Chaotic mappings: On the ground with music

This chapter explores the innovative approach to musical research undertaken by the French pioneer of musique concrète, Pierre Schaeffer, it shows how Schaeffer's humanistic modernism can be understood in the light of the post-structural critique offered in the works by Deleuze that were published in the years following Schaeffer's magnum opus, the Traité des objets musicaux. Schaeffer claimed to be developing a musical interdiscipline between the boundaries of composition, instrument building, musicology, physics, psychology, phenomenology and linguistics; an endeavour prefiguring interdisciplinary research in urban ambiences and sonic effects led by Augoyard. The term 'sound effect' has several uses in Schaeffer's lexicon that all link to the idea of an effect as a relationship that forms a type of listener or listening and a certain listening context. Schaeffer's first engagement with sound effects was with a collection of sound-making devices used to illustrate the scenes of radio drama production with which he hoped to develop his first concrete musical compositions.