La Musique Electroacoustique (review)

La Musique Electroacoustique by the Groupe de Rechèrches Musicales (GRM) <www.hyptique.net>, Paris, France ISBN: 2-914-34200-4.

The history of electroacoustic music is closely bound up with that of the Groupe de Rechèrches Musicales (GRM). The GRM has always been a fervent supporter of that once radical and controversial genre that did away with musical instruments and the score. Since its inception in 1958, the Paris-based organization has developed and promoted the form, creating innovative software, developing new compositional techniques and releasing recordings of key works. Their new CD-ROM, La musique Electroacoustique, retraces the music's history, as well as different trends and techniques. Drawing on the GRM's extensive resources, it constitutes an essential and authoritative introduction to the genre of electroacoustic music.

La musique Electroacoustique makes skillful use of the CD-ROM format's musical and story-telling potential in order to convey the sense of discovery that attended the birth and development of electroacoustic music. Interviews with composers and a lavish selection of photographs bring to life the history of the genre, from its beginnings in 1948 up until the present day: a click of the mouse summons up a black-and-white photograph of Karlheinz Stockhausen taken in December 1965 during the filming of Mikrophonie or the voice of Pierre Henry telling the story of the first public presentation of Symphonie pour un homme seul in 1950, an event that Henry describes as "the birth of a movement and an avant-garde." Extracts from key works, such as Varèse's "Poème Electronique" or Henry's "Variations pour une porte et un soupir," abound. Brief texts outline the various phases in the music's development, transporting the user from the revolution of 1948 and the 1950s to the home studios of the 1990s. Different techniques, such as the use of "abstract sounds" or "instruments and singing" are illustrated by extracts from works by Francois Bayle, Daniel Teruggi and Bernard Parmegiani, while definitions of terms such as "4X" and "ring modulation" are expressed through musical examples and didactic notes. The CD-ROM even mentions techno music, which is based on many of the same principles as musique concrète. Yet, despite its encyclopedic scope, La musique Electroacoustique fails to cover the work of a number of emerging composers who do not subscribe to the GRM's rigorous approach. For, under the aegis of GRM, electroacoustic music has taken an academic turn over the years, shunning outside influences and conforming to compositional rules.

The two other sections of the CD-ROM focus on the music itself. The section entitled "Listening" is intended to enhance the listener's perception of electroacoustic music. Aimed at the more knowledgeable user, it supplies detailed musicological analyses of six works, ranging from Parmegiani's "De natura sonorum: Ondes croises" to Bayle's "La langue inconnue." Here, sonograms and graphic displays make for a fascinating interactive listening experience, which is rounded off by in-depth, if occasionally obtuse, commentaries. The third section is equally innovative: using GRM Tools algorithms, it allows the user to read and record AIFF or WAVE format sound files, which may be supplied by the user or taken from a library of 50 sounds provided with the software. Users can then process the sound files in real time. Like the rest of the CD-ROM, this easily used interface eschews unnecessary frills. One will not find dazzling splashes of color or bizarre animations on this disc, like those on Laurie Anderson's Puppet Motel or IRCAM's recent Prisma; just an unpretentious and engrossing testimony to the richness of electroacoustic music.

Reviewed by Rahma Khazam
3 Rue Poliveau, 75005 Paris, France.
E-mail: <rama@club-internet.fr>.

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