# Pierre Schaeffer — Étude aux chemins de fer

Pierre Schaeffer’s Étude aux chemins de fer (1948) is No. 1 in our Musique Concrète ranking. The full verdict, and where to hear it.

- **Released:** 1948
- **On one list:** Musique Concrète
- **Updated:** 2026-08-30
- **Artist:** [Pierre Schaeffer](https://waxonia.com/artist/pierre-schaeffer/)
- **Canonical page:** https://waxonia.com/track/pierre-schaeffer--etude-aux-chemins-de-fer/

## What we say

### No. 1 in [Musique Concrète](https://waxonia.com/genre/musique-concrete/)

Six locomotives, cut and looped on shellac discs. The first piece of music made entirely from recordings of things, and the founding act of everything sample-based that followed.

## Analysis

4 sections, the first drop of 4 at 0:09, 5% of the way in, 30% of it spent climbing.

- **Tempo:** 152 BPM — holds throughout
- **Dynamic range:** 12.5 dB — wide open — the quiet parts are genuinely quiet
- **Length:** 2:53

- `0:00` A · **build**, instrumental — energy and brightness climbing without a break — playing: drums
- `0:52` A · **peak** (bar 33), instrumental — sits at the top of this record's range — playing: other
- `1:32` B · **breakdown** (bar 59), instrumental — energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning — playing: other
- `2:22` C · **outro** (bar 90), instrumental — the closing fall — playing: other

**Drops** at 0:09 (bar 6), 1:22 (bar 52), 2:16 (bar 86), 2:45 (bar 105). A drop is a moment, not a stretch.

**What is playing.** Separated into parts by a source-separation model, so each lane is the instrument it names.

- **drums:** the drum kit, separated from the mix
- **bass:** the bass part, separated from the mix
- **vocals:** the voice, separated from the mix
- **other:** everything else — synths, guitars, keys, strings

Measured from the YouTube master on 2026-08-29. Section labels describe how the energy
moves, not musical form. Anything we were not confident enough to state is omitted
rather than hedged.

## Listen

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Pierre%20Schaeffer%20%C3%89tude%20aux%20chemins%20de%20fer) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ioMr0dQLctI)

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Hand-curated by Waxonia. We host no audio; all links point to streaming platforms.