Reading about Pierre Schaeffer, founder of musique concrete, and his ideas of acousmatics and the sonorous object.

a) The sonorous object is not the instrument that was played.  b) The sonorous object is not the magnetic tape.  c) The magnetic tape can contain a number of different sonorous objects.  d) But the sonorous object is not a state of mind.  Sonorous objects can be clearly described and analyzed.

Listen to this recording.  Do you hear sonorous objects?  Do the sonorous objects have any reference beyond themselves?  To how they were made?  To other things that come to your mind when you listen?  It is called Untitled A, because otherwise I cannot think how to give a title to a recording unless it either 1) refers to how it was made, 2) refers to something it reminds me of, or 3) is just whimsical nonsense.  Schaeffer believed that the sonorous objects can be clearly described and analyzed.  I wonder why I’d want to do that.  I’d rather just listen.

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