Editing Pierre Schaeffer (section)

== Life ==
=== Early life and education ===
Schaeffer was born in [[Nancy, France|Nancy]] in 1910.<ref name="Schaeffer1"/> His parents were both musicians (his father was a violinist; his mother, a singer),<ref name="Schaeffer3">{{cite web|title=Musique Concrète Revisited |work=Palombini, Carlos 1999: The Electronic Musicological Review |url=http://www.rem.ufpr.br/REMv4/vol4/arti-palombini.htm |access-date=5 December 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081023035425/http://www.rem.ufpr.br/REMv4/vol4/arti-palombini.htm |archive-date=23 October 2008 }}</ref> and at first it seemed that Pierre would also take on music as a career. However, his parents discouraged his musical pursuits from childhood and had him educated in engineering.<ref name="Schaeffer7"/> He studied at several universities in this inclination, the first of which was [[Lycée Saint-Sigisbert]], located in his hometown of Nancy. Afterwards he moved westwards in 1929 to the [[École Polytechnique]] in Paris<ref name="Schaeffer1"/><ref name="Schaeffer4">{{cite web | title= Pierre Schaeffer: Profile on Discogs.com | work= Anonymous/Various, submitted 2003: Discogs.com | url=http://www.discogs.com/artist/Pierre+Schaeffer | access-date=4 December 2008}}</ref><ref name="Schaeffer8"/> and finally completed his education in the capital at the [[École supérieure d'électricité]], in 1934.<ref name="Schaeffer8">{{cite web | title= Pierre Schaeffer Biographie | work= Couprie, Pierre & OLATS 2000 | url= http://www.olats.org/pionniers/pp/schaeffer/biographieSchaeffer.php | access-date= 6 December 2009 | language= fr | archive-date= 10 May 2020 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200510012820/http://www.olats.org/pionniers/pp/schaeffer/biographieSchaeffer.php | url-status= dead }}</ref>

Schaeffer received a diploma in radio broadcasting from the [[École Polytechnique]].<ref name="Schaeffer10"/> He may have also received a similar qualification from the [[École nationale supérieure des télécommunications]], although it is not verifiable as to whether or not he ever actually attended this university.<ref name="Schaeffer10">{{cite web | title= Excerpt from ''Electronic Music, 1948–1953'' | work= Cross, Lowell [unverifiable date]: Forum: Electronic Music and Computer Research | url= http://www.arts.rpi.edu/rolnick/classes/computermusic/Cross%20Article.pdf | access-date= 17 December 2009 | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110717095536/https://www.arts.rpi.edu/rolnick/classes/computermusic/Cross%20Article.pdf | archive-date= 17 July 2011 | df= dmy-all }}</ref>

=== Early experimentation ===
Later in 1934 Schaeffer entered his first employment as an engineer, briefly working in [[telecommunications]] for the Postes et Télécommunications in [[Strasbourg]].<ref name="Schaeffer8"/><ref name="Schaeffer5">{{cite book | title= Excerpt from ''Music of the Twentieth-century Avant-garde'' | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9-M_jhnOuboC&pg=PA432 | access-date=26 December 2008| isbn= 9780313296895 | last1= Sitsky | first1= Larry | year= 2002 | publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref> In 1935 he began a relationship with a woman named Elisabeth Schmitt, and later in the year married her and with her had his first child, Marie-Claire Schaeffer.<ref name="Schaeffer8"/> He and his new family then officially relocated to Paris in 1936 where began his work in radio broadcasting and presentation.<ref name="Schaeffer4"/> It was there that he began to move away from his initial interests in telecommunications and to pursue music instead, combining his abilities as an engineer with his passion for sound. In his work at the station, Schaeffer experimented with records and an assortment of other devices—the sounds they made and the applications of those sounds—after convincing the radio station's management to allow him to use their equipment. This period of experimentation was significant for Schaeffer's development, bringing forward many fundamental questions he had on the limits of modern [[musical expression]].<ref name="Schaeffer4"/>
[[Image:Psconcer.jpg|thumb|right|Pierre Schaeffer presenting the [[Acousmonium]] (1974) that consisted of 80 loudspeakers for tape playback at [[Groupe de Recherches Musicales|GRM]]]]

In these experiments, Pierre tried playing sounds backwards, slowing them down, speeding them up and juxtaposing them with other sounds,<ref name="Schaeffer9"/> all techniques which were virtually unknown at that time.<ref name="Schaeffer4"/> He had begun working with new contemporaries whom he had met through RTF, and as such his experimentation deepened. Schaeffer's work gradually became more [[avant-garde]], as he challenged traditional musical style with the use of various devices and practices. Eventually, a unique variety of electronic instruments—ones which Schaeffer and his colleagues created, using their own engineering skills—came into play in his work, like the [[chromatic phonogene|chromatic, sliding and universal phonogenes]], [[François Bayle]]'s [[Acousmonium]] and a host of other devices such as [[gramaphones]] and some of the earliest [[tape recorders]].<ref name="Schaeffer9">{{cite web |title=''A-Z of Instruments – Other'' |work=The Foundry Creative Media Company Ltd. 2005: sec. 2 |url=http://www.foundry.co.uk/musicfirebox/a-zofinstrumentb.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030422021238/http://www.foundry.co.uk/musicfirebox/a-zofinstrumentb.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 April 2003 |access-date=7 December 2009 |df=dmy-all }} "Musique concrète was an experimental technique that combined pre-recorded sounds natural as well as musical to make musical compositions. Using only the earliest tape recorders, sounds were edited, played backwards and speeded up and down to create fascinating 'sound-scapes'. Pierre Henry was a prolific composer of musique concrète and collaborated with Schaeffer on many compositions. Luciano Berio and Steve Reich are also key figures in musique concrète composition. Karlheinz Stockhausen combined electronic and concrète sounds to become a leader of avant-garde music making."</ref>

