This new line of thinking also enveloped the early schools of electronic music. Music was knee-deep in an age of “integral serialism,” during which classical values as basic as tonality were thrown by the wayside in favor of mathematical (and often atonal) methods of music composition. Photo credit: Bruce Duffie.īack in the day, the only institutions that could afford synthesizers were those of the classical establishment, and the instrument couldn’t have been in worse hands. One of Wendy Carlos’ professors at Columbia was electronic pioneer Vladmir Ussachevsky, who termed the choice values for envelope generators: Attack, Delay, Sustain, & final Release values (ADSR). And who was to blame for this? Turns out it was the classical music world. The synthesizer was an instrument that would change the course of electronic music forever, but in the 1950s - early 60s, it was tainted with misunderstanding and distrust. Or maybe it was a computer? A repurposed telephone switchboard? It was anybody’s guess. If asked, most people would probably say it was a machine for making laser sounds.
SWITCHED ON BACH HOW TO
That’s right, Wendy Carlos became the forerunner of modern electronic music and one of the most important anti-establishment musicians in history-by playing Bach.īecause of Wendy Carlos, one could say that Bach is responsible for Deadmau5. Photo credit: WideFuture.īefore Switched-On Bach, it was rare to find people who even knew how to pronounce the word synthesizer , let alone understand what one was. Switched-On Bach was an album that proved the artistic value of the analog synthesizer not only to the classical world, but to the entire musical mainstream. Such was the case with Wendy Carlos’ analog synthesizer recording of J.S Bach works, Switched-On Bach. The idea: make the first ever electronic music album that people would actually like.Ĭomposer/performer Wendy Carlos and producer Rachel Elkind created a work that blew open the doors for an entire generation of composers and listeners. The best ideas are the ones that seem obvious after the fact.