"Mar 5-7, the hills of Ithaca, NY, will come alive with the sound of #Moog music. Guests at @Cornell include Gary Numan, Suzanne Ciani, ADULT, and Suzi Analogue. Learn more: rmc.library.cornell.edu/moog/ @numanofficial @sevwave @suziAnalog @MoogFoundation @moogmusicinc"
Additional details:
"Electrifying Music: The Life and Legacy of Robert Moog
March 6 to October 16, 2020
Hirshland Exhibition Gallery, Level 2B, Carl A. Kroch Library
Drawing from Cornell’s rich archive of materials that traces Moog’s lifelong fascination with electricity and its musical possibilities, this exhibition features instrument prototypes, design schematics, photographs, correspondence, and audio recordings. It also provides viewers with an opportunity to play a theremin and Minimoog supplied by Moog Music Inc.
[left: Wendy Carlos's studio, ca. 1968.]
Highlights include documents from Moog’s years studying at Cornell University, running his first synthesizer factory in Trumansburg, New York, and collaborating with composers and recording artists for whom he created personalized systems, including Wendy Carlos, who popularized the Moog synthesizer with the album Switched-On Bach; Keith Emerson of the progressive rock band Emerson, Lake, and Palmer; and jazz musician Eddie Harris.
Electrifying Music is a collaboration among Cornell University’s Department of Music, Department of Science and Technology Studies, and Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.
Exhibition curators: Judith Peraino (Music), Trevor Pinch (Science and Technology Studies), Roger Moseley (Music).
This exhibition is funded through the generous support of the Stephen E. ’58, MBA ’59 and Evalyn Edwards ’60 Milman Exhibition Fund, with additional contributions from Moog Music Inc.
Online exhibition coming in March.
PERFORMANCES AND TALKS
When Machines Rock: A Celebration of Robert Moog and Electronic Music
March 5 to 7, 2020
Various locations on and off campus
Join us for a three-day celebration of Robert Moog PhD ’65 and his pioneering invention of the Moog synthesizer, which electrified music and sparked a revolution in sound. When Machines Rock: A Celebration of Robert Moog and Electronic Music features panels and performances by a wide array of electronic music artists, including renowned synthpop and electro-industrial artist Gary Numan; singer-songwriter, beat-maker, and producer Suzi Analogue; and electronic music composers David Borden, Herb Deutsch, and Suzanne Ciani.
Other events include an opening reception for the Cornell University Library exhibition Electrifying Music: The Life and Legacy of Robert Moog, a DIY synth-building workshop, a concert by Cornell’s Electroacoustic Music Center, and shows at the Haunt by the punk-inspired electronic group ADULT and Suzi Analogue."
"David was one of the main [people] responsible for the Mini Moog becoming a very popular instrument in the early seventies, when he decided to travel thru the USA demonstrating and selling the instrument. David Van Koevering was also the developer of the Orchestron, an instrument that was based on Mattel's Optigan, that became very famous when musicians like Patrick Moraz and Kraftwerk members used in their records!"
Top: "On stage: David Van Koevering (2nd from left) and Robert Moog (seated)."
"ASTRONAUTA - How did you meet Robert Moog for the first time?
DAVID - I was traveling and doing musical educational programs in the public schools. There is a picture of my educational presentation in Trevor Pinch's book "Analog Days". I saw an ad in the Music Educators Journal that had a photo of the R. A. Moog Studio in Trumansburg, NY which said "Come Visit Our Backroom". I was performing in the area and decided to visit. Bob Moog was in Europe so I did not meet him then. Awhile later I was performing at a school in Long Island, NY and the principal said "I want you to meet Bob Moog". He had come from Trumansburg, NY to meet me and see and hear my show. Bob and I talked about the last song on my show where I performed on a "Theremin". I had made it from and article that Bob had published in an electronics magazine. After meeting Bob that day he asked if I would like to join him and his family at Carnegie Hall in New York City. It was the first ever live performance of the "Moog Quartet" with Gershon Kingsley. During that concert something switched on in my spirit, I knew I needed to be involved! I had a huge audience and showing the future of music to the younger generation became my goal."
You might remember Mick Jagger in Performance from the video below posted back on March 24, 2011. The Alternative Shipping Forecast has a post up with additional details on the Moog system used. Click through for the full post.
