Switched-On Bach | Johann Sebastian Bach, Wendy Carlos | To Those Who Just Don't Get It.....

Switched-On Bach | Johann Sebastian Bach, Wendy Carlos | Fascinating stuff..

popular music:

Switched-On Bach

	Switched-On Bach Johann Sebastian Bach, Wendy Carlos East Side Digital, 2001 average customer review:based on 41 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

To Those Who Just Don't Get It.....

After Bob Moog's death one week ago, I found myself listening to everything I have in my collection that was performed on a Moog synthesizer. This includes all of the Carlos stuff, all of Hans Wurmans's material (commercially released and otherwise) that I am lucky to have..it's harder to find..., and that of other artists and non-so-artistic performers. I even listened to my own opus from college electronic music lab and my own subsequent multi-track home studio work with my two MiniMoogs + MicroMoog.

In all of this, there is no way to get around the fact that the original Switched-On-Bach is the paramount of analog synthesizer performances known to me. I estimate that since a grade school music teacher first played the opening track for us when SOB first came out, and I begged my very reluctant, classically trained, serious-musician parents to buy me the LP, that I have listened to the album almost 2000 times.

I am a classical musician, recording engineer, and hear tons of music daily. I never get tired of J.S. Bach's music, and the amazing performances of Walter/Wendy Carlos do not wear thin. I have a pretty good idea of how Carlos put these tracks together, and why, and over what time period and under what conditions. I know how hard it is to pay Bach's complex music well, and I am very familiar with the huge difficulties in even approximating those performance values on multi-tracked synthesizer without MIDI, computer assistance, or sequencers. I also know that Carlos did this work at home using a very limited home-built multi-track recorder and mixer, on an instrument that was not at all refined, even for an early synth. And yet the music sings, and jumps out of the speakers, and dances and lives.

The work of others is simple organ playing by comparison. Carlos did the impossible, and the results are still marvelous today.

for more information click here

Fascinating stuff..

Back in 1971, at the University Of Kentucky in Lexington, a music major Bruce somebody introduced me to this album. Yes, album - the black round things called LPs. This album got me hooked on Bach's music lock, stock, and barrel.

I recall many music officinados critized this work as being virtual blasphemy towards Bach. Word was that the great organist and Bach scholar, E. Power Biggs, was extremely pained to witness the Master's work being so desecrated.

I distinctly remember at a usual Friday night beer bash, Bruce and a calculus teaching assistant (Wirjadi??); almost got into a fist fight over whether this was genuine music or a coarse mechanical device imitating art and making a fast buck for the artist. But when one listens to this album (now on CD) there is no doubt that this is great stuff. Listen to track 5 - the Two Part Invention in D Minor. You will be convinced that this is beautiful music albeit NOT note for note but truly fascinating. This work was done by an outstanding artist at a time when few had heard of a Moog Synthesizer.

This is an excellent album that gave me untold hours of enjoyment but more importantly introduced me to Bach's music. Thank you Walter Carlos (now Wendy Carlos). Excellent work!

for more information click here

One of my all-time favorites.

I try to sing it in the shower every morning...
It's so much a part of my life I can hardly express my admiration.

Groovy Bach

As a serious student of Bach and the Baroque, I am very particular about recordings and performances of Bach's music, but Carlos' Switched on Bach was a milestone in my youth that cannot be underestimated. I first checked it out of the public library when I was a scrawny teenager and budding musician. The novelty and quirkiness of the Moog analog synthesizer made a powerful impression on me. I played the disc over and over for weeks, earning me a hefty overdue fine. Listening to it decades later, has made me appreciate the artistic vision of Wendy/Walter Carlos, perhaps in a nostalgic way. We live in a world where period-instrument performances are commonplace and it is refreshing to step back into time when making Bach groovy feels good.

for more information click here

Entry into baroque music

I have the original vinyl, which taught me what Baroque music was about. For the uninitiated, listening to Baroque music on original instruments is difficult, because it is hard to hear all of the melodic lines. The artist exposes these lines, using the Moog to generate unique timbers for each.

I bought the CD because the vinyl is long since worn out. The only thing I didn't like is the artist's comments on the recording process at the end of the CD. However, they are easy to skip over.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9

products you might be interested in