Friday format: women in electronic music - Wendy Carlos and Susan Chani
At first glance, it seems that electronic music is predominantly a “ male genre .” Fans of [relatively] modern electronics will surely recall Daft Punk or Armin van Buuren, fans of "electronic classics" - Brian Eno, Depeche Mode, Vangelis - or even Stockhausen and Vyrez.
However, many women took part in the creation and popularization of this vast musical genre. Today we will tell about two women-pioneers of electronic music - Wendy Carlos (Wendy Carlos) and Susan Chani (Suzanne Ciani), who stood at the origins of the genre and continue to develop it today.
Photo Non Event / CC BY
Mass popular electronic music is obliged (oddly enough) to the classics. In the mid-60s, electronic music remained a not very developed genre, interesting mainly to audiophiles and academic musicians, who, experimenting with sound, turned to electronic instruments as well. The genre began to gain popularity in the last third of the 20th century — with the appearance of Wendy Carlos on the electronic “scene”.
In 1964, Wendy Carlos, who had by now finished studying physics and music at Brown University (USA), met Robert Mug , the creator of the "Mug" synthesizer, one of the first portable and relatively cheap monophonic analog synthesizers .
In 1968, Wendy recorded the album Switched-On Bach with her arrangements for The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Two-Part Inventions of Johann Sebastian Bach. It was the first album of its kind in history - recorded on Mug's synthesizers. Thanks to him, electronic music first hit the radar of popular culture: in the American charts, the album stayed in the top 200 for 59 weeks, took the first line in the chart “The Best Classic Albums of 1969-1972” and quickly became platinum.
In 1970, the album received three Grammy at once - for “The Best Classic Album”, “The Best Instrumental Performance by a Solo Performer Without Orchestra” and “The Best Technically Made Record of a Classic Album”. Switched-On Bach is the world's first album of classical music, sold in quantities of more than a million copies.
The album was highly appreciated not only by musicians and critics, but also by listeners. Muga's synthesizers began to be actively sold, gained popularity and gradually pressed the electro-organs that reigned there earlier.
In 1972, Carlos worked with Kubrick on the soundtrack for the movie “A Clockwork Orange” - she wrote the arrangements of Rossini, Purcell and Beethoven for a synthesizer. Not all of her tracks were included in the final editing of the film, so she released a separate album, A Clockwork Orange: Wendy Carlos's Complete Original Score. [ It should be noted that the album was originally released under the name of Walter Carlos - all because that was the name Wendy was born at — she resorted to surgical sex correction in 1979 ].
In 1988, Wendy, along with musical parodist Strange El, recorded her own comedy adaptation of Peter Prokofiev's Petya and the Wolf classic symphonic fairy tale, supplemented with arrangements from Carnival of Animals, suites for French ensemble Camille Saint-Saens. Carlos wrote music for keyboards and an accordion - Al's favorite instrument. The album received a nomination for a Grammy Award in the category "Best Album for Children."
In 1998 the last studio album Carlos - Tales from Heaven and Hell was released. In addition, she made digital remasters of her other albums, and in 2005 released the two-part set Rediscovering Lost Scores, which included previously unpublished materials and unused music for "Clockwork Orange", "Shining" and "Throne".
The first album, Carlos, was intended to show the capabilities of a synthesizer - yet a new and little-known public instrument. Thanks to the work of Wendy Carlos, electronic music has ceased to be academic or purely experimental - it has become mainstream.
Another pioneer in electronic music was Susan Chani, an Italian-American performer and composer who works in the style of New Age.
She worked on a Buchla modular synthesizer — Donald Bukla began developing synthesizers almost simultaneously with Mug. But if Mug wanted to make a device that can be easily mastered and which is convenient to use, then Bukla wanted to experiment with technology in order to get as exotic and strange sounds as possible that had never been created before. For example, this is how the model Buchla 200 looked, released by Don in the 70s .
Chani made music for advertising (Coca-Cola, Merrill Lynch and General Electric) and video games, and also created sound special effects - it owes the appearance of the “branded” sounds of Energizer and ABC and even the sound of a Coca-Cola bottle opening. She made the soundtrack for "The Incredibly Diminished Woman" (The Incredible Shrinking Woman, 1981) with Lily Tomlin and became the first female composer in the "big" Hollywood movie.
In 1982, Chani recorded her first new-age album. Since then, she has released fifteen solo albums (five of which were nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Age album category) and opened her own label, Seventh Wave.
At her concerts, she still plays the synthesizer Buchla 200e , released in 2004 - the design model repeats the synthesizer, on which Chani worked forty years ago.
On these days, Audiomania is conducting CyberNebel . It will last until January 31 inclusive. More than 400 products with fair discounts up to 50% participate in the sale.
