Archives - 1968
Syracuse Herald-American
December 8, 1968
Electronic Synthesizer Produces Unlimited Sounds
The latest breakthrough in music is the synthesizer, an electronic instrument, invented by R.A. Moog in Trumansburg, a little town about ten miles north of Ithaca.
The synthesizer is capable of producing any sound with astonishing fidelity and ease.
The synthesizer has a keyboard that looks a like one chopped off a piano, but at that point any similarity to a traditional musical instrument ends.
For above that keyboard is rack upon rack of electronic circuits complete with switches, plugs, wires and so on. Simply, the synthesizer looks like the operational panel of an atom smasher with a keyboard incongruously attached. When a trained person coordinates plug-ins, switches, and keyboard, the result can be anything that person wants, from the sound of a great electric organ to bird calls or flute sounds. The range is enormous. And the applications and implications of the instrument are far-reaching too.
Electronic music studios at various universities such as the one at Syracuse University under the direction of Dr. Franklin Morris, use the ma- chine to teach electronic music and also to aid potential composers.
Rock groups such as the Beatles, Monkees and Beach Boys use it for a cosmos of sound.
The avant-garde composer John Cage used the equipment in his "Variations No. 5." Poets like John Giorno use it for poetry readings. People involved in total media performances, sometimes happenings are fascinated. The list is endless.
As for the implications of the machine - on the one hand, the machine can perform the work of traditional instruments or group of instruments with dazzling virtuosity. A new Columbia release called "Switched on Bach" is a case in point. The Brandenburg Concerto as played by Walter Carios with the assistance of Benjamin Folkman on the synthesizer provides what a New York Times critic called "An astonishing experience."On the other hand, the synthesizer can produce sounds which are not tra- ditional in any sense. A work composed by Andrew Rudin on the Nonesuch Label called "Tragoedla" is an unfamiliar yet compelling experience.
It all began when the inventor, R. A. Moog, was completing his doctorate in engineering-physics at Cornell university. He had always been interested in the use of electronic instruments for traditional musical sounds like that of an electric organ.
In 1963, a composer friend suggested that they could work together making a totally new kind of music. So in 1964, the two men took a couple of sound circuits and a tape recorder to record the sounds that materialized in the speaker system. Then the composer took the tape, cut it, and literally composed the music by splicing bits of tape together. Now the process is much easier because of the keyboard and there is no necessity to splice tape.
The R. A. Moog Company which manufactures the instrument is booming. Moog has some 26 employees - he never is quite sure of the total number. Calls come in from Greece, here there, ordering synthesizers. And they aren't cheap either,
Ranging from a cool $3,000 to a cooler $15,000.
There are other electronic musical instruments on the market, but, from the response of musicians, Moog's instrument seems to be the most flexible in design.
Sales were in the $.5 million bracket last year, but Moog doesn't seem overly happy at the success. His great love is not money but the synthesizer and the music it can make. He has commissioned composers to work with the instrument and the only time he really gets excited is when he talks of the new work coming out of the studio.
Where the synthesizer and electronic music go from here is anybody's guess, but it looks like the music where traditional ways begin to seem a bit stale and the new era right around corner.