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The sleek digital
synthesizer of today is so easy to play and so ubiquitous in the world
of popular music that its presence is often taken for granted. In this
well-researched, entertaining, and immensely readable book, Kettlewell
chronicles the synthesizer's early, years, from the turn of the 20th
century - through the mid-1990s. The author gives preeminent pioneer
Robert Moog due prominence, but also charts the achievements of other
luminaries from this era, such as rival inventors Donald Buchla, Tom
Oberheim, Serge Teraphin and Alan Perlman, composers Wendy Carlos and
Pauline Oliveras, and rock stars Keith Emerson and Jan Hammer. American
readers will be interested to learn details of a lesser-known British
entry in the analog synthesizer field-the VCS3-which became the preferred
tool of many rock stars of the 1970s. The author is especially effective
in exploring the cultural, sociological, and economic sides to the
synthesizer revolution. Throughout, his prose is engagingly anecdotal
and accessible, and readers are never asked to wade through dense,
technological jargon. Yet there are enough details to enlighten those
trying to understand this multidisciplinary field of music, acoustics,
physics, and electronics. Highly recommended. information: |
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Electronic
Music Pioneers