STUDIA UBB. PHILOSOPHIA, Vol. 67 (2022), 1, pp. 45-74 (RECOMMENDED CITATION) DOI:10.24193/subbphil.2022.1.03 BODY, MUSIC AND ELECTRONICS: PIERRE SCHAEFFER AND PHENOMENOLOGY OF MUSIC MICHAL LIPTÁK * ABSTRACT. The article presents a phenomenological investigation of body and music, with particular emphasis on electronic music. The investigation builds on theoretical framework developed in phenomenological investigations in art by Edmund Husserl, Mikel Dufrenne and Roman Ingarden. It is guided beyond these analyses by investigations of particular musical examples in avant-garde acoustic and electronic music. In the former case it tackles music from which body is being consciously erased. In the latter case, the erasure occurs instantly. This negative approach elucidates the function of body in music. In case of electronic music, the article focuses on writings and music of pioneer of musique concrète, Pierre Schaeffer. Central argument is that electronic music always has been and still is defined by absence of body, here phenomenologically considered as Leib. As a consequence of the phenomenological elucidation, it is ultimately shown that erasure of body has been one of the avant-garde music’s crucial techniques, and that this avant-garde residue remains in electronic music as such, both experimental and mainstream. Keywords: Schaeffer, Husserl, phenomenology, music, body, aesthetics It is a truism to say that body and music are intertwined, and it is likewise generally recognized that body is not a simple mean of translation of music created in the mind into physical sounds. Yet, when it comes to questions of what is the particular function of the body in the music, what it does, what it actually brings into music, the issue gets more opaque. Phenomenological aesthetics, as developed by philosophers such as Merleau-Ponty, Ingarden, Dufrenne, and also Husserl, 1 shall * Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia. Email: michal.liptak@savba.sk 1 While Husserl has never written a book on aesthetics, he has written continuously on the subject a lot. For example, first texts in Hua XXIII date from 1898, last appendices to Krisis concern art. And one must agree with Crowther when he says about Hua XXIII that “within nearly 600 pages (and, in fact, over 700 in the English translation) there are enough relevant arguments to yield a short monograph on aesthetics, one, indeed, with highly original content”. Paul Crowther, The Phenomenology of Aesthetic Consciousness and Phantasy, Routledge, 2022, p. 1.