"In Analog Days: The invention and impact of the Moog synthesizer [on Amazon], Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco tell the story of Jon Weiss, the Man from Moog, who traveled to London in the summer of 1968 with a series of black carrying cases that contained the component parts of the Moog Series III modular synthesizer. His students in London were to be the Rolling Stones, whose manager, Allan Klein, had managed to convince Robert Moog that, for promotional purposes, the Stones would receive a Moog synthesizer and a week’s free tuition...
The Stones’ electronic experiments come to the fore not on any of their studio albums, but on the tracks they recorded for Performance, the Donald Cammell/Nicolas Roeg film that was in production at exactly that moment. Mick was so taken with the device that it became a prop in the film itself, its aura of technological futurity fitting well with the film’s experimentalism and surrealism."
YouTube Uploaded by Performance786 on Apr 18, 2009 - (previously posted here)
Under the MORE STUFF section on the right you will see a new section titled EXCLUSIVES. It will contain the five most recent exclusives here on MATRIXSYNTH. Trevor Pinch's DIY Modular post is the first to receive the label. Note, Ichabod is there as well as I decided to move it into this section. I opted to go with the Ichabod label as the link rather than this first post, so you don't miss anything. Finally, don't forget the Featured label in the header above. You should check that at least once a day to make sure you don't miss a thing.
I'm currently reading "Analog Days" by Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco. You can find the book in the Synth Books section on the right of this site. I just got to the part were the Minimoog Model D finally came into fruition in 1970. According to the book, it was first introduced to music stores by David VanKoevering. David was putting on a show with a theremin when he first met Bob Moog. Bob went to his show and invited him to come see Gershon Kingsley perform at Carnegie Hall with the MOOG modular. Soon after, David ended up picking up a MOOG Model 10 according to this site. What was particularly interesting was how David first began to promote MOOG.
"Like a traveling medicine show, Van Koevering moved thousands of Minimoogs by using innovative marketing techniques. In Florida, he hooked up with Taco Bell, handing out free coupons to the restaurant, and then showing up later in the evening to play to diners. He promoted the "Island of Electronicus," an artificial land mass connected by a causeway to the Florida coast, where a Moog concert was scheduled. The radio ads announced, 'Where is the Moog synthesizer? It's here now ... to stimulate your feelings, thought, and your love for your fellow man.'"
The above quote comes from this article from the San Antonio Current. BTW, I couldn't find an image of the Taco Bell flyer although there is one pictured in Analog Days. If anyone knows where I can find one online, feel free to comment. The image in this post is of David's "The Island of Electronics" which he formed shortly after. You can also read more about this on VOTAGE::MAIN where I found the image. Be sure to check out all the links in this post for more of the fascinating story and of course "Analog Days."
David later repackaged the Memorymoog as the "Sanctuary Synthesizer" and sold them to a number of churches. I wonder how many are still sitting in storage... (image via this post)
Note: according to some on AH and other sites there are inaccuracies in the book, "Analog Days." I haven't discovered a comprehensive list. If you know of such a list, please comment. If you know of the inaccuracies also feel free to comment. If there is enough interest I could create the list with a sticky post for us. Regardless, the book is a great read. It is well written and a fascinating story of the birth of MOOG, and it touches on Buchla.
via vgermuse: "2010 is the centennial celebration of the birth of choreographer, composer and visionary, Alwin Nikolais. See this New York Times article for more info on that.
Nikolais purchased the first Moog modular synth according to the book Analog Days by Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco [link to book on Amazon]. In that book they quote Bob Moog saying, 'Alwin Nikolais, the choreographer who does his own scores…shows up (at AES in 1964) and then I heard the words, that I later realized were the magic words: ‘I’ll take one of this, two of this, and that one…’ We took two or three orders at that show.' Nikoloais, with the aid of a Guggenheim Fellowsip, purchased what would become the first ever commercially made Moog synthesizer.
Nikolais’ electronic music is quite amazing for, as I understand it, a sort of home grown, garage band studio of the mid 1960’s onward.
"Featuring an all-star lineup from the world of Moog
Greetings from the Bob Moog Foundation!
We have been hard at work all summer as we work towards our mission to document, celebrate & teach innovative thinking. On September 22, 2007 we will be traveling to Moogfest, an annual NYC event celebrating the musical legacy that continues through the instruments that Bob created. Check out Moogfest at moogfest.com and if you live in the NYC area, please join us for this very special tribute!
