Barbarians always think of themselves as the bringers of civilization.

However his parents discouraged his musical pursuits from childhood and had him educated in engineering. Schaeffer had led a 498-member rescue team in Leninakan to help find survivors in the aftermath of the quake. Mass-production for his work was limited at best and each piece was by Schaeffer's terms intended to be released foremost as an exposé to the masses of what he believed was a new and somewhat revolutionizing form of music.

Amongst the vast range of works and projects he undertook Schaeffer is most widely and currently recognized for his accomplishments in electronic and experimental music at the core of which stands his role as the chief developer of a unique and early form of avant-garde music known as musique concrète. Schaeffer's writings (which include written and radio-narrated essays biographies short novels a number of musical treatises and several plays) are often oriented towards his development of the genre as well as the theoretics and philosophy of music in general.