SWITCHED-ON BACH
Switched-On Bach is a musical album by Wendy Carlos (originally released under the name of Walter Carlos) and Benjamin Folkman, produced by Carlos and Rachel Elkind and released in March 1968 by Columbia Masterworks Records. It played a key role in popularizing classical music performed on electronic synthesizers, which had until then been relegated to experimental and “pop” music. This fostered a significant increase in interest in electronically rendered music in general, and the Moog synthesizer in particular. (More from Wikipedia)
However, the first truly audacious use of synthesizers was probably the 1968 album by Walter Carlos called Switched-On Bach, the first classical album to sell one million copies. For many years, using synthesizers to make music was difficult because of the time-consuming programming involved and the rather primitive mixing equipment of that period. I saw a “live” performance by Carlos on television once, and as I remember, it was mainly shots of a static Moog Synthesizer. Walter Carlos continued to release synthesizer albums for many years – including the soundtrack for the Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange – though none had the impact of Switched-On Bach.
(March 2012)
