step in the formal isolation of the object of attention. But I will also propose that the voice, as Barthes pursues it, is located beyond the acousmatic scenario, or rather that the voice is posited as formally unlocatable in the phenomenal field and as an object that will always be lacking, that no discourse can exhaust. This will entail an initial discussion of Schaeffer’s work, before returning to Barthes, and to an example close to his heart, the episode of the grandmother’s telephone call in Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu. Working from the 1950s at the State offices of Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française with the and then the Groupe de recherche de musique concrète Groupe de the protean musicologist, composer and engineer Pierre recherches musicales, Schaeffer sought, in his voluminous (1966) to refound the Traité des objets musicaux study of music, indeed the very notion of the musical object, in the light of the advances in technology and composition brought about by the development of recording and inscription techniques and by the innovations of concrete and experimental music. Intending an cartésienne” (which he would later relate to “ascèse the Husserlian and in order to l’objet sonore,” Schaeffer proposed époché) “recueillir a methodological shift to what he called écoute acousmatique.” In a key “[une] section of the Schaeffer cites the Larousse definition of the word as referring Traité, to bruit que l’on entend sans voir les causes dont il provient” (Schaeffer 91). He “un was picking up on a suggestion on the part of Jérôme Peignot in a 1960 essay in for a more appropriate name for concrète.” The etymology of the Esprit “musique term both Peignot and Schaeffer remark, refers us to the disciples of “acousmatique,” Pythagoras who listened to his voice from behind a curtain, in silence, in order better to attend to his teaching. Contemporary telecommunications technology reproduces the conditions of this mythical and sacred tradition and à l’ouïe seule “[restitue]
step in the formal isolation of the object of attention. But I will also propose that the voice, as Barthes pursues it, is located beyond the acousmatic scenario, or rather that the voice is posited as formally unlocatable in the phenomenal field and as an object that will always be lacking, that no discourse can exhaust. This will entail an initial discussion of Schaeffer’s work, before returning to Barthes, and to an example close to his heart, the episode of the grandmother’s telephone call in Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu. Working from the 1950s at the State offices of Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française with the Groupe de recherche de musique concrète and then the Groupe de recherches musicales, the protean musicologist, composer and engineer Pierre Schaeffer sought, in his voluminous Traité des objets musicaux (1966) to refound the study of music, indeed the very notion of the musical object, in the light of the advances in technology and composition brought about by the development of recording and inscription techniques and by the innovations of concrete and experimental music. Intending an “ascèse cartésienne” (which he would later relate to the Husserlian époché) and in order to “recueillir l’objet sonore,” Schaeffer proposed a methodological shift to what he called “[une] écoute acousmatique.” In a key section of the Traité, Schaeffer cites the Larousse definition of the word as referring to “un bruit que l’on entend sans voir les causes dont il provient” (Schaeffer 91). He was picking up on a suggestion on the part of Jérôme Peignot in a 1960 essay in Esprit for a more appropriate name for “musique concrète.” The etymology of the term “acousmatique,” both Peignot and Schaeffer remark, refers us to the disciples of Pythagoras who listened to his voice from behind a curtain, in silence, in order better to attend to his teaching. Contemporary telecommunications technology reproduces the conditions of this mythical and sacred tradition and “[restitue] à l’ouïe seule