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STUDENT LIFE (Washington University)

September 29, 1972
Music depends on technology
By Steve Braitman

Robert Moog, creator of the Moog synthesizer, addressed a full graham Chapel Wednesday on the development of electronic music and trends for the future. He was introduced by John Perkins, chairman of the department of Music.
Moog explained the development of music as the "natural extension of life"; walking became dancing; and talking became singing. Later, music was used to glorify God and the universe. Substance rather than style was emphasized.
Twentieth century technology has given us an appreciation of form as well as content. It has brought greater control over forms by setting up relationships between sounds, he believes. In addition "we are using music itself as communication without relationship to song or dance...to intensify other experiences, especially visual experiences," he contends.
As an example, he played the audio portion of an insecticide commercial. The background music was intended to put the viewer's mind at ease, while the
foreground music slowly intensified until a "squish" ,the release of insecticide, was heard. Simultaneously the music seemed to reach a climax, with the viewer associating insecticide with pleasurable feelings, all with non-verbal communication.
This control over sound gives man the ability to produce sounds at will, varying tone, pitch, and overtones to reach the full gamut of sounds that the human ear can detect. Music has thus become a science as well as an art.
Though the relationship of music and engineering may appear tenuous, Moog contends "without technology music would never had developed past the most primitive sounds." By processes such as "sound on sound" the composer has much more control over balance, tone, and background sounds than he would without the innovations of electronic sounds.
In reassuring those fearful of machine domination, he said, "Machines will never replace man; a machine can't distinguish or extract 1% of the information and quality the human ear can." The human aspect makes the difference in music "where you can detect the personality of the composer, and where sound is unlistenable, where it sounds like it came from a machine."
With electronic music one can bridge the difference between sound for quality and sound effects. He stated that today's emphasis on quality in electronic music will make the use of sound effects a science and an art, as music is, by the control of sounds for exact purposes (the insecticide commercial.)
Almost as an afterthought, Moog discussed trends in electronic music. He believes that computers will be introduced into the music field, with a constant interplay between musicians and engineers. As proof he stated that computer hardware was being used increasingly in "music machines" and the jargon of music was slowly mixing with the jargon of computers.
A critical ear for music is just as important as ever, but he cautioned, "Electronic music is just the medium between composer and the listener.
If you hear something bad, don't blame it on the composer; blame it on the machine."