The Bob Moog Foundation has partnered with Moogfest to create the first annual Moogfest Symposium. At the Symposium, which takes place at 8pm on Thursday September 20, 2007 at Columbia University, luminaries in the field of electronic music will gather to discuss Bob’s legacy as it pertains to their own work and they will be taking questions from the audience. Symposium panel members include:
Herbert Deutsch – collaborator on the development of the first Moog synthesizer; composer, musician and performer; twice Chair of the Music Department at Hofstra University and former Director of Sales and Marketing at Moog Music, Inc.
Gershon Kingsley – musician and composer who led the Moog Quartet, which performed around the country and at Carnegie Hall. Best known for his catchy melody “Popcorn”, which is part of his “Music to Moog By” album, Mr. Kinglsey has recorded many Moog Albums, including “The In Sound From Way Out” with Jean-Jaques Perry and his most recent addition “God is a Moog”.
Joel Chadabe – composer, performer and pioneer in the development of interactive music systems. Mr. Chadabe has had a lifelong career in academia and has lectured, performed and recorded extensively. He is currently Professor Emeritus at State University of New York at Albany; Director of the Computer Music Studio at Manhattan School of Music Visiting Faculty at New York University. Joel is the President of the Electronic Music Foundation and the author of “Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music.”
John Eaton – Avant garde opera composer and performer and Professor Emeritus of Music Composition at the University of Chicago, where he taught for 10 years. He also taught at Indiana University (Bloomington) for 20. Mr. Eaton is a McArthur Fellow who, over a 20 year collaboration with Dr. Moog, created the Eaton-Moog Multi-Touch Sensitive Keyboard. He currently serves as the Composer and Artistic Director for the Pocket Opera Players, based in New York City.
David Borden – musician, composer and performer; played and tested early Moog Modulars in Bob Moog’s studio in Trumansburg, NY. Founder of Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece, the first Moog synthesizer ensemble. Retired Director of the Digital Music Program at Cornell University, where he taught for 37 years.
Trevor Pinch – Author of “Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Syntheziser” and professor and Chairperson of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell Univeristy.
Moogfest and the Bob Moog Foundation are proud and honored to be
sponsoring an event that pulls together Bob’s lifelong friends and colleagues and the vast amount of experiences and knowledge that they share. This promises to be a very special evening.
Please join us at:
Center Room
3rd Floor, Prentis Hall
632 West 125th Street
Columbia University
For those of you who live in the New York City area, we hope to see you at the Symposium and at Moogfest. We’ll be checking in with the rest of you to let you know how it all went.
Left: "View of the concert performed by Robert Moog and the Moog Synthesizer, part of the Jazz in the Garden series, The Museum of Modern Art, August 28, 1969. Photographer: Peter Moore. Photographic Archive. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York"
Below: "Herb Deutsche performs at on the Moog Synthesizer during the Jazz in the Garden program, The Museum of Modern Art, August 28, 1969. Photographer: Peter Moore. Photographic Archive. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York"
Bottom: "Live at MoMA, 1969. Printed in Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco, Analog Days (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 189"
Analog Days seems to be getting a few nods in the comments of this post. I have the book myself but haven't had a chance to get around to it. The general consensus is that it is a great book but there are a few inaccuracies. I've been hoping the authors would come out with an addendum that clarifies them, but I haven't heard of anything to date. I checked the Analog Days website for this but couldn't find anything. If anyone knows where we can find such a list, please post in the comments.
Also, someone posted a link to an interview with Trevor Pinch, one of the authors of the book, on ABC Radio National. It's worth a read when you have the time. In the interview they state the theremin was used in the Beach Boys Good Vibrations. It was actually an electro-theremin.
BTW, if you are thinking of picking up a copy of Analog Days, here's a link: Analog Days on Amazon : )
Update: I remember putting up a post on Analog Days before. I checked my archives and found the post on August 23, 2005, exactly one day short of an entire year from this post. Funny. Anyway, there was mention of the inaccuracies in that post (this is a quote from AH, not me in the post): "It's also said to contain a lot of B.S. with attributions to people who simply didn't do certain things the author says they did. For one, Dan Wyman who ran SoundArts in L.A. in the 70s, and who WROTE the Moog modular manual, was quite ticked-off when he read the book and saw so many historical inaccuracies."
We need this list...
