50th Anniversary of Switched on Bach

[Muad’Dib]

Can't believe it's been 50 years since, Switched on Bach was released. I have it on LP.

 

Synthtopia

[cedar]

Now I feel older than usual.

[Muad’Dib]

I wasn't even born until 1971. I'm just a youngster.

[Bobby Simons]

Loved that, and the Clockwork Orange soundtrack. I played them to death.

Then Tomita showed up and permanently adjusted my awareness of the possibilities.

[Muad’Dib]

Yes the Clockwork Orange Soundtrack. I also have her Original Score for the film. On LP and CD. I Also have the Well Tempered Synthesizer, Switched on Bach II, By Request, Sonic Seasonings, and Switched on Brandenburg's.

[Franz Schiller]

A few years back, I bought the Switched On Box set off eBay. It's pretty cool; there are some unfinished songs (my fave is a Scarlatti tune) that are unmixed and unmastered. The raw Moog sound is super bad ass. I kinda wished the rest of the records were like that.

[timwat]

I wish there was a way to buy SOB (and her other releases) at reasonable prices. Since the demise of ESD, is there any normal retail distribution or is it essentially OOP (out of print)?

[MathOfInsects]

Ebay for $1.42 on vinyl and $8 on CD.

 

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=switched+on+bach&_sacat=0&_sop=15&rt=nc&LH_BIN=1

[Rod S]

Let's not forget Beauty in the Beast... makes you listen to music in a different way.

[SteinwayB]

Switched on Bach was one of my first albums. Then Moog Strikes Bach, and Moog Plays the Beetles. I was in the 3rd grade. Fantasized then about having my own modular Moog.

[Ockeghem]

Some great records from that era, and it was a tough act to follow for many years.

Moog's finest hour.

It would be nice to see more electronic Bach from Carlos...but I fear we won't.

[Geoff Grace]

Switched on Bach was the album that made me sit up and take notice of synthesizers. Before then, if I thought of them at all, I considered them a novelty item.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[David Emm]

Let's not forget Beauty in the Beast... makes you listen to music in a different way.

 

I echo this. I was especially struck by her use of the brass overtone series. The whole production takes you to a new world. I gave my disc to a friend who has a major microtonal jones going on and he was gobsmacked. It made me look at my *synths* in a different way. I also heard SOB in *quad* during the brief moment that was a thing. It bounced around the room like the sonic equivalent of the "2001" light show. They left a similar mark on me. Praise Wendy.

 

[NewImprov]

I was 6 years old when SOB came out, and my sister, who would go one to have a career as a classical organist and teacher, brought it home. It was the first record I remember getting obsessed with.

[zukskywalker]

I am so old that my vinyl copy of SOB was done by Walter Carlos.

[Lady Gaia]

Wow. It was the album that started my obsession with electronic music, though I would only hear it eight years after release during an elementary school gym class. I had never heard anything like it, asked my teacher about it, and got hooked.

 

Wendys eventual enthusiasm for Kurzweil may have turned me on to the brand as well, though oddly I've never owned anything from Moog so it can't have been that strong a connection.

[Tom Williams]

I am so old that my vinyl copy of SOB was done by Walter Carlos.

This.

[Fleer]

I was seven. What did I know.

[RABid]

I thought that I would be the perfect market for Switched on Bach. I loved synthesizers. I was trained in classical music. I even played a Bach 3-part as one of my try out pieces for piano major. But I did not enjoy this album. I bought it, listened to it once, and put it on a shelf. Never listened to it again. To me it was dull, lifeless, and maybe the biggest disappointment of any record I have ever purchased.

[Markay]

I thought that I would be the perfect market for Switched on Bach. I loved synthesizers. I was trained in classical music. I even played a Bach 3-part as one of my try out pieces for piano major. But I did not enjoy this album. I bought it, listened to it once, and put it on a shelf. Never listened to it again. To me it was dull, lifeless, and maybe the biggest disappointment of any record I have ever purchased.

Almost exactly the same context and conclusion. Synth as a replacement for acoustic doesn't do it for me. Richter's reinventions blending synth and acoustic instruments does ring my bell.