Generating and shaping new sounds by electronic means started in the 1950s and took off in the 60s
In this episode...
Suzanne Ciani Photo: Suzanne Ciani
The early development of analogue synthesizers: the Moog, the Buchla and others;
Raymond Scott;
Eric Siday;
The San Francisco Tape Music Center;
Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause, the go-to guys for Moog work in the 60s [but see Errata below];
Wendy Carlos and Switched On Bach;
Morton Subotnick and Silver Apples of the Moon;
Suzanne Ciani and her work for advertising;
EMS, the Electronic Music Studio in London and its VCS-3 synthesiser: interviews with Peter Zinovieff and David Cockerell;
The great debate: should a synthesiser have a keyboard or not?;
In the early 70s, bands like Pink Floyd and Emerson, Lake and Palmer really start taking to the instruments;
And then in 1976 engineer Robbie Wedel works something out for producer Giorgio Moroder and they quietly revolutionise music with Donna Summer’s 'I Feel Love'.
Explore more of These Hopeful Machines
Written and presented by James Gardner, produced by Tim Dodd and James Gardner for Radio New Zealand.
Scroll down for handy links and a bibliography.
Grateful thanks for help in the production of Episode 4 go to:
Matthew Bate (director of the documentary What The Future Sounded Like), for the EMS demonstration disc; Suzanne Ciani, for the interview and the use of unreleased material from her 1975 concert for Radio WBAI New York; David Cockerell; Ian Helliwell; Brian Hodgson for providing us with a copy of the out-of-print ‘Wavemaker’ LP; Bernie Krause for the interview and for supplying us with the Beaver and Krause rendition of ‘California Dreamin’; Penny Lomax of the ABC’s ‘The Music Show’, for the Tristram Cary interview; National Public Radio (USA), for the interview with Bob Moog; Morton Subotnick; Don Worsham of The Media Preservation Foundation for supplying the Eric Siday recordings; Peter Zinovieff.
Errata
Since the production of this programme, evidence has been uncovered that contradicts Bernie Krause’s account – in the interview for this programme and elsewhere – of the period leading up to the recording of The Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music, and which calls other details of his story into question. New footnotes have been added to the transcript of his RNZ interview here and more detail can be found here. To summarise, though:
• Krause’s account of himself and Paul Beaver trying unsuccessfully to convince Hollywood film and recording producers to hire them and their Moog before June 1967 is incompatible with the historical record.
• It now seems almost certain that Krause took no part in any of the selling and promotion of Moog synthesizers at the Monterey International Pop Festival. All the evidence suggests this was solely Paul Beaver.
• Beaver and Krause’s partnership seems to have begun only in the second half of 1967, and at that point Krause was Beaver’s synthesizer student.
• Krause’s spell at the Mills Tape Music Center must have occurred some time between September 1966 and late 1967, not 1965–66.
None of this should, however, detract from the significant contribution to electronic music that Krause made with Paul Beaver, and on his own, from 1968 onwards.
Links
- RCA Synthesizer
- Milton Babbitt on Electronic Music
- The Raymond Scott Archives
- Eric Siday Wikipedia article
- Matthew Bate's documentary film about EMS, 'What The Future Sounded Like'
- James Gardner’s Sound On Sound podcast about Peter Zinovieff
- James Gardner’s detailed writings on EMS and the VCS3 synthesiser
- Red Bull Academy Interview with Don Buchla
- Buchla archives
- Red Bull Academy Interview with Bob Moog
- The Bob Moog Foundation
- The Moog company now
- Tom Rhea’s website has many resources relating to Moog and other synthesizers
- Moog Archives
- Ian Helliwell’s podcast on Beaver and Krause
- Suzanne Ciani
- Suzanne Ciani’s Red Bull Academy lecture
- Morton Subotnick’s Red Bull Academy lecture
- Wendy Carlos
- Wendy Carlos interview
Bibliography
David Bernstein (ed.)
The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 1960s Counterculture and the avant-garde
University of California Press 2008
https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-san-francisco-tape-music-center/paper
Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco
Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer
Harvard University Press 2002
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674016170
Albert Glinsky
Switched On: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution
Oxford University Press 2022
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/switched-on-9780197642078
Matthew Collin
Dream Machines: Electronic Music in Britain From Doctor Who to Acid House
Omnibus 2024
https://omnibuspress.com/products/dream-machines-electronic-music-in-britain-from-doctor-who-to-acid-house
Modular Synthesis: Patching Machines and People
Ezra J. Teboul, Andreas Kitzmann, Einar Engström (eds.)
Routledge/Focal Press 2024
https://www.routledge.com/Modular-Synthesis-Patching-Machines-and-People/Teboul-Kitzmann-Engstrom/p/book/9781032113463