However, many women took part in the creation and popularization of this vast musical genre. Today we will tell about two women-pioneers of electronic music - Wendy Carlos (Wendy Carlos) and Susan Chani (Suzanne Ciani), who stood at the origins of the genre and continue to develop it today.
Photo Non Event / CC BY
Wendy Carlos - how it all began
Mass popular electronic music is obliged (oddly enough) to the classics. In the mid-60s, electronic music remained a not very developed genre, interesting mainly to audiophiles and academic musicians, who, experimenting with sound, turned to electronic instruments as well. The genre began to gain popularity in the last third of the 20th century — with the appearance of Wendy Carlos on the electronic “scene”.
In 1964, Wendy Carlos, who had by now finished studying physics and music at Brown University (USA), met Robert Mug , the creator of the "Mug" synthesizer, one of the first portable and relatively cheap monophonic analog synthesizers .
In 1968, Wendy recorded the album Switched-On Bach with her arrangements for The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Two-Part Inventions of Johann Sebastian Bach. It was the first album of its kind in history - recorded on Mug's synthesizers. Thanks to him, electronic music first hit the radar of popular culture: in the American charts, the album stayed in the top 200 for 59 weeks, took the first line in the chart “The Best Classic Albums of 1969-1972” and quickly became platinum.
In 1970, the album received three Grammy at once - for “The Best Classic Album”, “The Best Instrumental Performance by a Solo Performer Without Orchestra” and “The Best Technically Made Record of a Classic Album”. Switched-On Bach is the world's first album of classical music, sold in quantities of more than a million copies.
The album was highly appreciated not only by musicians and critics, but also by listeners. Muga's synthesizers began to be actively sold, gained popularity and gradually pressed the electro-organs that reigned there earlier.
In 1972, Carlos worked with Kubrick on the soundtrack for the movie “A Clockwork Orange” - she wrote the arrangements of Rossini, Purcell and Beethoven for a synthesizer. Not all of her tracks were included in the final editing of the film, so she released a separate album, A Clockwork Orange: Wendy Carlos's Complete Original Score. [ It should be noted that the album was originally released under the name of Walter Carlos - all because that was the name Wendy was born at — she resorted to surgical sex correction in 1979 ].
- March from “A Clockwork Orange” (“Ode to Joy”, 4th part of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9)
- Together with Kubrick, Carlos worked one more time - in the movie "Shining"
In 1988, Wendy, along with musical parodist Strange El, recorded her own comedy adaptation of Peter Prokofiev's Petya and the Wolf classic symphonic fairy tale, supplemented with arrangements from Carnival of Animals, suites for French ensemble Camille Saint-Saens. Carlos wrote music for keyboards and an accordion - Al's favorite instrument. The album received a nomination for a Grammy Award in the category "Best Album for Children."
In 1998 the last studio album Carlos - Tales from Heaven and Hell was released. In addition, she made digital remasters of her other albums, and in 2005 released the two-part set Rediscovering Lost Scores, which included previously unpublished materials and unused music for "Clockwork Orange", "Shining" and "Throne".
The first album, Carlos, was intended to show the capabilities of a synthesizer - yet a new and little-known public instrument. Thanks to the work of Wendy Carlos, electronic music has ceased to be academic or purely experimental - it has become mainstream.
Susan Chani - The New Wave
Another pioneer in electronic music was Susan Chani, an Italian-American performer and composer who works in the style of New Age.
She worked on a Buchla modular synthesizer — Donald Bukla began developing synthesizers almost simultaneously with Mug. But if Mug wanted to make a device that can be easily mastered and which is convenient to use, then Bukla wanted to experiment with technology in order to get as exotic and strange sounds as possible that had never been created before. For example, this is how the model Buchla 200 looked, released by Don in the 70s .
Chani made music for advertising (Coca-Cola, Merrill Lynch and General Electric) and video games, and also created sound special effects - it owes the appearance of the “branded” sounds of Energizer and ABC and even the sound of a Coca-Cola bottle opening. She made the soundtrack for "The Incredibly Diminished Woman" (The Incredible Shrinking Woman, 1981) with Lily Tomlin and became the first female composer in the "big" Hollywood movie.
In 1982, Chani recorded her first new-age album. Since then, she has released fifteen solo albums (five of which were nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Age album category) and opened her own label, Seventh Wave.
At her concerts, she still plays the synthesizer Buchla 200e , released in 2004 - the design model repeats the synthesizer, on which Chani worked forty years ago.
On these days, Audiomania is conducting CyberNebel . It will last until January 31 inclusive. More than 400 products with fair discounts up to 50% participate in the sale.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/409687/