MUSIQUE CONCRÈTE

This epithet arose after World War II, in the wake of the development of magnetic audiotape. Sound had previously been recorded on wax cylinder, shellac disc, or magnetic wire, none of which offered the opportunity for neat editing. Tape, by contrast, could be cut with a razor blade, much like film, its loose ends spliced together with a minimum of audible signs. Musique concrète differs from subsequent Electronic Music in drawing only upon the sounds of the world, rather than artificial...