Fantastic! This has been like being on a Zoom call with people who know far more about music than me, talking about a musician who I've greatly admired for the last 50 years!
I wish Carlos would be more willing to open conversation, so much will be lost without direct input. Long live Carlos, in spirit, music and more importantly, life. Wendy, we love you ❤
Very interesting. Lets not forget that in the UK the popularity of 'Switched on Bach' and Wendy Carlos was largely driven by Radio 1 DJ Kenny Everett, who used to play his 'twiddly bits' jingles between records that often turned out to be 'sampled' from 'Switched on Bach' - a fact that Kenny was happy to acknowledge and promote on-air. Kenny Everett was himself a genius with studio technology and adept at recording his own synthesized jingles for Radio 1, which was the premiere pop station covering the whole of the UK. This was how I found out about Wendy Carlos and why I bought her albums, as many other Brits must have done at the time.
Hey, congrats for slipping in the phrase "who used to play his 'twiddly bits' jingles" this was Walter Carlos as you realize. Too bad you succumb to being politically correct after that but I applaud the effort. Keep on thinking free. Cheers
I first heard Wendy Carlos in music class...in elementary school at age 10...1968 ... I was overwhelmed by Switched On Bach. Afterwards I collected Beaver & Krause, Ruth White, Mort Garson, Terry Riley , Pauline Oliveros, Edgar Varese. My parents were musicians and as a child I was introduced to Electronic Music along with typical Rock bands of the times. Years later I discovered Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire. Their experimentation with sounds existed years prior to Bob Moog marketing the Moog Synthesizer. Wendy Carlos and Paul Beaver were my favorite pioneers of the Moog Synthesizer. I liked Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange THE DREAMS which consisted of people describing claustrophobic type dreams over an ambient soundscape...which that style surfaced again in the 70s with Brian Eno Daphne Oram recorded some very bizarre and enjoyable pieces as well. I have about 9 Wendy Carlos cds. She is a very important person in Electronic Music. She is an innovator. Sonic Seasonings was very influential to Electronic artists around the globe. She is a true genius
The San Francisco tape music center was early but they did not have a synthesizer until late 1965. That's more than a year after the Moog was shown and sold.
Thank you British Library for this inspiring conversation :) Watching/listening to this helped me a lot to progress in working on my music projects. I have the double LP album, "Sonic Seasons" and believe me - every electronic musician should have it in their record collection.
My father brought home Switced On Bach when she still was known as Walter. I was immediately fascinated by the Moog synthesizer and a few years later I would see her credited as Wendy. I did not fully understand the isuues at that age, but did not care as the groundbreaking music I was hearing was what mattered to me.
Carlos did some Eric Satie that had more sensitivity and feeling than any classical recoding I have ever heard since, of Satie's music. Every other version I have heard rang hollow and flat by comparison. Wendy Carlos is a genius of the highest order.
Est-ce possible de la contacter et comment ? J'ai repris des variations de la 9e de Beethoven dans le style de Wendy en hommage. ruclips.net/video/ZNdgofuQVrE/видео.html
Wendy Carlos is, I like to say, the Grandmama of Electronic Music, and doesn't get nearly the recognition she deserves. Which is because of all of the bigotry she's faced. Which is the same cause of her reclusiveness. She deserves so much better.
Thanks so much for this inspiring conversation! It's such a pity that you can't really buy Wendy's classic works as a CD or Vinyl. I still have a CD version reissued 1986 with a great explanation by Wendy herself how a piece was recorded. However no chance to buy the "Sonic Seasons" or the interesting educational CD "Secrets of Synthesis" from 1987. Would you comment whether this is a wish of Wendy or release policy of the record companies and perhaps tips wher you might find some stuff? On RUclips you find some stuff but the sound quality is not good.
THR, years ago, Carlos had obtained the rights to all of her electronic music from all the companies that owned it and had stopped publishing it, and it was all cleaned up and released by a company in Minneapolis, so anyone could buy fresh, clean copies. Sadly, THAT company reportedly west out of business, and I gather that Carlos did not wish to start all over again with yet another publisher, even if she could find one that would take a risk on her considerably large body of work. I had rather hoped that she might just decide to put it all up for free download via her website, but that has not happened. I understand that she, or her 'people' are very vigilant in shutting down anyone who dares to post any of her music online, which is why you can't find any of it these days. I wonder if she has any provision in her will, etc; 'setting her recordings free' upon her death...... I have all of her recordings, and really wish I could find a way to share them with others, but I see no way of doing it, and respecting her as much as I do, I would not distribute without her blessing. Some of her most interesting recordings are the ones you cited, such as Sonic Seasonings and Secrets of Synthesis, and also Walter Carlos By Request (I can't recall if that one was re-released under the name Wendy). The latter album includes some of her best student work, some done electronically but without the use of synthesizers, i.e. music concrete.
