Musique concrète (, meaning "concrete music") is a genre of
electroacoustic music that is made in part from
acousmatic sound, or sound without an apparent originating cause. It can feature
sounds derived from recordings of
musical instruments, the
human voice, and the natural environment as well as those created using
synthesizers and computer-based
digital signal processing. Compositions in this idiom are not restricted to the normal musical rules of
melody,
harmony,
rhythm,
metre, and so on. Originally contrasted with "pure"
elektronische Musik (based solely on the production and manipulation of electronically produced sounds rather than recorded sounds), the theoretical basis of
musique concrète as a compositional practice was developed by
Pierre Schaeffer, beginning in the early 1940s.