Robert Moog’s sad death at just 71 brings back a memory of the first year of secondary school when the music teacher played a record – Walter Carlos’s ‘Switched-On Bach’ – which was one of the first records to make extensive use of Moogs when it was made in 1968 and which I had heard previously during assembly at primary school.
Our primary school always played a piece of classical (a.k.a. ‘serious’) music as the kids filed in and had a board up displaying the composer’s name and the name of the piece of music (which I recall Dad made from blue Perspex!). We were exposed to numerous pieces of music this way, but mostly strictly from the classiscal and neo-classicial eras (I know that now but obviosuly didn’t then). But one day they played Switched-on Bach and I recall being at least a tad intrigued. (Incidentally ‘Walter’ is now ‘Wendy Carlos‘ after a sex-change op, but that’s another story. ;))
So when in the muisc class at secondary school early in the first year the teacher asked us which instrument was being played on that record, I was alone in answering ‘synthesizer’. I recall the other kids laughing at the suggestion, but I knew what I was right – smug git that I was.