@@youtuuba Thanks for your detailed comments! Actually Wendy Carlos, Isao Tomita, Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze where my musical first steps - my volleyball trainer played these tapes to us while travelling to tournaments :) when I was between 13 and 16 ...
@@youtuuba The risk is that in a streaming world, her music will just disappear. New listeners will never be able to discover her work and the legacy will be limited to those of us old enough to have heard it on vinyl (or in my case, cassette).
@pcread , I don't know why you ignore the CDs. Yes, they are out of print, but most of her stuff was released on CD and those can still be purchased used in many cases. We don't know what measures Wendy may have taken regarding the availability of her recording library after her death; that remains to be seen. She might have orders for her works to be made available. But I agree that in this "streaming world", far too many music lovers don't even consider trying the older formats, and that is a shame.
@@youtuuba I recently bought SoBI and II and already own Sonic Seasonings on CD. But the point is, new listeners won't buy something they haven't heard of. There are plenty of Carlos-inspired synth Bach clones online, but without the original being easily findable, no-one will stumble upon the magic and explore the Carlos oeuvre. I had to order the CDs from the States with added shipping costs. Young people these days don't even own CD players. Hell, I don't.
One correction though: it's pronounced Mogue. Proof from the man himself (and a fascinating piece of TV history): ruclips.net/video/bMh9cWIap3U/видео.html
It's not Bob Moooog, like a cow. It's pronounced like Moge. I believe he said it was Dutch. You can't be an expert on the subject if you still don't know how to pronounce Moog more than 50 years after Switched On Bach introduced the synth to the world.
The 'experts' in this panel are almost all British, and in my experience nobody has more difficulty keeping their vowel sounds straight than the British, even when they know better.
@@briankehew579 , people who pronounce Moog as "mooog" are saying it wrong, regardless of where they live. But I am aware that a great many people in England have problems with remembering how to correctly and consistently pronounce vowel sounds.
It was "Moog" 🐮 in the UK for 30-40 years before people really had access to the internet and heard how Bob wanted his name pronounced - so it's stuck. We also had a TV show called Will 'o' The Wisp with Kenneth Williams and one of the characters was "The Moog" 🐄 (a sort of dog.. thing) Personally I settled on using Moog🐮 for the synths and (Worf son of) Moog for the people It's a dutch surname and there's a split on how to say it amongst people with the same family name, also. I believe Bob Moog used to have it pronounced the first way.. but he changed it at some point as his wife preferred the second pronunciation, after she found out there was an alternative
oestreck, clearly these people (at least the panelists) DO know quite a bit about what they are talking about, but by no means do they have anywhere near a full understanding, and so they are offering their opinions and impressions. But if you think they know NOTHING then you are revealing yourself as either reactionary, or sensationalistic, or just a crank.
@@gelatinous6915 It depends on what aspect you are considering. If it's just the development of the moog, then why not moog himself? If its the foundation of synthesizers then why not Simeon Coxe who did it before him? If its who popularized it, switched on bach definitely turned heads, but I feel love sold over a million copies in Britain alone and was the model of all modern pop edm. If you want to talk specifically about popularizing the moog, then manfred mann should definitely be in the conversation. Carlos was definitely an important figure in electronic music, but there isn't a metric where you can claim he was the most important without question.
@grog3514 , it is not as ambiguous as you make it sound. Wendy Carlos DID work with Bob Moog in the development of his synthesizers. I got this in some detail from Bob himself, and also from the various writings by Wendy. She did not do circuit design for him, rather she used his early equipment and provided 'beta test' feedback and suggestions for improvements to make the Moog modules work more musically. She also pressured Bob to develop a touch sensitive keyboard, something Wendy thought would be critical in making more musically expressive sounds.
Fantastic! This has been like being on a Zoom call with people who know far more about music than me, talking about a musician who I've greatly admired for the last 50 years!
I wish Carlos would be more willing to open conversation, so much will be lost without direct input. Long live Carlos, in spirit, music and more importantly, life. Wendy, we love you ❤
Carlos opened the door to classical music for me. For that I am very grateful.
wow I just searched for a video about Wendy Carlos and Moog and this one was posted 1 hour ago. thanks!
Wendy Carlos was a huge influence on my sister and I when we were growing up.
Very interesting. Lets not forget that in the UK the popularity of 'Switched on Bach' and Wendy Carlos was largely driven by Radio 1 DJ Kenny Everett, who used to play his 'twiddly bits' jingles between records that often turned out to be 'sampled' from 'Switched on Bach' - a fact that Kenny was happy to acknowledge and promote on-air. Kenny Everett was himself a genius with studio technology and adept at recording his own synthesized jingles for Radio 1, which was the premiere pop station covering the whole of the UK. This was how I found out about Wendy Carlos and why I bought her albums, as many other Brits must have done at the time.
