Pierre Schaeffer Quotes

“Sound is the vocabulary of nature.”

— Pierre Schaeffer

“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

“Noises have generally been thought of as indistinct, but this is not true.”

— Pierre Schaeffer

“The whole problem of the sound-work is distancing oneself from the dramatic.”

— Pierre Schaeffer

“It's ridiculous that time and time again we need a radioactive cloud coming out of a nuclear power-station to remind us that atomic energy is extraordinarily dangerous.”

— Pierre Schaeffer

“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

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

“The world changes materially. Science makes advances in technology and understanding. But the world of humanity doesn't change.”

— Pierre Schaeffer

“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

“Barbarians always think of themselves as the bringers of civilization.”

— Pierre Schaeffer

“First, it doesn't surprise me that traditional music has experienced a kind of exhaustion in the 20th century - not forgetting that many musicians started to look outside the traditional structures of tonality.”

— Pierre Schaeffer

“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

“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

“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

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

“The impressionists, Debussy, Faure, in France, did take a few steps forward.”

— Pierre Schaeffer

“The world has just got more dangerous because the things we use have got more dangerous.”

— Pierre Schaeffer

People who try to create a musical revolution do not have a chance, but those who turn their back to music can sometimes find it.

— Pierre Schaeffer

Sound is the vocabulary of nature ... noises are as well articulated as the words in a dictionary ... Opposing the world of sound is the world of music.

— Pierre Schaeffer

I was horrified by modern 12-tone music. I said to myself, 'Maybe I can find something different ... maybe salvation, liberation, is possible.

— Pierre Schaeffer

I do not want to heap coals of fire on anyone's head, but I would like to advise those who keep the living thought of the dead hidden away in cardboard boxes, to pass on as quickly as possibly such explosive material, whose only legitimate heir is the whole world, that is to say, my neighbor.

— Pierre Schaeffer

Something new has been added, a new art of sound. Am I wrong in calling it music?

— Pierre Schaeffer