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Cornell Engineering Magazine

Spring 1996
Moog Music
From theremins to synthesizers and back again, Robert Moog makes musical history
By Leslie Intemann

The Beatles had to have one. So did the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, the Moody Blues, and Emerson Lake and Palmer. If you were serious about rock and roll in the sixties, you had to have a Moog synthesizer.
Its creator, Robert A. Moog (rhymes with vogue) Ph.D.'65, came to Cornell in 1957 to do graduate work under Henri Sack, one of the founders of Cornell's engineering physics department. His love of electronic music, however, led him down a distinctly different long and winding road.
"It was a case of getting involved in more than I originally intended," he explained. While not a musician himself, the 62-year-old Moog has always been a designer and builder of tools for musicians: an engineer who understands the needs of musicians. As an undergraduate at Columbia University, Moog and his father, also an engineer, had a small business where they made a little money selling theremin components.
The theremin, one of the world's first electronic musical instruments, was created by the Russian engineer and inventor, Leon Theremin, in 1927. Constructed of a wooden cabinet with a straight rod antenna on top and a loop antenna projecting from the side, the theremin is played without being touched.
The instrument responds to the motions of the player's hands in the space surrounding it.
In 1960, as a married graduate student with a child on the way, Moog thought a reprise of his theremin business might help to finance his expanding family. Electronics World gave Moog's venture the cover story, and orders started rolling in. What was to be a sideline became a full-time occupation: Moog dropped out of school for several months, while he and his wife mailed a thousand kits and built a $60,000-plus enterprise in the early sixties. It was only at Henri Sack's urging that Moog finished his studies and wrote his dissertation, once business became more manageable.
Moog showed his theremins at a music teachers convention in the Catskills in 1963. There he met composer Herbert Deutsch, who used theremins to teach sight-singing at Hofstra University. Talk of theremins turned to electronic music, and soon thereafter, the two developed the first Moog synthesizer. The synthesizer relied on three underlying concepts: a modular design (using component parts to form a system), voltage control (changing the operation of a module by changing the voltage), and compactness (making the modules work together consistently so they fit in one box).
"The original synthesizer didn't make any particular kind of sound-it made a wide variety of sounds. Musicians could experiment endlessly with the sounds it could make," remembered Moog.
Experimental choreographer Alvin Nikolais was the first to purchase a Moog synthesizer. He was followed by experimental musicians at several universities. International recognition came with Switched-On Bach, Wendy Walter Carlos's million-selling album performed solely on a Moog. That's when business for R.A. Moog Inc. of Trumansburg, N.Y., took off.
From large studio models to smaller, on-stage devices, the Moog was hot. It brought a new realm of sound to the music world's perhaps most experimental generation.

 

The 1964 start-up company merged in 1971 with Musonics of Buffalo, N.Y., to become Moog Music Inc. Two years later, Moog Music with Robert as president became a division of Norlin Industries. Moog stayed with the company until 1977, when he moved with his family to North Carolina and left his namesake company behind. In 1984, Kurzweil Music Systems, a maker of digital musical instruments, beckoned him to Boston, where he worked until 1989. (Ironically, both Moog Music under Norlin and Kurzweil Music Systems eventually filed for bankruptcy.)
Moog now lives in Asheville, N.C., where his work has come full circle: he heads a small company called Big Briar Inc. that produces professional, studio-
quality theremins as well as the ever-popular theremin kits. Though he's not inclined to be an oracle, Moog offered young Cornell engineers these thoughts. "As an undergrad, I remember I was bored with contemporary civilization- the humanities, foreign languages, English- and now I could kick myself. People become engineers as a means of leading a fulfilling life. But living a fulfilling life means understanding one's heritage, being an informed citizen for democracy and understanding how the arts tie in with our cultural heritage. It's important to contribute to your profession, but it's not all you need in life."