Updates via the comments: via Peter Kirn: "It's difficult to get interviews with Wendy Carlos, I know that, but I agree. I mean, in general, the writing isn't great by any stretch, and it doesn't feel comprehensive -- I would have liked to see more discussion beyond Moog, for one -- and there are inaccuracies.
But having said all that, you'll still want to read it, and you'll still have a great time with it. I think we need a new book now, mainly! And there's a lot of the roots of electronic music that just don't get told at all; the whole history of the 40s and 50s gets pretty much lost."
via anonymous: "You can toss pretty much the entire section on Wendy Carlos. The amount of editorializing was nauseating and brings the credibility of the entire book into question. Yet, this wingnut is making money talking to radio progams around the world, telling her story for her. Jackass."
Via Anon: "Beyond inaccuracies (of which I noted a few), the authors of Analog Days sometimes sound like grad students in psychology. Even so, the book is worth the read for the story - the general arc of the story is true and I haven't seen so much of the story presented in one place anywhere else.
For example, who would have thought that the success of the Moog synthesizer was tied in any way to Taco Bell?"
"Moog Music has announced the 2nd annual Ether Music Festival and Conference.
Ether Music 2006 will be held in the home of Moog Music, Asheville, NC, from Thursday, August 3rd through Sunday, August 6th.
The event will include workshops, speakers and performances by incredible thereminists such as Lydia Kavina and Wilco Botermans. Keynote Speakers are Frank Trocco and Trevor Pinch, co-authors of Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to tour the new Moog Music factory where the theremin and other legendary Moog products are made."
"His improved synthesizer, with the addition of a keyboard, did for the instrument what Les Paul and Leo Fender did for the electric guitar, said Trevor Pinch, coauthor of "Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer."
"The synthesizer "freaked people out," Moog recalled earlier this year. "One of the many things you could do was imitate vocal sounds — make it go 'Weeoooooww.' That really upset. The reaction was a bit like that of primitive cultures believing cameras could catch your soul."
"The Moog synth transcends technology, ergonomics and pop culture. It wasn't some novelty sound or gadget," Gavriluk said. "It was a continuously new sound that shook the entire music industry several times, in every decade, in every genre."
"Circa 1975: A photo from the Frankfurt Music Fair
Peter Zinovieff in the EMS synthesizer booth.
They are featuring the rare SYNTHI P model, just announced on the left side and stand. Underneath the board listing EMS musical artists is a SYNTHI HI-FLI effects unit is barely seen. Another unusual/prototype model is next to the Hi-Fli."
Peter Zinovieff and Electronic Music Studios video upload by JeffreyPlaide
Peter Zinovieff: Synth Pioneer video upload by Sound On Sound magazine Jul 21, 2016
Peter Zinovieff talks about modern musical interfaces video upload by Expressive E Jan 6, 2016
Peter Zinovieff feature uploaded by Erica Synths on Nov 23, 2020. This was the latest video to feature Peter Zinovieff that I am aware of.
Peter Zinovieff interview 2015 video upload by 香港電子音樂社 Hong Kong Electronic Music Society Jun 30, 2015
Dr Peter Zinovieff intro & performance excerpt - Deliaphonic 2017 video upload by Deliaphonic Aug 29, 2018
And a few perspectives from others:
Bright Sparks Behind The Scenes - The Brits video by GForce Software published Feb 16, 2021
Cosmic Tape Music Club Podcast hosted by The Galaxy Electric - E1 Peter Zinovieff
video by The Galaxy Electric published Jan 27, 2021
"Peter Zinovieff, a hugely influential figure in British music whose early synthesisers helped to change the sound of pop, has died aged 88. He had suffered a fall at home earlier this month.
With its marketing slogan 'think of a sound – now make it', his company Electronic Music Studios (EMS) was one of the first to bring synthesisers out of studios and to the public. With products such as the portable VCS3 and Synthi A, EMS customers – including David Bowie, Kraftwerk, the Who, Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd – were often taught to use the instruments by Zinovieff.
In 1967 he collaborated with Paul McCartney on Carnival of Light, a performance of a 14-minute avant garde composition created between Beatles sessions for Penny Lane that has never been released.
He was also a respected composer of his own work, including early experiments with AI composition and sampling – he claimed to have invented the latter technique." You can read the full post here.
"Peter Zinovieff (26 January 1933 – 23 June 2021) was a British engineer and composer, whose EMS company made the VCS3 synthesizer in the late 1960s. The synthesizer was used by many early progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd[3] and White Noise, and Krautrock groups[4] as well as more pop-oriented artists, including Todd Rundgren and David Bowie. In later life he worked primarily as a composer of electronic music.