=== Beginnings of writing career ===
In 1938 Schaeffer began his career as a writer, penning various articles and essays for the ''Revue Musicale'', a French journal of music. His first column, ''Basic Truths'', provided a critical examination of musical aspects of the time.{{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}

An ardent [[Catholic]], Schaeffer began to write religiously based pieces, and in the same year as his ''Basic Truths'' he published his first novel: ''Chlothar Nicole'' — a short [[Christian novel]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=de Reydellet|first=Jean|date=1996|title=Pierre Schaeffer, 1910–1995: The Founder of "Musique Concrète"|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3681324|journal=Computer Music Journal|volume=20|issue=2|pages=10–11|jstor=3681324|issn=0148-9267}}</ref>

=== Club d'essai and the origin of musique concrète ===
The [[Studio d'Essai]], later Club d'Essai, was founded in 1942 by Pierre Schaeffer at the [[Radiodiffusion Nationale (France)]]. It played a role in the activities of the French resistance during World War II, and later became a center of musical activity.

=== Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète ===
In 1949, Schaeffer met the percussionist-composer [[Pierre Henry]], with whom he collaborated on many compositions, and in 1951, he founded the ''Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète'' ('''GRMC''') in the French Radio Institution.<ref name="120years">{{cite web |url=https://120years.net/the-grm-group-and-rtf-electronic-music-studio-pierre-schaeffer-jacques-poullin-france-1951/ |title=The 'Groupe de Recherches Musicales' Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry & Jacques Poullin, France 1951 |date=26 December 2013 |access-date=2022-02-28}}</ref> This gave him a new studio, which included a [[tape recorder]]. This was a significant development for Schaeffer, who previously had to work with [[phonograph]]s and [[Turntablism|turntables]] to produce music.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Teruggi|first=Daniel|date=2007|title=Technology and musique concrète: the technical developments of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales and their implication in musical composition|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/organised-sound/article/abs/technology-and-musique-concrete-the-technical-developments-of-the-groupe-de-recherches-musicales-and-their-implication-in-musical-composition/8832D40838033A9B6743648DD373DC97|journal=Organised Sound|language=en|volume=12|issue=3|pages=213–231|doi=10.1017/S1355771807001914|s2cid=37881462|issn=1469-8153|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Schaeffer is generally acknowledged as being the first composer to make music using [[magnetic tape]].{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} His continued experimentation led him to publish ''[[À la Recherche d'une Musique Concrète]]'' (French for "''In Search of a Concrete Music''") in 1952, which was a summation of his working methods up to that point. His only opera, ''Orphée 53'' ("''Orpheus 53''"), premiered in 1953.<ref name="120years" />

Schaeffer left the GRMC in 1953 and reformed the group in 1958 as the ''Groupe de Recherche Musicale[s]'' (GRM) (at first without "s", then with "s").

In 1954 Schaeffer founded traditional music label [[Ocora]] ("Office de Coopération Radiophonique") alongside composer, pianist, and musicologist [[Charles Duvelle]], with a worldwide coverage in order to preserve African rural soundscapes. Ocora also served as a facility to train technicians in African national broadcasting services.

Over the years, Schaeffer mentored a number of students who went on to have successful careers, including [[Éliane Radigue]] and the young [[Jean Michel Jarre]], who called his mentor the first [[disc jockey]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Electronic Vibrations: Ein Sound erobert die Welt |language=de |trans-title=Electronic Vibrations: A sound conquers the world |date=2022-10-19 |work=WDR Klassik |publisher=[[Westdeutscher Rundfunk]] |at=8:00-8:50 |url=https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/wdr-klassik/electronic-vibrations/wdr/Y3JpZDovL3dkci5kZS9CZWl0cmFnLWE5ZmY3Y2M3LTRiMDgtNDkwYy04ZmE4LTczNWJiYjBhODQ3YQ |access-date=2022-10-18}}</ref> His last "''étude''" (''study'') came in 1959: the "''Study of Objects''" (''Études aux Objets'').

=== Later life and death ===
Schaeffer became an [[associate professor]] at the [[Paris Conservatoire]] from 1968 to 1980 after creating a "class of fundamental music and application to the audiovisual."<ref name="Schaeffer2"/>

In the aftermath of the [[1988 Armenian earthquake]], the 78-year-old Schaeffer led a 498-member French rescue team to look for survivors in Leninakan, and worked there until all foreign personnel were asked to leave.<ref name=nyt_Dec16>{{cite news|title=As Hope Dies, Quake Rescuers Pull Out|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/16/world/as-hope-dies-quake-rescuers-pull-out.html?pagewanted=all|first=Bill|last=Keller|author-link=Bill Keller|date=December 16, 1988|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=August 10, 2012}}</ref>

Schaeffer suffered from [[Alzheimer's disease]] later in his life, and died from the condition in [[Aix-en-Provence]] in 1995.{{Citation needed|date=August 2015}} He was 85 years old. He is buried in Delincourt in the green Vexin region (55 minutes from Paris) where he used to have his countryside property.{{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}

Schaeffer was thereafter remembered by many of his colleagues with the title, "Musician of Sounds".{{Clarify|date=August 2015}}<!--What is this supposed to mean?-->