The Classical Music Book

300 ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND MUSIQUE CONCRÈTE

Sounds used in the 12 movements of

Symphonie pour un homme seul

Knocking, shouts, humming, whistling, and wordless

singing.

Mostly someone playing a prepared piano.

Made up of the distorted sounds of an orchestra playing

fragments of a waltz with various voices over the top.

A woman’s voice laughing and purring with pleasure.

Conversational speaking voices played at various speeds

and alternating with detached sounds from the piano.

Relaxed voices over soft, sustained piano chords.

The sound of footsteps alternates with various pitches

from the piano.

Busy clattering sounds with a voice played backward.

Male and female voices repeat lyrical phrases against short

rhythmic ideas on the piano.

Sounds like fragments of a collective prayer against a tense,

percussive accompaniment.

Sounds of knocking on wood and metal.

A loud, eruptive opening, then a summary of what has gone

before, with percussive sounds, crowd noises, and sirens.

1. Prosopopée I


2. Partita


3. Valse


4. Erotica


5. Scherzo


6. Collectif


7. Prosopopée II


8. Eroïca


9. Apostrophe


10. Intermezzo


11. Cadence


12. Strette

The soundtracks and effects

for most programs made by the

BBC were mixed in the control room

at Alexandra Palace, London, until

the early 1950s.

increased to 12 for Henry’s 1966

revision, which has become

accepted as the official version.

The symphony is an explorative

work utilizing recorded sounds

and new techniques in a relatively

simple and also somewhat crude

manner, when compared with

what would later be achieved in

the field of electronic music.

The first and seventh of the 12

movements of Henry’s 1966 revised

version are titled Prosopopée 1

and Prosopopée 2, from the Greek

rhetorical term prosopopeia, in

which a speaker communicates in

the guise of someone else. Other

movements are given musical

terms, such as Valse and Scherzo,

two are evocatively named Erotica

and Eroïca, and a further two—

Collectif and Apostrophe—suggest

verbal exchanges. Strette, the title

of the last and longest movement,

like the Italian term stretto, which

is often used to describe fugues or

operatic finales, indicates a faster

speed or richness of texture as

earlier sounds are reprised.

In his 1952 work, À la recherche

d’une musique concrète (In search

of a Concrete Music), Schaeffer

described the individual nature of

the work and also listed some of its

sonic elements. He declared that a

man could be his own instrument,

using many more than the 12 notes

of the singing voice: “He cries, he

whistles, he walks, he thumps his

fist, he laughs, he groans. His heart

beats, his breathing accelerates,

he utters words, launches calls,

and other calls reply.”

The choreographer Maurice

Béjart, who sensed the further

expressive potential of the

Symphonie, used it as a score for

the dance piece that was also

called Symphonie pour un homme

seul, which he created in 1955. It

was Béjart’s first success and has

been revived several times.

A musical legacy

Although Schaeffer was appointed

professor of electronic composition

at the Paris Conservatoire in 1968,

he composed few works after

1962. He continued, however, to
      pursue a vast range of artistic
      interests and concepts, especially
      creative writing, theoretical studies
      in musique concrète and other
      electronic techniques, and the
      organization and running of groups
      dedicated to the new genres.
      Henry went on to explore the
      medium he had helped to invent
      in collaboration with Béjart, the
      choreographer Alwin Nikolais, his
      fellow composer Michel Colombier,

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