis for composing 'experimental music'28. Soon he finally took away the systematic and theoretical demand from the term 'experiment' and defined it now in a more metaphorical way: It just described an act the outcome of which is unknown29. This definition Cage gave during his lectures at the 'Internationale Ferienkurse fr Neue Musik' in Darmstadt 1958. Further steps forward followed by excluding any mental idea of an 'experimental action' to be as close as
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 See Mauceri 1997, pp. 190. Cage 1961, p. 73. See Mauceri 1997, p. 191. Cage 1961, p. 6. See von Blumrder 1981, p. 15. Von Blumrder, p. 15. See Danuser 1991, p. 97. Cage 1961, p. 13.

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possible to nature:

An [experimental] action, generated by a mind as empty as it was before it became one, thus in accord with the, possibility of no matter what, is. . . practical. It does not move in terms of approximations and errors, as 'informed' action by its nature must, for no mental images of what would happen were set up beforehand; it sees things directly as they are: impermanently involved in an infinite play of interpretations. Experimental music [...].30

Cage's new concept was due to his personal philosophy that was inspired by ZenBuddhism. It culminated in his principle of Indeterminism which meant that there are only indetermined pieces of sound without superordinate relations. According to this Cage posited that a composer of 'experimental music' has to remove himself from the activities of the sounds. Thus Cage sees the evolvement of chance operations as the basic scheme for compositions and moreover for the concepts of 'experimental music':
Among those actions the outcome of which are not foreseen, actions resulting from chance operations are useful. However, more essential than composing by means of chance operations, it seems to me now, is composing in such a way that what one does is indeterminate of its performance.31

To sum up John Cage's point of view and his metaphorical notion of 'experimental music' it is the best to do it with his own words:
[...] [Writing music is] a purposeful purposelessness or a purposeless play. This play, however, is an affirmation of life not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living, which is so excellent once one gets one's mind and one's desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord.32

3. Emancipation of noise
30 Cage 1961, p. 15. 31 Cage 1961, p. 69. 32 Cage 1961, p. 12.!!!!!!!!!

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With what materials does one make music? This central question concerned both Cage and Schaeffer in their musical reflection. Both of them, too, were engaged in researches into noise. In the late 1930s Cage explored the field of sound including tone and noise. After World War II the young European composers dealt with Cages researches33. Schaeffer started his noise experiments in 1948 which showed him how useful sampled sounds could become as compositional material: Ich komme ins Studio, um ,Gerusche sprechen zu lassen, das Maximum aus einem ,dramatischen Klangdekor herauszuholen und dabei stoe ich auf die Musik34. Thus every sound that can be imagined is suitable as a musical sound. There is no reason to exclude certain sounds a priori since it does not matter which characteristics they exhibit35. As a result of this Schaeffer composed the tude aux chemins de fer and other studies. According to Cage noise is omnipresent in our daily lives. When we listen to noise we are fascinated and feel somehow attracted to it. Moreover he claimed that [...] the use of noise to make music will continue and increase [...]36. He had an itch to control noises and to use them as musical instruments rather than using them as sound effects. Both composers longed for new musical instrument. Each of them experimented more or less a the same time with the preparation of classical instruments as Schaeffer reported:
'John Cage for his part had discovered the prepared piano. Although expressly owing him nothing at all, since the same discovery was made more or less simultaneously by ourselves with our own means, we could be grateful to him for establishing a link between the traditional music language and a possible [langue] of concrete sonic objects. [...]'37.

For Schaeffer the prepared instruments led to a liberation to an emancipation of noise. But he saw the inherent problem that this approach still reminded of the traditional compositional processes as it were traditional instruments like pianos or violins which were prepared38. Cage had a wider notion of the emancipation of noise. He regarded every sound
33 34 35 36 37 38 See Danuser 1991, p. 93. Schaeffer 1974, p 21. See Stockhausen 1963, p. 35. Cage 1961, p. 3. Palombini 1993, p. 548. See Schaeffer 1974, p. 22.

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no matter if a traditional musical tone (or even a whole chord) or a noise from our daily environment as equal to the other sounds: It goes without saying that dissonances and noises are welcome in this new music. But so is the dominant seventh chord if it happens to put in an appearance39.

4. Reception of 'experimental music' All these new concepts of music required also new concepts of reception. Hence Schaeffer posed the question about the 'what' in that which we hear in experimental sound material. Going one step further he also asked about the role of conditioning for our musical reception. For Schaeffer it was indisputable that our ears are conditioned by our educational process and our socialization. Therefore the way we hear is always 'informed' by all kinds of prejudices and preconditioned by education40. One cannot listen to 'experimental music' applying the same standards as for traditional music. Therefore he introduced his idea of the sound object41 to train the ear to listen in a new way: this requires that the conventional listening habits imparted by education first be unlearned42. After having unlearned those listening conventions one is ready for perceiving 'experimental music' by the technique of 'reduced listening' which is
attitude of listening to a sound object essentially without concern for its causes and, indeed, temporarily ignoring them (in more habitual listening, a sound serves generally as both an intermediary for the object to which it refers and a reflection of the event of its creation). In this attitude, the sonorous phenomenon takes a new dimension, that of a [sound object]43.

