From Wire to Computer: Francis Dhomont at 80

Francis Dhomont (see Figure 1), a pioneer in electro-acoustic music, is renowned internationally for his compositions—attested by numerous awards and prizes including the Magisterium Prize at Bourges (1988) and the Prix Ars Electronica (1992). Mr. Dhomont (b. 1926, Paris) recently retired to Avignon, in his native France, after a long sojourn in Montreal, Canada, where his work and teaching had a profound influence on the development of the local world of electroacoustic music. In particular, his scrutiny of Pierre Schaeffer's work and his own experiments in the earliest days of musique concrète resulted in a favored place for the development of acousmatic music in Montreal.

This interview was conducted initially during the Electroacoustic Music Studies 2005 conference (EMS-05) in Montreal, where Mr. Dhomont was the keynote speaker. It was subsequently completed through electronic mail correspondence, and then translated from French by the interviewer.

[Editor's note: Audio examples of Francis Dhomont's music will appear on the disc accompanying the next issue of Computer Music Journal (Vol. 30, No. 4). A list of electroacoustic compositions by Mr. Dhomont is shown in Table 1, and a discography and more information are available at the following Web site: www.electrocd.com/bio.f/dhomont_fr.html.]

Rosemary Mountain: I remember that the first time I actually met you, at the Canadian Electro-acoustic Community (CEC) conference in Banff in 1989, I said that although it seemed that everyone was moving toward synthesizers and computers, I still preferred musique concrète, and you said "Me too!" I was very reassured! But it's interesting that we are doing this interview for Computer Music Journal, because in the old days, musique concrète was considered quite distinct from computer music.

Francis Dhomont: One can produce musique concrète with any medium; despite the fact that it's made with computers, it's still musique concrète. It used to be tape recorders—it was always done with a support medium. Pierre Schaeffer used the flexible disks with needles . . . that was the first thing. I started around the same time as him—without knowing him—but I worked with a Webster sound recorder (an American brand) with a magnetic wire. It was a wire made of very thin steel. I had a roll of it. It sat over at the side, I would pull some out, and then I would record on it. Magnetic wire had been invented a long time prior by Valdemar Poulsen, and this Webster was meant for businesspeople—an early kind of Dictaphone. I found it in the years just after the war; the Americans came over not only with guns but also with recorders! The uncle of one of my friends had one; he worked with an American firm. I experimented a bit with it and thought it quite fantastic. So I started working with one, making musique concrète, without knowing that musique concrète already existed.

Mountain: When would this have been?

Dhomont: Let's see, it would have been between 1946 and 1948. I would have been 20–22 years old. At the time, I was an instrumental composer.

Mountain: What was your instrument?

Dhomont: I didn't really have an instrument. Well, of course I played a bit of piano, but I started too late. I began the piano at a very early age, then I stopped, and I began again when I was 15, but without any intention of becoming a performer; I was interested in composition. Of course, I would play a bit with my friends—some jazz—I played some trumpet, some trombone, but I wasn't a competent instrumentalist.

Mountain: Did you know any electroacoustic or electronic composers at the time you discovered this invention?

Dhomont: No.

Mountain: So it was the technology—its potential for recording things—that attracted you.

Figure 1.

Francis Dhomont in Paris, 2001. (Photo: Florence Gonot.)

Dhomont: Exactly. The possibility of recording was fantastic! It was quite a discovery—although it was not easy; there were a few studios around, but still . . . Now...