Pierre Schaeffer, the Sound Object, and the Acousmatic Reduction
Brian Kane · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2014
Pierre Schaeffer, the inventor of musique concrète, turned to phenomenology when attempting to ground a new field of research known as acousmatics (l’acousmatique). This chapter traces the historical development of Schaeffer’s “sound object” (l’objet sonore) and its relation to the acousmatic reduction. By modelling his research after Husserl’s phenomenology, Schaeffer developed a method for bracketing sounds from their sources and causes, the acousmatic reduction, akin to Husserl’s epoché. The acousmatic reduction permits the differentiation of four primary modes of listening. “Reduced listening” (l’écoute réduite) is identified as the mode appropriate for auditioning the sound object. A sound object is an intentional object whose essential properties can be disclosed through a method of imaginative variation. The connection between Schaeffer’s theory and his later compositions is also discussed. After a thorough exposition of Schaeffer’s phenomenology, three objections to his theory are presented concerning myth, phantasmagoria, and ontology.