Pierre Schaeffer’s Treatise on Musical Objects and Music Theory
John Dack · 2019
Th e main fault of this book is in fact that it is still the only one.More than six hundred pages devoted to objects weigh down one pan of the scale.To counterbalance it, the author should also have produced a Treatise on Musical Organization of equal weight." 1 Th is statement appears on the fi rst page of the "Penultimate Chapter" of the Treatise.It could be construed as a mitigating disclaimer, although this would be a grave mistake.But we should not forget that the Treatise is a work by Pierre Schaeff er; his prose style, along with the scrupulous care with which he used the French language, is part and parcel of his message.Consequently, the passage must be read within the context of the book and its overall formal plan.I could have begun with another apparently alarming sentence written some eleven years earlier: "It is possible to devote six hundred pages to not saying what one had to say" (659).But neither of these passages is an admission of failure or regret.On the contrary, they represent a deliberate rhetorical strategy.In addition to closely argued sections on linguistics, acoustics, classifi cation, and description, Schaeff er's writing contains many self-eff acing remarks and wry comments on contemporary music (these are oft en directed to "a priori" methods of composition).His language is, therefore, integral to the book's subject matter and its methodology.With commendable honesty Schaeff er acknowledged there are areas where more still needs to be done, but rather than suppressing such sentiments, he identifi es them and invites readers to acknowledge that as far as music is concerned, "making" and "doing" are ongoing processes.1. Pierre Schaeff er, Traité des objets musicaux: Essai interdisciplines (Paris: Seuil, 1977), 663.Subsequent citations of this edition are given parenthetically in the text.