Cage as well proposed a new listening for a new music 44. In general, for Cage hearing is a
39 Cage 1961, p. 11. 40 Schaeffer 1966 41 Schaeffer defined a sound object as a sound phenomenon or any piece of sound that is perceived as a unity independent from its origin or meaning. 42 Schaeffer online Solfge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 43 Gobin 1999, p. 318. 44 See Cage 1961, p. 10.

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very individual process accomplished by individual emotions aroused by the former. His idea of a new reception was not intended to be an attempt to understand something that is being said, for, if something were being said, the sounds would be given the shapes of words. [He postulated] [j]ust an attention to the activity of sounds45. There can actually be stated a consensus between Schaeffer and Cage in their posit for a new concept of perception. Schaeffer worked his ideas out in detail in his Solfege de l'objet Sonore (1966).

5. Conclusion The fact that John Cage and Pierre Schaeffer both were advocates of the emancipation of noise in music and the both posited a new listening approach to music shows that they were quite close to each other, though coming from quite different backgrounds concerning culture and profession. Of course there are nevertheless differences in their concepts of 'experimental music' which cannot be ignored. Schaeffer as a radio engineer had a more scientific approach to music. He used the term 'experimental music' as a compound. Schaeffer's aim was a close relation between research and practical music. John Cage was a musician and composer who had studied music. Important for his concept was his personal turn of becoming a listener. After some time of doubts he applied the term 'experimental music' to new music which he liked. Cage was against a rational approach and represented a metaphorical definition of 'experimental music' where chance plays an important role. Although these two composers never got into direct contact with each other they however had quite some influence on each other. Cage's researches into noises from the 1930s were a kind of role model for Schaeffer's research in the late 1940s. Cage complimented Schaeffer on his experimentation and development in the field of magnetic tape which offered endless possibilities for the producers of 'experimental music'46.

45 Cage 1961, p. 10. 46 Cage 1961, p. 8-9.

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6. Bibliography Primary literature CAGE, JOHN. 1961. Silence. Lectures and Writings. Middletown, Connecticut : Wesleyan University Press. SCHAEFFER, PIERRE.1974. Musique Concrte. Von den Pariser Anfngen um 1948 bis zur elektroakustischen Musik heute. Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Verlag. SCHAEFFER, PIERRE. [1966]. Solfge de l'objet sonore. In: Solfge de l'objet sonore de Pierre Schaeffer et Guy Reibel. Nouvelle dition 1998. Secondary literature BLUMRDER, CHRISTOPH VON. 1981. Experiment, experimentelle Musik. Eggebrecht, Hans Heinrich (ed.) Handwrterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1972ff. DANUSER, HERMANN. 1991. Rationalitt und Zufall John Cage und die experimentelle Musik in Europa. Welsch, Wolfgang, and Christine Pries (eds.). sthetik im Widerstreit. Interventionen zum Werk von Jean-Franois Lyotard. Weinheim: VCH Verlagsgesellschaft. 91-105. GOBIN, PASCAL. 1999. Sound Material: A New Reception. Leonardo 3.4: 317-323. MAUCERI, FRANK X. 1997. From experimental music to musical experiment. Perspectives of new music. 35.1: 187-204. PALOMBINI, CARLOS. 1993 (1) Pierre Schaeffer 1953: Towards an experimental music. Music&Letters 74.1: 542-557. PALOMBINI, CARLOS. 1993 (2) Machine Songs V: Pierre Schaeffer From Research into Noises to Experimental Music. Computer Music Journal 17.3: 14-19. RICARD, JULIEN, AND PERFECTO HERRERA. 2004. Morphological sound decription: computational model and usability evaluation. Sept. 4, 2006. <www.iua.upf.es/mtg/publications/AES116-jricard.pdf > ROCKWELL, JOHN. 1986. Experimental Music. Hitchcock, H. Wiley, and Stanley Sadie (eds.). New Grove Dictionary of American Music. London: MacMillan Press Limited. Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1958. Arbeitsbericht 1952/53: Orientierung." structure [Amsterdam] no. 1 (1958). repr. in Stockhausen, Karl Aufstze 1952-1962 zur Theorie des 11

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Komponierens. Schnebel, Dieter (ed.). Kln: M. DuMont Schauberg (Texte zur elektronischen und instrumentalen Musik; 1) 1963: 32-38.

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