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I was in a bar with colleagues after a long day of work. It was an '80's themed place. Video games lined the walls, games like PAC-MAN, Super Mario Bros. and Atari. Movies from the '80's were projected on a big screen (no sound) and music from the '80's was played over the sound system. So there we were, having a drink and enjoying the vibe of this cool bar. It was pretty crowded, and the talking made it hard to hear the music clearly, but all of a sudden, rising above the din of the people, I heard music that instantly got my attention. I felt like I knew what it was...I had heard it before...but I couldn't recall the artist nor the title. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and went to SoundHound, an App that identifies music...all you do is hold it near the speaker and let it listen and it will tell you what you are hearing. I walked around the place trying to help it hear the music, but there was too much noise in the bar for it to hear what was playing. I stood there listening, trying to recall what it was...I was sure I knew it. It was from my youth. But I could not remember it. And then it was gone.
And so began the quest to find out what it was. I went to the bar and asked the bartender where they got their music. She said it was Pandora...they had a business license. She may have thought I was on patrol for ASCAP. I explained to her that I wanted to know what song had just played. And to my surprise, behind a crowded bar, she pulled a tablet from below and logged into Pandora. I had a hard time hearing her, but she said something about Timecop1983 and Miami Nights. I made a note of this in my phone and thanked her. When I got back to my hotel room, I started searching. I had not heard of either one of these...I assumed they were artists, not songs. Timecop1983 is in fact a current artist who makes '80's inspired music. I found a lot of it on YouTube, Pandora and Spotify...but I still did not have the song I had heard in the bar. So over the next few days, I streamed and searched...and searched and streamed...until finally, three nights later while I was in bed reading A Tale of Two Cities and listening to Pandora, I finally heard it again. Mystery Solved! It was a song called Childhood Memories by Timecop1983.
It is not a song from my youth. It was released in 2014 when I was 49. I was so sure it had come from that period in my life called the early '80's when I was an adolescent. I was sure it was from 1983, the year I started college...the year I met my wife and fell in love. The year so many new things happened.
Synth-music, or Synth-pop is the genre of Childhood Memories. And Synth is short for Synthesizer. The synthesizer has been around a long time now and is very well established in many different forms and genres. I won't go into the history of it's development too much, but Robert Moog is generally regarded as the pioneer of the synthesizer as a musical instrument. By the mid-1960's, composers and musicians were experimenting and recording with his creation. One particularly notable composer who collaborated with Moog was Walter Carlos who had been a student at Columbia University in New York. He and Moog worked together to develop and refine Moog's synthesizer. In 1968, Carlos recorded the album Switched on Bach, a groundbreaking effort of Bach's music played on the Moog Synthesizer. It won the Grammy Award in three categories, including Classical Music Album of the Year. Here is a video clip of Leonard Bernstein in 1969 introducing the Moog Synthesizer playing the music of Walter Carlos.
This week we celebrated the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein's birth. In my opinion, no American has had a greater impact on music in our culture than he did. He was truly an American treasure.
And now an important follow-up. Walter Carlos does not exist anymore. Walter is, and has been, Wendy Carols for almost as long as the synthesizer has been in existence. In 1968, Walter began her gender transition from a man to a woman. Her story is a fascinating one.
In 1971, Wendy Carlos collaborated with Stanley Kubrick for the film A Clockwork Orange. Here is the opening scene of that film that features the music of Handel adapted for and played on the synthesizer by Wendy Carlos.
By the late 1970's, synthesizer technology had advanced and it was fully established as a "musical instrument." In 1981, the composer Vangelis composed music for a great film called Chariots of Fire which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Original Score. I think we all know this piece:
A year later (1982) Vangelis wrote the music for another great film...a favorite of mine, The Year of Living Dangerously. I like this even better than Chariots of Fire.
Brian Eno recorded an album in 1975 called Another Green World, which features synthesizers and is one of my favorite records of all time. Here is a track called The Big Ship.
A good friend of mine from high school, Jerry Smith, turned me on to Another Green World in 1983. In 2018, just this week, he introduced me to the music of Karen Dalton, a folk-blues singer who began her career in the 1960's. This is a fabulous song that was released in 1971. Her voice is one-of-a-kind. And there is a great violin on this cut which is called Something On Your Mind...but no synthesizers.
I expect that by the time I post again, I will have completed listening to all of Haydn's Symphonies in order. I have enjoyed this exercise immensely. I knew Haydn was a great composer before I started this. I have played several of his symphonies and his Violin Concerto no.1 in C major. But this experience has led me to appreciate his genius and creative output even more.
Back to synthesizers for a moment. I am first and foremost a fan of acoustic instruments. But when used by creative people, I do love what electronic instruments can offer as well.
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