Audio Files

Synth Pioneer Robert A. Moog 1934-2005

By Cory Casciato
casciato@mscd.edu

The most important figure in the past 50 years of music wasn't a musician or a composer, but an engineer. From the moment Robert Moog (pronounced to rhyme with vogue) built his first synthesizer in 1964, the sound of music was forever changed.

Moog died on Aug. 21, of brain cancer. He was 71.

With a shock of wavy, white hair and a pocket-protector fashion sense, Robert Moog looked more like a cross between a mad scientist and a kindly grandfather than the godfather of electronic music. Due in large part to his influence, synthesizers have become a ubiquitous presence in almost every genre of music.

Although he didn't technically invent the synthesizer, before Moog began building them they were nothing but curiosities in academic music labs. His modular systems were the first commercially available electronic instruments. Roughly the size of a wardrobe, weighing several hundred pounds, and very expensive, they were a tool for a few adventurous and well-heeled souls. When Wendy Carlos' Switched On Bach, an album of Bach pieces realized entirely on her Moog modular system, became a hit, the world at large became aware of this strange new instrument.

The success of the album spawned dozens, if not hundreds, of gimmicky imitations and helped Moog sell his instruments faster than he could make them. Rock musicians quickly gravitated towards these instruments and the bold, new sounds they produced. The Beatles used them. Keith Emerson built his entire musical identity around them. Later, synthesizers helped to define whole new genres of music.

Moog followed up his enormous, fragile modular systems with a number of smaller, cheaper and easier to use synths. The introduction of the Minimoog in 1970 was an evolutionary leap forward, making it possible for the average working musician to explore the incredible potential of synthesis. Offering the base functionality of his giant modular systems in a portable, affordable and easy to use package, the Minimoog created the market for synthesizers and hastened their acceptance into the vocabulary of popular music.

The Minimoog was a smashing success. Its design was elegant and its sound was incredible. Capable of producing anything from warm, soft "string" and "horn" sounds to earth-shaking bass to squealing, discordant outer-space noises, it was easy to integrate into most any style. Musicians quickly fell in love with it and bought it in droves. It was used to sweeten pop songs and to create bold, jarring timbres that suggested entirely new musical forms.

It wasn't long before dozens of companies followed his lead and began producing instruments to compete with Moog. His company, Moog Music, continued to refine the technology and add features into later models. Despite plenty of fierce competition, the word synthesizer was synonymous with Moog in most people's minds until digital synths began to overtake the market in the early '80s.

Moog continued to create and sell electronic music instruments throughout his life, all bearing his warm sound and unique touch. Today, his vintage instruments fetch incredible prices from collectors and enthusiasts. Companies that specialize in the maintenance and modification of his synthesizers do a healthy business. Software designed to emulate the sounds of his classic instruments is popular among today's generation of electronic musicians. Bands such as Thelonious Moog, First Moog Quartet, and The Moog Cookbook took his name as part of their own. Hipsters sport t-shirts and hats bearing the distinctive Moog Music logo.

It's safe to say that without Moog, the history of music, especially pop music, would be very different. Whole genres, from new wave to techno, are defined by the sound of the synthesizer. His creations broadened the sonic palette available to musicians like nothing before or since. For more than 40 years, Moog turned science and technology into strange, beautiful and bold new sounds. Music will never be the same, and the world is better for it.

Thanks, Bob, and goodbye. We'll miss you.