Pierre Schaeffer - Étude pathétique Listening Report

 

This musical piece starts with percussions and continues with an object spinning on its own axis until it comes to a halt, creating sounds that start slow but then pick up the pace until it loses their momentum. This intro to “Étude pathétique” by Pierre Schaeffer introduces his unique vision of music and what we can identify as music. For him, repetition seems to transform the same sounds into music. After the spinning lid, a sound rises that could be a moving train, maybe a homage to his previous work “etude aux chemins de fer”, a musical piece that consists of only sounds made by a train. The train gets replaced by objects spinning around their axis until coming to a stop. After that, comes an altered version of maybe singing voices. It is not clear what they are singing but it seems to be a short clip that was manipulated and gets repeated rhythmically. For me, here starts the more eerie part of this musical piece. It has a scary atmosphere that reminds me of the sound design of horror films. Additionally, there is a spinning sound going on in the background. It reminds me of a film projector that pushes the film in front of the lens. Besides that, a sound similar to an accordion arises in the background as well, creating for me a soundscape that is similar to music that could be played at a circus attraction. Adding to the almost scary musical scenery. The moving train sounds persist in the background and get accompanied by a new voice-like sound that is shortened and played rhythmically. Schaeffer added different altered voices to create different musical patterns that blend and create “the illusion of music”. For me, he uses different sounds that have different tonal elements to create alternation. Especially the coughing, beginning at 2:20, adds another layer of percussion that is different from the first set. This effect gets repeated shortly after by a sound that is similar to the barking of a dog. In the end, the different parts fade out and the music gets more atmospheric. A spinning object creates a reminder of the compelling structure of this piece and concludes Schaeffner’s Étude pathétique.