Hugues Dufourt on the Redefinition of Sound in Music

In a 1986 article for Artpress, composer Hugues Dufourt argues that recent advances in acoustics and computer technology have fundamentally redefined the phenomenon of sound, altering the very raw material of music. The piece discusses this transformation alongside figures such as Gérard Grisey, Claude Malherbe, Thierry Lancino, and Philippe Manoury, who are associated with the spectralist movement. Dufourt's statement, 'the raw material of music has changed,' encapsulates the shift toward a scientific understanding of sound as the basis for composition.