Description
When musique concrète first hit the airwaves, listeners reached for their earplugs. This strange genre didn't sound like music at all! It ignored melody and meter. It didn't even use instruments. Instead, musique concrète took recorded sound as its raw material. That could be anything from trundling trains to clattering saucepans. Using audio tape and phonograph records, composers manipulated these sounds, reassembling them into abstract works that felt like they came from an alien world.
While this weird genre was never a popular hit, it opened up a whole new vocabulary of studio techniques, influencing everyone from Frank Zappa to The Who. Its impact even spread as far as The Beatles, inspiring their eight-and-a-half-minute musique concrète extravaganza 'Revolution 9'.
In this book, author Christian Kriticos traces the beguiling history of musique concrète, from the 1940s into the 21st century, focusing on the eccentric characters who spearheaded the genre. He shows how these maverick composers anticipated techniques used in hip-hop, mashups, plunderphonics and ambient music. In this way, he argues that the influence of musique concrète can still be heard everywhere, even if you've never stopped to listen for it…
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Halim El-Dabh and the first of the concrete pioneers
A concrete pairing: Halim El-Dabh and The Tornados
Chapter 2: Pierre Schaeffer and the age of the manifesto
A concrete pairing: Pierre Schaeffer and Grandmaster Flash
Chapter 3: Pierre Henry and the Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète
A concrete pairing: Pierre Henry and Imogen Heap
Chapter 4: Iannis Xenakis and the 1958 Brussels World's Fair
A concrete pairing: Iannis Xenakis and Björk
Chapter 5: Luc Ferrari and the Groupe de Recherches Musicales
A concrete pairing: Luc Ferrari and Brian Eno
Chapter 6: Tod Dockstader and the sound hobbyists
A concrete pairing: Tod Dockstader and The Who
Chapter 7: Karlheinz Stockhausen and mainstreaming the avant-garde
A concrete pairing: Karlheinz Stockhausen and The Beatles
Chapter 8: The Beatles and Revolution 9
A concrete pairing: The Beatles and The Avalanches
Chapter 9: Bernard Parmegiani and acousmatic music
A concrete pairing: Bernard Parmegiani and The Prodigy & Public Enemy
Chapter 10: Beatriz Ferreyra and the last of the concrete legends
A concrete pairing: Beatriz Ferreyra and The Beatles
Epilogue: Whatever happened to musique concrète?
Ten Essential Tracks
Acknowledgments
Product details
| Published | 01 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 176 |
| ISBN | 9798765123331 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Series | Genre: A 33 1/3 Series |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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