Iara Lee’s ambitious 1998 documentary Modulations: Cinema for the Ear tries to fit the entire history of electronic music into 73 minutes. It’s a good try, and it’s worth watching for its crazy array of interview subjects, who range from Genesis P-Orridge to Karlheinz Stockhausen, and for its snapshots of 90s dance cultures around the world. From the point of view of a person who studiously avoided glowsticks and pacifiers during this historical moment, it’s interesting to look at these scenes from the remove of two decades: compared to today’s apocalypse culture, the millennium’s end-of-the-world styles seem quaint, fun, almost utopian.

Though there’s a lot of emphasis on contemporary house and techno, Modulations is a survey of the history of electronic music that takes in everything from the Futurists’ noise experiments to jungle. It keeps up a dizzying pace, and doesn’t let you look into any of these artists, movements or scenes too deeply, but what a cast: legendary producers Giorgio Moroder and Teo Macero, musique concrète pioneer Pierre Henry, Robert Moog, members of Can, and John Cage are among the dozens of figures who get screen time. (Yet no Wendy Carlos?) If you want more of this stuff, there’s a CD soundtrack and a book tie-in.
 

 
via Genesis Breyer P-Orridge

 
Theremins are associated with the Beach Boys and as a cheesy sound effect used for UFOs in sci-fi movies from decades ago, although actually in both cases the instrument in question is actually a Tannerin, otherwise known as an electrotheremin, which is far easier to manipulate to get the desired tones—that was developed by Paul Tanner, trombonist with the Glenn Miller Band.

But this is the theremin we’re talking about, and you can’t talk about the development or popularity of the theremin without discussing Clara Rockmore. A native of Lithuania, Rockmore (1911-1998) has been called the “premiere artiste of the electronic music medium” (look at the album cover below), “the greatest theremin virtuosa” and “probably the world’s first electronic music star.”

Rockmore’s given name was Clara Reisenberg—her sister was the well-regarded pianist Nadia Reisenberg. In pictures, Rockmore seems like (in younger pics) a magician’s assistant or (as she gets older) someone’s dowdy old aunt. But don’t let appearances fool you—Rockmore was pretty badass. Léon Theremin, inventor of the instrument that bore his name, wanted to marry her and proposed several times, but she turned him down cold and married an attorney instead. In 1940 she toured the U.S. with none other than Paul Robeson. She was 66 years old in 1977 when her first album, The Art of the Theremin, was released. (Actually, the album in question, pictured below, hardly has a discernable title—if anything it’s Theremin—but over time it has come to be called The Art of the Theremin.)
 

 
Nobody seems to know when the footage in the clip below was taken, but judging from the quality of the video, the haircuts, and the clothes, I’d say it was the mid- to late 1970s. In attendance are Clara Rockmore and her sister Nadia; Nadia’s son Bob Sherman, who introduces the scene; Dr. Robert Moog; and Dr. Thomas Ray, who is named as a scholar of electronic music. Moog, of course, produced The Art of the Theremin, which perhaps serves as another clue as to the timing of this clip.

I really dig the odd sculptural item in the middle of the table, with the dangling silver orbs. After a few minutes’ chitchat about the theremin, Rockmore treats us to a few minutes of “Hebrew Melody.”
 

 
Last week, Ileana Grams-Moog, widow of electronics genius Bob Moog, announced that she intends to donate her late husband’s personal archive of notes, plans, drawings and recordings to the Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in Ithaca, N.Y.

Via Mountain Xpress:

“It was Bob‘s wish that his archives be preserved and made accessible to other scientists, inventors, engineers and innovators,” Asheville resident Grams-Moog said in a press release. “The Cornell Library makes its extensive rare collections accessible to students and scholars all over the world.”

Noting that Moog earned his Ph.D. in engineering physics from Cornell in 1965, she added: “It has been eight years since my husband’s death and I am happy that my gift to Cornell will finally make this rich collection available. Bob would be pleased to know his life’s work is finally being properly preserved and made available to current and future generations to advance upon his work.”

This news did not sit well with Moog’s daughter, Michelle Moog-Koussa, who oversees the nonprofit Bob Moog Foundation in Asheville, NC, where the inventor lived from 1979 until his death in 2005. She says that she and other family members are unhappy about the decision to send her father’s papers to his alma mater, although she acknowledges that her stepmother has the legal rights to the archives:

“We believe firmly that Bob Moog’s archives belong in Western North Carolina,” says Moog-Koussa. “Western North Carolina was my father’s spiritual home for 25 years. It’s important that the archives remain here with the foundation, because not only are we best suited to care for them, but we’re best suited to interpret them.

Unfortunately, there’s been a lot of misinterpretation of Bob Moog’s legacy. And we’ve made it our work to make sure we’re giving an accurate portrayal of history.”

At this time, most of Moog’s papers are stored in climate-controlled storage facility that is run by the North Carolina Dept. of Cultural Resources along with the significant archives of Black Mountain College, the fabled Asheville-based liberal arts college where the likes of Josef Albers, John Cage, Robert Creeley, Merce Cunningham, Willem de Kooning, Robert Duncan, Buckminster Fuller, Robert Motherwell and others taught in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

Aware that some members of Moog’s family are unhappy with the announcement of the papers bequeathment to Cornell, Grams-Moog stated:

“I’ve wrestled with this for quite a while now. I take my responsibility as the steward of Bob’s archives very seriously. After all these years, I can rest more easily now knowing they have found the right home – a world-class facility at an institution that has experience preserving and providing access to material of this caliber.”

Below, The History of the Minimoog Synthesizer:
 

 
Nice time-lapse video of a Robert Moog mural commissioned by Moog Music for their factory in Asheville, NC. The mural was created by local Asheville artist, Dustin Spagnola.
 

 
Thanks, Dustin!

Google’s Moog doodle.
 
Robert Moog inventor of the Moog synthesizer was born on this date 78 years ago. His invention has been so much a part of modern music that even Google has paid homage to Moog by creating an interactive doodle on its homepage. Cute. If you haven’t done it already, go over to Google’s page and play the thing.

I too am a big fan of synthesizers. I’ve used all kinds on my own recordings, including Moogs. The Moog sound has a distinct warm and rich personality all its own - the Nat King Cole of synthesizers.

Here’s a video offering in commemoration of Robert Moog’s birthday and his fabulous invention. 

Moog features interviews and performances by Stereolab, Keith Emerson, Walter Sear, Gershon Kinsgley, Jean-Jacques Perrey & Luke Vibert, Rick Wakeman, DJ Spooky, Herb Deutsch, Bernie Worrell, Pamelia Kurstin, Tino Corp., Charlie Clouser, Money Mark, Mix Master Mike and others
 

Summer 1978: Read this issue in its entirety here.
 
Holy cow! What a goldmine! Someone wonderful uploaded all the 70s issues of Synapse Magazine for your reading pleasure. Seriously, if you’re an electronic music buff, be prepared to spend days soaking it all up!
 

January/February 1979: Read this issue in its entirety here.
 

Summer 1979: Read this issue in its entirety here.
 
More issues of Synapse Magazine after the jump…
 

The print above is part of a limited edition of 100 and is screen printed with four colors. It will be available for purchase after the weekend of the festival (November 1st).
 
‘Moog’ art print by DKNG Studios for the upcoming show SYNTH at Moogfest 2010.

(via Coudal Partners)