François Bayle

Listening Guide. Morphing Sound. François Bayle (b. 1932, Madagascar/Paris), It (excerpt from chapter 3, 1968)

Bayle was student of Messiaen, Schaeffer and Stockhausen, and head of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales for electronic music for three decades from 1966-97. In this excerpt from It, spoken words “We did it again” (by Robert Wyatt) are distorted and (among many other forms of sonic manipulation) are synchronized to a regular beat and to the pitch interval of a major second. Static noises are varied timbrally, giving a sense of change in the distance of the sonic object as well as expansion and contraction.