Hey, congrats for slipping in the phrase "who used to play his 'twiddly bits' jingles" this was Walter Carlos as you realize. Too bad you succumb to being politically correct after that but I applaud the effort. Keep on thinking free. Cheers
@@moogfooger Do you have nothing better than to be an obsessive bigot?
Saint Raphael Academy, Pawtucket RI - We are very proud ! She MADE Clockwork Orange !
I first heard Wendy Carlos in music class...in elementary school at age 10...1968 ...
I was overwhelmed by Switched On Bach. Afterwards I collected Beaver & Krause, Ruth White, Mort Garson, Terry Riley , Pauline Oliveros, Edgar Varese.
My parents were musicians and as a child I was introduced to Electronic Music along with typical Rock bands of the times.
Years later I discovered Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire. Their experimentation with sounds existed years prior to Bob Moog marketing the Moog Synthesizer.
Wendy Carlos and Paul Beaver were my favorite pioneers of the Moog Synthesizer.
I liked Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange THE DREAMS which consisted of people describing claustrophobic type dreams over an ambient soundscape...which that style surfaced again in the 70s with Brian Eno
Daphne Oram recorded some very bizarre and enjoyable pieces as well. I have about 9 Wendy Carlos cds. She is a very important person in Electronic Music. She is an innovator. Sonic Seasonings was very influential to Electronic artists around the globe. She is a true genius
Me and my Droogs think Wendy’s music is real Horrorshow and it always gets us in the Yarrbles.
Loved this comment! So appropriate
The San Francisco tape music center was early but they did not have a synthesizer until late 1965. That's more than a year after the Moog was shown and sold.
Terre coming in with the most interesting perspectives, as usual
Thank you British Library for this inspiring conversation :)
Watching/listening to this helped me a lot to progress in working on my music projects.
I have the double LP album, "Sonic Seasons" and believe me - every electronic musician should have it in their record collection.
My father brought home Switced On Bach when she still was known as Walter. I was immediately fascinated by the Moog synthesizer and a few years later I would see her credited as Wendy. I did not fully understand the isuues at that age, but did not care as the groundbreaking music I was hearing was what mattered to me.
Folks should just call her Wendy and stop dead-naming her.
Carlos did some Eric Satie that had more sensitivity and feeling than any classical recoding I have ever heard since, of Satie's music. Every other version I have heard rang hollow and flat by comparison. Wendy Carlos is a genius of the highest order.
There is a vinyl album out there of Satie played on synth, but that is not W Carlos, and I don't think she ever did any Satie.
I wish that someone would get Wendy herself to do a really great interview before she passes.
Clockwork Orange movie introduced me to Carlos,a pioneer in syn. music .
Excellent.
Is Wendy still alive? I thought that maybe she passed away . Her music is amazing. Especially from "A Clockwork Orange" and "The Shining"
She is still alive.
Est-ce possible de la contacter et comment ?
J'ai repris des variations de la 9e de Beethoven dans le style de Wendy en hommage.
ruclips.net/video/ZNdgofuQVrE/видео.html
whats she up to tho ?
Wendy Carlos is, I like to say, the Grandmama of Electronic Music, and doesn't get nearly the recognition she deserves. Which is because of all of the bigotry she's faced. Which is the same cause of her reclusiveness. She deserves so much better.
well your grandmamma is a man! Walter Carlos deserves all the respect we can give him for sure. Chromosomes don't lie!
Why nothing is heard about her recently??
@@Drabkikker oh okay :(
Thanks so much for this inspiring conversation! It's such a pity that you can't really buy Wendy's classic works as a CD or Vinyl. I still have a CD version reissued 1986 with a great explanation by Wendy herself how a piece was recorded. However no chance to buy the "Sonic Seasons" or the interesting educational CD "Secrets of Synthesis" from 1987. Would you comment whether this is a wish of Wendy or release policy of the record companies and perhaps tips wher you might find some stuff? On RUclips you find some stuff but the sound quality is not good.
THR, years ago, Carlos had obtained the rights to all of her electronic music from all the companies that owned it and had stopped publishing it, and it was all cleaned up and released by a company in Minneapolis, so anyone could buy fresh, clean copies. Sadly, THAT company reportedly west out of business, and I gather that Carlos did not wish to start all over again with yet another publisher, even if she could find one that would take a risk on her considerably large body of work. I had rather hoped that she might just decide to put it all up for free download via her website, but that has not happened. I understand that she, or her 'people' are very vigilant in shutting down anyone who dares to post any of her music online, which is why you can't find any of it these days. I wonder if she has any provision in her will, etc; 'setting her recordings free' upon her death......
I have all of her recordings, and really wish I could find a way to share them with others, but I see no way of doing it, and respecting her as much as I do, I would not distribute without her blessing.
