# most interesting use of synthesizers in classical music?



## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

If there's an instrument that I'd love to hear more in the hands of composers it's the synthesizer. 
Altough I'm quite ignorant about the technical aspects of the instrument it clearly has endless possibilities in terms of sounds and even expressivity, especially now that with the advancements of technology that is much more mature than forty years ago. Sometimes when I listen to some amazing demo of those instrument I wonder what it would be able to produce if more composers would embrace it.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

You may want to try to hear Philip Manoury’s Zeitlauf, where the voices are transformed with a Bucchla synthesiser.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Probably the best example is Carlos's _Beauty in the Beast,_ though there will be no YouTube videos of it.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Also -- depending on your definition of "classical music" -- a lot of the most interesting serious music being done on synthesizers these days is being done for film soundtracks.

Now, synthesizers *can* be used to imitate symphonic instruments. I don't consider that a very creative use of the synthesizer though, any more than a robot horse would be a valid replacement for a horse-and-buggy. If you want to use synthesizers for serious music, you should use them to do things only synthesizers can do.

Like this (listen on headphones):


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

NoCoPilot said:


> Probably the best example is Carlos's _Beauty in the Beast,_ though there will be no YouTube videos of it.


that's an album I love, Poem for Bali especially is memorable. Too bad there aren't many others who followed that path that Carlos opened with that work. The use of electronics to avoid the limitations of microtonality of acoustic instrument was truly something else. It feels like a Apollo mission, it went to the moon a long time ago and nobody has still tried to replicate that or go further.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

NoCoPilot said:


> Also -- depending on your definition of "classical music" -- a lot of the most interesting serious music being done on synthesizers these days is being done for film soundtracks.
> 
> Now, synthesizers *can* be used to imitate symphonic instruments. I don't consider that a very creative use of the synthesizer though, any more than a robot horse would be a valid replacement for a horse-and-buggy. If you want to use synthesizers for serious music, you should use them to do things only synthesizers can do.
> 
> Like this (listen on headphones):


I definitely agree. I don't really care for just imitations of real instruments. Altough physical modeling synths like the Yamaha VL1 were able to produce incredible things (but even there, altough it was possible make a better imitation of physical instruments than with previous synths, it was the things that are beyond that that are the most intriguing ones, from weird concepts like bowed flutes to completely out of this world sounds). I just want one of those VL1 synths. And those were made in the early nineties, I wonder what it could be possible today with that technology.


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## Joe B (Aug 10, 2017)

*most interesting use of synthesizers in classical music?*










The use of a synthesizer in this application works. It is also the best choral performance of the work I've ever heard.


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