The Wire: The birth of the synthesizer and new ways of thinking about sound
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Scientists like Helmholtz and Hertz explored the electrical essence of sound waves. Inventors like Canadian physicist Hugh LeCaine and Russian spy Leon Theremin extended that exploration to a new breed of electronic instruments. But it wasn't until Bob Moog came along and invented the synthesizer that the sound of electricity started to become a household sound in the music of rock bands.
The Wire: The Impact of Electricity on Music first aired on CBC Radio in 2005. Each episode tells the story of how electricity changed music in the 20th century, focusing on a particular new technology. On Episode 4, it's the synthesizer. The series was a 2005 Peabody Award winner.
The Wire is presented by Jowi Taylor.
**Note: this series is not available for download and is available for listening in Canada only due to music copyright restrictions.
"I remember going into a music store with my dad when I was about 14 and practically drooling over the ARP Omni polyphonic synthesizer. My dad kind of didn't get it. He said, "Well, that violin sound doesn't really sound like a violin and the cello doesn't really sound like a cello". I suppose that was the expectation of synthesizers. That they would create synthetic versions of things we knew. And there was a kind of pejorative sense of that word: synthetic. And when you think about it, lots of the early showcases for synths were kind of like that – different synth tracks took the corresponding instrumental parts of classical arrangements. But the amazing thing is that living in those sounds was a whole new universe just waiting to be explored – by musicians and listeners who wanted to hear the synthesizer be itself – to just love the electronic sound for what it was, not what it could imitate. I'll never forget the first time I heard Autobahn by Kraftwerk – at that time they were even still kind of hippie about it all but by the next album they had a whole look – a whole aesthetic – that fully embraced – and even celebrated – the synthetic. It was like living in the future. Now, I go into the record store and there are divisions within divisions within divisions of electronic music." – Jowi Taylor
Guests in this episode:
- Bob Moog (1934-2005) was an American engineer, electronic music pioneer, and was the inventor of the Moog synthesizer.
- Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) was a German composer and electronic music pioneer recognized for his groundbreaking work with tape splicing and synthesized sound.
- Lydia Kavina is a Russian-British theremin virtuoso, and grand-niece of Leon Theremin, the inventor of the theremin.
- Bruce Duncan builds synthesizers in the Toronto, where he owns and runs Modcan Synthesizers.
- Gayle Young is a Canadian composer and author. Among her works is a biography of the Canadian composer and inventor Hugh LeCaine.
- Dennis Patrick is a Canadian composer. For many years, he was director of the Electroacoustic Laboratory at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto.
Also heard in this episode on archival recordings:
- Hugh Le Caine (1914-1977), the Canadian composer, inventor and instrument builder.
The following tracks were used in this episode:
- Beach Boys - Good Vibrations (1966)
- Hugh Le Caine - Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin
- Bernard Herrmann - music from the film The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
- Miklos Rozsa - music from the film Spellbound (1945)
- Miklos Rozsa - music from the film The Lost Weekend (1945)
- Lennington Shewell - Dancing with Tears in my Eyes - from a 78rpm (1930)
- Mancini/Stein/Gertz - music from the film It Came from Outer Space (1953)
- Lydia Kavina - Fantasia by Bohuslav Martinu
- Hugh Le Caine - The Sackbut Blues
- Hugh Le Caine - Sugar Blues by C. McCoy
- Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gesang der Jünglinge (Song of the Youths) (1956)
- Louis & Bebe Barron - music from the film Forbidden Planet (1956)
- Clara Rockmore - Vocalise by Sergei Rachmaninov
- Wendy Carlos - 2nd movement from Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 in G BWV 1048 by JS Bach - Switched on Bach (1968)
- Wendy Carlos - Prelude no. 2 in C minor BWV 847 by JS Bach - Switched on Bach (1968)
- Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP) - Lucky Man - Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970)
- Pink Floyd - Welcome to the Machine - Wish You Were Here (1975)
- Genesis - The Colony of Slippermen - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974)
- Isao Tomita - Mars from The Planets by Gustav Holst - The Tomita Planets (1976)
- Kraftwerk - Robots - The Man Machine (1978)
The Wire Episode 4 Remix was produced by Jon Delerious. The series is produced by Chris Brookes, Paolo Pietropaolo and Jowi Taylor. It originally aired February 28, 2005 on CBC Radio 1.