Le Trièdre Fertile

A 7 track musique concrete album (35m 29s) — released June 4th 2012 on Recollection GRM

Recollection GRM is one more label within the Editions Mego family of labels. Its aim is to make available on vinyl from the vast archives of Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). Being released in batches of 2 every 3 months, it will present both known and lesser known works. All releases will be recut at Dubplates & Mastering and be packaged in new artwork by Stephen O'Malley, featuring bi-lingual (French/English) texts. Some of these pioneering works have been out of print in this format for over 30 years, and would be a valuable addition to any serious collection of electronic music.

It worth pointing out that this series is neither a rerun of the original Collection INA-GRM series or the Phillips Prospective 21e Siècle series, but something new altogether.

Le Trièdre Fertile version intégrale 1975-1976, avec la participation de Bernard Dürr.

Ce trièdre, dernière pièce de Schaeffer, fait écho au " trièdre de référence " des physiciens - celui des trois mesures fondamentales du son : fréquence, durée, intensité. A ces trois mesures correspondent d'ailleurs les signes de base du solfège traditionnel qui permettent de noter des hauteurs, des rythmes et des nuances. Or, c'est précisément en dehors, ou au-delà de ces paramètres que Schaeffer a, durant toute sa vie, recherché la musique. Il y a donc, à qualifier de fertile ce trièdre, l'aveu " d'un tardif repentir ".

Cette pièce, d'autre part, a été, contre toute attente, composée uniquement à partir de sons de synthèse, élaborés par Bernard Dürr. C'est la seule oeuvre de musique purement électronique de Pierre Schaeffer. Le synthétiseur est ici dirigé plus par la sensibilité que par les règles de calcul, laissant alors émerger des structures inouïes.


Le Trièdre Fertile full version 1975-1976, with the participation of Bernard Dürr.

This trihedron, Schaeffer's last piece, echoes the physicists "reference trihedron" linked to the three fundamental measurements of sound: frequency, duration and intensity. The basic signs of traditional sol-fa that enable to transcribe pitches, rhythms and nuances also correspond to these three measurements. However, it is precisely outside or beyond these parameters that, all through his life, Schaeffer researched music. Hence, qualifying this trihedron as fertile, is the confession "of a late repentance".

On the other hand, and against all odds, this piece was only composed from synthetic sounds, developed by Bernard Dürr. It is Pierre Schaeffer's only purely electronic music work. Here, the synthesizer is rather monitored by sensitivity than by computation principles, thus letting uncanny structures emerge.

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