Zinovieff was born on 26 January 1933;[5] his parents, Leo Zinovieff and Sofka, née Princess Sophia Dolgorouky, were both Russian aristocrats, who met in London after their families had emigrated to escape the Russian Revolution and soon divorced.[6] During World War II he and his brother Ian lived with their grandparents in Guildford and then with their father in Sussex. He attended Guildford Royal Grammar School, Gordonstoun School and Oxford University, where he earned a doctorate in geology.[7][8]
Zinovieff's work followed research at Bell Labs by Max Mathews and Jean-Claude Risset, and an MIT thesis (1963) by David Alan Luce.[9] In 1966–67, Zinovieff, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson ran Unit Delta Plus, an organisation to create and promote electronic music. It was based in the studio Zinovieff had built, in a shed at his house in Putney. (The house is near the Thames, and the studio was later partially destroyed by a flood).[10][11] EMS grew out of MUSYS, which was a performance controller operating as an analogue-digital hybrid.[12] It was a synthesiser system which Zinovieff developed with the help of David Cockerell and Peter Grogono, and used two DEC PDP-8 minicomputers and a piano keyboard.[13] Unit Delta Plus ran a concert of electronic music at the Watermill Theatre in 1966, with a light show. In early 1967 they performed in concerts at The Roundhouse, at which the Carnival of Light was also played; they split up later in 1967.[11] Paul McCartney had visited the studio, but Zinovieff had little interest in popular music.[14]
In 1968, part of the studio was recreated at Connaught Hall, for a performance of pieces by Justin Connolly and David Lumsdaine.[15] At the IFIP congress that year, the composition ZASP by Zinovieff with Alan Sutcliffe took second prize in a contest, behind a piece by Iannis Xenakis.[16]
In 1969, Zinovieff sought financing through an ad in The Times but received only one response, £50 on the mistaken premise it was the price of a synthesiser. Instead he formed EMS with Cockerell and Tristram Cary.[17] At the end of the 1960s, EMS Ltd. was one of four companies offering commercial synthesizers, the others being ARP, Buchla, and Moog.[18] In the 1970s Zinovieff became interested in the video synthesizer developed by Robert Monkhouse, and EMS produced it as the Spectron.[19]
Jon Lord of Deep Purple described Zinovieff as "a mad professor type": "I was ushered into his workshop and he was in there talking to a computer, trying to get it to answer back".[20] Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco, in their history of the synthesizer revolution, see him rather as aristocratically averse to "trade".[21]
Zinovieff wrote the libretto for Harrison Birtwistle's opera The Mask of Orpheus,[22] and also the words for Nenia: The Death of Orpheus (1970).[23] The section Tristan's Folly in Tristan (1975) by Hans Werner Henze included a tape by Zinovieff."
Update:
Peter Zinovieff: A Tribute by CatSynth TV
video upload by CatSynth TV
"We look back at the life and work of Peter Zinovieff, who passed away last week at the age of 88. His work at Electronic Music Studios (EMS) was a major influence on musicians of the 1970s and beyond. At EMS, he co-created the well-known and coveted VCS3 and Synthi series. But he was also a composer in his own right, working on pioneering electronic music in the 1960s and returning to active composition in the 2010s with several collaborations with artists in other media and exploring massive sound spatialization.
Additional background music provided via the Arturia Synthi V as a tribute."
MATRISYNTH Ts are $20 in the US and $25 outside the US. This includes the shipping cost, three MATRIXSYNTH cards and one magnet. A set of three cards and one magnet, minus the T, is $5.
The T-Shirts are from Gorilla Screen Printing - highly recommended. If you get Ts done by them, let them know you found out about them here.
Paypal any amount to matrixsynth *at* gmail.com. Be sure to include the shipping address, size and whether you'd like long or short sleeves.
Below are some MATRIXSYNTH Ts and cards spotted in the wild. If you have them, send them in!
"Mar 5-7, the hills of Ithaca, NY, will come alive with the sound of #Moog music. Guests at @Cornell include Gary Numan, Suzanne Ciani, ADULT, and Suzi Analogue. Learn more: rmc.library.cornell.edu/moog/ @numanofficial @sevwave @suziAnalog @MoogFoundation @moogmusicinc"
