1983
Michel Chion's 1983 book, Guide des objets sonores: Pierre Schaeffer et la recherche musicale ("Guide to Sound Objects: Pierre Schaeffer and Musical Research"), is a key text in sound studies. It serves as a clear guide to Pierre Schaeffer's theories on musique concrète and the concept of the "sound object" first presented in Schaeffer's monumental 1966 book, Traité des objets musicaux. While the book is not about Max Neuhaus, it provides a valuable theoretical framework for understanding the philosophical context of Neuhaus's sound art.
About Chion's Guide des objets sonores
- Purpose: Chion's book was written to make Schaeffer's complex and groundbreaking concepts accessible to a wider audience, including musicians, researchers, and sound artists.
- Key concepts: It explains the methodology of working with sound based on Schaeffer's experiments with radio broadcasting and tape manipulation. Chion's work unpacks key concepts from Schaeffer's Traité, including:
- The sound object: A sound perceived as a complete entity, regardless of its source.
- Reduced listening: The practice of listening to a sound for its inherent properties, rather than for the purpose of identifying its source.
- Typology and morphology: Systems for classifying and describing sound objects.
- Relation to Schaeffer: A student of Schaeffer, Chion presents the theories while also moving beyond them. In the book's preface, Schaeffer praises Chion's interpretation, acknowledging that Chion takes his research in new directions.
Connections between Chion's book and Max Neuhaus
While Chion's guide does not explicitly discuss Neuhaus, there is a strong philosophical link between Schaeffer's work and Neuhaus's.
- Shift in focus: Neuhaus's journey from virtuosic concert hall percussionist to sound installation artist involved a similar shift in focus from musical objects to sound objects. He moved from performing composed works to creating sound environments that encouraged listeners to engage in a form of Schaefferian "reduced listening," focusing on the sound itself rather than on traditional musical structures.
- Sound in context: Both Neuhaus and Schaeffer were interested in sound beyond music. Neuhaus's sound installations, such as Times Square, use sound to redefine and engage with the environment, echoing Schaeffer's research into the perception of everyday sound.
- Perceptual awareness: Chion's guide highlights how Schaeffer's work aimed to train listeners to focus on the nuances of sound. This parallels Neuhaus's projects like LISTEN, which encouraged people to pay closer attention to their acoustic environment.