Today, guest scientist Andrew Boyd makes music. The
University of Houston presents this series about
the machines that make our civilization run, and
the people whose ingenuity created them
It was the first classical
music recording ever to go platinum, a feat
requiring the sale of over one million copies. The
artistry was exquisite; the composer an
acknowledged master. Yet, the recording succeeded
because it took an engineering oddity into the
musical main-stream.
Released in 1968, Switched-On Bach brought
Bach to life on a Moog synthesizer. The album
emerged during a period in which electronic music
was desperately searching for direction. The
sixties counter-culture movement was in full swing,
giving rise to electronic music that reflected the
unrestricted freedom of the era — groovy, but not
especially musical.
At the same time, academic composers were creating
music so radically avant-garde that even the most
musically-literate listeners could make sense
of it. Sine waves, tape loops, and recordings of
everyday sounds dominated the world of serious
electronic music, and created a hostile environment
for composers and musicians who wanted to use
electronic instruments in a more traditional
manner.
Wendy Carlos, who was born Walter Carlos but later
changed her name — and gender — experienced this
hostility first hand when she recorded Switched-On
Bach. A music and physics student at two Ivy League
universities, "Carlos encountered 'alienation and
condescension' [from] both students and faculty
[for her] traditional musical values." Sensing that
electronic instruments had developed a bad
reputation, Carlos reasoned that if people were
exposed to more traditional music they would come
to appreciate what electronic music had to offer.
The recording industry agreed, with reviewers
predicting that Switched-On Bach "would
release electronic music from sounding like 'some
obnoxious mating of a cat fight and a garbage
compactor.'"
As word spread about the album, musicians from
every musical genre took notice. Switched-On Bach
became essential listening for anyone versed in
electronic music. The album sparked interest in
synthesized music from many accomplished popular
musicians, including Keith Emerson and Stevie
Wonder.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and
the commercial success of Switched-On Bach gave
rise to literally hundreds of imitators, including
Switched-On Bacharach, Chopin a la Moog,
Switched-On Nashville Country Moog, and even
Switched-On Santa. Carlos herself went on
to make many more recordings, including scores for
the Stanley Kubrick films A Clockwork
Orange and The Shining.
Carlos's artistic efforts represent an incredible
achievement, coaxing a genuinely musical
performance from a machine whose electronic innards
were very primitive. But her undisputed legacy is
her influence on popular music and the synthesizer
in particular.
Switched-On Bach is still in music stores today —
still serving as a delightful introduction to
electronic music, not to mention a reminder that
the music of Bach transcends not only time, but
instrumentation.
I'm Andy Boyd, at the University of Houston, where
we're interested in the way inventive minds work.
(Theme music)
Dr. Andrew Boyd is Chief Scientist and Senior Vice
President at PROS, a pricing and revenue optimization
software firm. Dr. Boyd received his A.B. with Honors
at Oberlin College where he studied music
composition, but ultimately graduated with majors in
Mathematics and Economics in 1981, and his Ph.D. in
Operations Research from MIT in 1987. Prior to
joining PROS, he enjoyed a successful ten year career
as a university professor.
T. Pinch and F.Trocco, Analog Days,
Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2002, See
Chapter 7.
See also the jacket notes for the CD:
Switched-On Bach 2000, Telarc Records,
Telarc International Corporation, Cleveland, OH,
2000.
Jacket of the 1981 CBS re-issue of
Switched-On
Bach (
Amazon.com.). Wendy Carlos almost
certainly recorded
Switched-On Bach using
the now-antique Moog 3P (shown below)
The Engines of Our Ingenuity is
Copyright © 1988-2004 by John H.
Lienhard.