Some of her most interesting recordings are the ones you cited, such as Sonic Seasonings and Secrets of Synthesis, and also Walter Carlos By Request (I can't recall if that one was re-released under the name Wendy). The latter album includes some of her best student work, some done electronically but without the use of synthesizers, i.e. music concrete.
@@youtuuba Thanks for your detailed comments! Actually Wendy Carlos, Isao Tomita, Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze where my musical first steps - my volleyball trainer played these tapes to us while travelling to tournaments :) when I was between 13 and 16 ...
@@youtuuba The risk is that in a streaming world, her music will just disappear. New listeners will never be able to discover her work and the legacy will be limited to those of us old enough to have heard it on vinyl (or in my case, cassette).
@pcread , I don't know why you ignore the CDs. Yes, they are out of print, but most of her stuff was released on CD and those can still be purchased used in many cases.
We don't know what measures Wendy may have taken regarding the availability of her recording library after her death; that remains to be seen. She might have orders for her works to be made available.
But I agree that in this "streaming world", far too many music lovers don't even consider trying the older formats, and that is a shame.
@@youtuuba I recently bought SoBI and II and already own Sonic Seasonings on CD. But the point is, new listeners won't buy something they haven't heard of. There are plenty of Carlos-inspired synth Bach clones online, but without the original being easily findable, no-one will stumble upon the magic and explore the Carlos oeuvre. I had to order the CDs from the States with added shipping costs.
Young people these days don't even own CD players. Hell, I don't.
💙
One correction though: it's pronounced Mogue. Proof from the man himself (and a fascinating piece of TV history): ruclips.net/video/bMh9cWIap3U/видео.html
Yes, it rhymes with 'vogue'.
you mean like Mooog? Like a cow man.@@youtuuba
It's not Bob Moooog, like a cow. It's pronounced like Moge. I believe he said it was Dutch. You can't be an expert on the subject if you still don't know how to pronounce Moog more than 50 years after Switched On Bach introduced the synth to the world.
His name was Walter Carlos...
could they not care to pronounce Moog properly?
The 'experts' in this panel are almost all British, and in my experience nobody has more difficulty keeping their vowel sounds straight than the British, even when they know better.
In England, people say Mooooog, always. Bob Mogue makes the Mooooog synthesizers!
@@briankehew579 , people who pronounce Moog as "mooog" are saying it wrong, regardless of where they live. But I am aware that a great many people in England have problems with remembering how to correctly and consistently pronounce vowel sounds.
It was "Moog" 🐮 in the UK for 30-40 years before people really had access to the internet and heard how Bob wanted his name pronounced - so it's stuck. We also had a TV show called Will 'o' The Wisp with Kenneth Williams and one of the characters was "The Moog" 🐄 (a sort of dog.. thing)
Personally I settled on using Moog🐮 for the synths and (Worf son of) Moog for the people
It's a dutch surname and there's a split on how to say it amongst people with the same family name, also. I believe Bob Moog used to have it pronounced the first way.. but he changed it at some point as his wife preferred the second pronunciation, after she found out there was an alternative
@Wagoo , Bob was a friend and he always said he pronounced it as rhyming with "vogue", so no ambiguity there.
To much of just Talking and bla.
To less of Carlos
A "room" full of people saying a LOT of NOTHING about something they seem to know NOTHING about... Impressive... I guess... informative it isn't
oestreck, clearly these people (at least the panelists) DO know quite a bit about what they are talking about, but by no means do they have anywhere near a full understanding, and so they are offering their opinions and impressions. But if you think they know NOTHING then you are revealing yourself as either reactionary, or sensationalistic, or just a crank.
Moroder maybe. Not Wendy.
Wendy helped design the original Moog synthesizer. She was using it before Moroder even knew what it was.
@@gelatinous6915 It depends on what aspect you are considering. If it's just the development of the moog, then why not moog himself? If its the foundation of synthesizers then why not Simeon Coxe who did it before him? If its who popularized it, switched on bach definitely turned heads, but I feel love sold over a million copies in Britain alone and was the model of all modern pop edm. If you want to talk specifically about popularizing the moog, then manfred mann should definitely be in the conversation.
Carlos was definitely an important figure in electronic music, but there isn't a metric where you can claim he was the most important without question.
@grog3514 , it is not as ambiguous as you make it sound. Wendy Carlos DID work with Bob Moog in the development of his synthesizers. I got this in some detail from Bob himself, and also from the various writings by Wendy. She did not do circuit design for him, rather she used his early equipment and provided 'beta test' feedback and suggestions for improvements to make the Moog modules work more musically. She also pressured Bob to develop a touch sensitive keyboard, something Wendy thought would be critical in making more musically expressive sounds.
Yes Walter Carlos certainly did!@@gelatinous6915
Thank you for getting this right and also using the proper pronoun. Cheers to you!@@grog3514