A Concrète Musician
by Pierre Schaeffer |imed_9523-0001|
To begin with, Michel Chion is a
concrète musician. The signs of a concrète art for me are now very clear.
Such a musician mistrusts machines, especially electronic instruments, even
if he uses them. He first of all has an ear before he has buttons to turn. He
listens to the depths of natural sounds and learns from them. Finally, he has
a taste for the Word.
The trait of the poet is infrequent among musicians and, beyond words and
ideas, a preference for images and myths. Hear words are at work in this
music, the very resource of language. Not simply words cut up into pieces
according to the idiotic fashion of creating ‘sound material.’
But signifying words.
In opposition to the needy musician who searches madly for a worn-out
text, Michel Chion demands
that the word from time to time be the deliverer of sound. After all, sound,
proposed as a parable, usually recounts a genesis, the causal engendering of
phenomena. What good does it do to gape before it in frivolous compliance or
resignation? How can one not break the mechanical discourse and, if needed,
force it to take on a human meaning?
Pierre Schaeffer,
Paris (France), October 10th, 1984 [x-84]
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