ABSTRACT
Abraham Moles was fascinated by electronic music because it worked directly with the materials of sound production, providing composers with seemingly unfettered opportunities to forge sounds according to whatever psychological effect was prescribed. Moles’ approach to analyzing the psychological effects of musical sound began by objectifying the components of sound and, by implication, the audio materials that a composer could manipulate. Pierre Schaeffer combined sounds that he recorded himself with material from sound effects records and recordings of musical sounds from Bali and America. Schaeffer and Pierre Henry gave the name musique concrete to the material and their work led to a growing institutional interest in electronic music and the establishment of electronic music studios around the world. Schaeffer invested much energy establishing a rigid set of criteria for musique concrete. Schaeffer’s list of recording and editing techniques for the Etudes de bruits read like the lesson plan for an electronic music clinic.
