#Switched on Bach

[tamara-kama]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WENDY CARLOS!!

Born: Nov 14, 1939

Electronic Music Pioneer, film music composer (Tron, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange) and Trans Woman.

[thefugitivesaint]

An informative piece on the electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos. Worth a read if you dig electronic music and want to familiarize yourself with one of the musicians who helped establish and shape that genre. Carlos attended Brown University, double majored in Music and Physics, then went on to complete a master’s degree in music composition at Columbia University. Carlos’ formed a working relationship with Robert Moog (”the inventor of the first commercially available synthesizer” as the article puts it) which resulted in Moog introducing “touch-sensitive keys” into his synthesizers “allowing a similar level of dynamic expression to the pianos upon which they were based.”  After producer and singer Rachel Elkind heard one of Carlos’ renditions of Bach, Elkind helped Carlos produce what would become her debut album, ‘Switched-On-Bach’ (the release of which lead to the Moog synthesizer becoming a legitimate instrument and helped establish it’s popular use).  From the article: “Carlos says she chose Bach’s music because his flurries of notes would be easier to replicate on a primitive synthesizer than slower, more sustained orchestral pieces. Despite involving exceptionally complex circuitry, the early Moog synthesizers were monophonic, meaning they could only play one note at a time, and they were recorded, painstakingly, note by note, in analogue fashion. Each inch of tape contained up to eight manually spliced edits; altogether, the album took over 1,100 hours of work to complete.” .... “While the likes of the Beatles and Beach Boys had already used synths in pop songs by 1966, Switched-On Bach was the essential album in the first revolution of the synthesizer. It took the instrument out of the abstract realm of textures and avant-garde compositions, and made it sound harmonic, organic and instantly recognizable as music.” .... “Carlos brought classical music back into the present and the future of popular music. In 1969, Switched-On Bach reached number 10 on the Billboard 200; by 1986, it was the second classical album, and first-ever electronic album to go platinum, selling over a million copies in the U.S. In 1970, it won three Grammys, for Best Classical Album, Best Classical Performance—Instrumental Soloist and Best Engineered Classical Record. It was a genuine phenomenon and spawned leagues of long-forgotten imitation albums. But, on a much deeper level, through Switched-On Bach, the foundation of western classical music and harmony also became the foundation of global popular electronic music.” All the while, “Carlos had been working with the sexologist Harry Benjamin, whose work focused mostly on transgender patients.” “The success of “Switched-On Bach,” Grammys included, helped Carlos complete her transition and focus on her musical work. Carlos eventually came out, and as such she became the first openly trans woman with a Grammy — three, to be exact. After that breakthrough album she kept rising to new heights, scoring the films A “Clockwork Orange,” “The Shining,” and “Tron.” That success set an important precedent for trans artists in the industry.” Note: some of my above biography was lifted from the second article linked to below. Giving credit where it’s due because attribution is important. 

[higherentity]

[duffertube]

Wendy Carlos - Switched on Bach (1968)

1. Sinfonia To Cantata No. 29

2. Air On A G String

3. Two-Part Invention In F Major

4. Two-Part Invention In B-flat Minor

5. Two-Part Invention In D Minor

6. Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring

7. Prelude And Fugue No. 7 In E-Flat Major

8. Prelude And Fugue No. 2 In C Minor

9. Chorale Prelude "Wachet Auf"

10. Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 In G Major: First Movement

11. Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 In G Major: Second Movement

12. Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 In G Major: Third Movement

Source: Internet Archive

[foxybutton]

A Breif history of Wendy Carlos, an Early pioneer of Electronic Music

[haredjarris]

me, listening to wendy carlos on initial experiments [narr. wendy carlos], despite having no idea what she's talking about because i don't know anything about music theory or synthesisers

[schibborasso]

Wendy on her Moog

[severalpossiblemusiks]

[archiveb1912]

got two wendy carlos albums the other day, we are very happy to have them as thet are great uses of the moog synth and also shes a trans musician so tahts also super cool n stuff ~ Bonus

[adventurechristianity]

Switched

“…for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 Anybody remember “Switched on Bach?” We had it on 8-track when I was growing up. It was created by a guy named Walter Carlos. He took classical Bach pieces and performed them with synthesizers. It was awesome, and formational for my love of music. A few years later, I…

[foxybutton]

The dound wuality being a patt of the art is kind of the point. When basically a little indie producers reengineers these lofi songs it's sometimes with the intent to dound like it's recorded in certain locations for ambiance.

What is usually considered spontaneous, crude, or poorquality in a recording is actually a feature for lofi music.

Some pieces of music that makes it obvious that distortion has and can artfully be incorporated into art are Jimmy Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner on an electric guitar and Switched on Bach from Wendy Carlos created entirely electronically.

Technology is a tool that can be manipulated intentionally like any other instrument.

Like the electric guitar and synthesizer another leg of electronic music is lofi.

people who don't like the pre-2002 lofi tmg are seriously missing out on some of the rawest and realest music ever made. some people focus so much on the raw and unrefined sound that they aren't appreciating how the simplicity in the production lends to the lyrical content. i know i like to make the same old jokes like "haha yeah it sounds like it was recorded with a tin can and a dream" but i am so serious about the older music and the lofi qualities are largely what make it so beautiful and so purely human

[wintermut3]

(Wintermut3)

[ourmindonmusicpodcast]

Wendy Carlos: A True Innovator in Synthesized Music

[coeurdeverre82]

[cosmonautroger]

Wendy Carlos, Switched-On Bach, 1968

[gender-trash]

godddd throwback to my summer 2018 internship where we had this little tablet stuck to the wall by the doors where you could add songs to the spotify queue for the building speakers, and everyone else was always playing pop music with fewer attributes than i had previously considered achievable in a piece of music, but sometimes i'd go and add like ten psb songs and force everyone to listen to them. good times