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Aided by Pierre Janin, in the first part Schaeffer recounts his experiments with sound, from musique concrète to recherche musicale. This is often done through quotation of and commentary on his own texts, which not seldom appear abridged and rephrased. Aided by David Rissin, Luc Ferrari and Edgardo Canton, in the second part Schaeffer comments on the works of composers he deems representative of the concrete demarche. The freshness and vigor of such early writings as "Verités premières" (1938), "Technique et esthétique des arts-relais" (1941), "Esthétique et technique des arts-relais" (1941), "Notes sur l'expression radiophonique" (1946) and "Introduction à la musique concrète" (1950) as well as the dilacerating contradictions of Traité des objets musicaux (1966) are absent from La musique concrète, whose whole enterprise seems to be one of generalization and institutionalization. The fact that this is as much a title by Schaeffer as it is a title on him constitutes the book's greatest strength, and its greatest weakness too. An updated version appeared in 1973.

Table of Contents
 

Introduction		5
First Part:	Itinerary from the Concrete to the Experimental
Chapter I	The Concrete Adventure	9
Chapter II	The Finds of 1948	18
Chapter III	The Concrete Flash of Inspiration (1953--57)	25
Chapter IV	Music Research	33
Chapter V	Practical Work	42
Chapter VI	The Musical Discipline	52
Second Part:	Authors and Works
Chapter I	Three Precursors: Varèse, Cage, Messiaen	61
Chapter II	Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry	68
Chapter III	Boulez, Xenakis, Stockhausen	81
Chapter IV	Three Foreign Schools	86
Chapter V	America	93
Chapter VI	The Paris School (1951--58)	100
Chapter VII	The Paris School (1958--60)	104
Chapter VIII	The Paris School (1960--67)	114
Short Bibliography		125
Short Discography		126
Table of Contents		128

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