Like many of the pioneers of electronic music, Schaeffer was not a musician. He received his diploma from L'Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, and did an apprenticeship at the Radiodiffusion- Television Francaises (RTF) which led to a full time job as an engineer and broadcaster. He was a member of the French resistance during the occupation of France by the Germans. He also was a writer and biographer. ...

Schaeffer chose to name his new art musique concrete to differentiate it from normal music, musique abstraite.

Music concrete was recorded directly to tape with real (concrete) sounds , while musique abstraite was the traditional way of composing by writing down the score to be played later.

Music Concrete was based on manipulation of tape. (Although the first research involved phonograph records, eventually tape technology became more available , and with it the possibilities of splicing and pasting parts together versus a non-re-recordable fixed format). It also concentrated on 'found sounds' or natural recordings rather than electronically produced sounds such as created by synthesizers.

Pieces that would last only a few minutes could take months of recording, cutting and splicing to create....