# Wendy Carlos



## Horace Rumpole (Apr 4, 2010)

Any fans? I of course love the classic "Switched-On Bach"! However, another I consider a classic that I don't hear a lot about is "Digital Moonscapes". I find it equally as cosmic as Holst's "The Planets"!


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

By a strange coincidence I am listening to Digital moonscapes now. My favorite piece is "Eden." Of course it's the most accessible.

Wendy Carlos and Stanley Kubric are largely responsible for my lifelong journey into classical music. Her album Beauty in the Beast is one of the more esoteric explorations I enjoy.


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## SPR (Nov 12, 2008)

the original 'Switched on Bach' really got me hooked on classical music when I was young. It was new, and on 8-track - and I listened to it over and over. It was great. I was transfixed by the multi-voiced coomplexity - the electronics at play - and the craftsmanship involved to make them.

I actually recently made a playlist for my iPod called 'Moog Wars'.. which has about 25 tracks on it... first the origional classical piece... such as the opening 'Sinfonia to Cantata #29' on the organ and then the Switched on Bach version... or a Scarlatti piano piece on the piano and then again the switched on Bach version. The more I compare - the more I am impressed with what he/she did. It really is a fantastic tachnical and artistic achievement.

I got the Box Set a couple years ago.. which contains the original Switched on Bach I, II... the Well Tempered Synthesizer and Switched on Brandenburgs. Remastered and nicely done at that. There is also several extra tracks that discuss what and how things were done (for example the use of clicktracks for timing and how they had to record everything one voice at a time on a 4-track recorder and then consolidate wipe and re-record tracks to get harmonies etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Switched-Boxed-Set-Recorded-Sound/dp/B00002DDS5

These really are much, much more than silly electronic attempts at recreating music on a synthesizer. Her attention to timbre and voice... and selection of sounds to form these accurate yet very different interpretations of classical selections is really an auditory feast. Its brilliant on its own - but also when you consider what electronic music was capable of in the 60's.... its stunning.

I have not tried Digital Moonscapes... and though I am familiar with music from A ClockWork Orange - I have not listened to it closely. I should get both of them.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Although I enjoy Digital Moonscapes, you might want to try it before you buy. I think it sounds a bit reedy and would benefit from the more realistic string patches we have available today. But then, maybe she was going for a reedy effect.

I have heard rumors that the unused soundtrack she had done for The Shining is awesome and may now be available. I haven't heard it though. (I_ think _that's the correct movie.)


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I remember having a tape of "Bach's greatest hits" on CBS, which included some of Carlos' work. I thought it fitted in well with the more "tradtional" interpretations of Bach's music, it was equally engaging (& memorable). I agree that these recordings show that Carlos had an above average knowledge of Bach's music, and was able to translate that into a more C20th "artificial" sound. It sounds both old & modern, just like Glen Gould's Bach interpretations, but on another level entirely...


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I remember when *Switched On Bach* came out, and being rather impressed.

Now it sounds so quaint and dated.

I lost track of her output, but she's still recording. Here's something from 2020.

EDIT: This is *NOT* _*from*_ Wendy Carlos. It's a track _*CALLED*_ _"Wendy Carlos"_

A pleasant *tribute* anyway.

*Venetian Veil - "Wendy Carlos"*

"There Is a Sadness at the Heart of This World"

Self-released on: 2020-05-15


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

The above track is not *by *Wendy Carlos, it's a track called "Wendy Carlos" by the Sacramento duet named Venetian Veil.
https://venetianveil.bandcamp.com/album/there-is-a-sadness-at-the-heart-of-this-world

Wendy herself has not been heard from since 2005, when she released "Rediscovering Lost Scores" (parts 1 & 2) where she finally released incidental music to _The Shining, Tron, Woundings, Clockwork Orange_ and some UNICEF films she scored. As Weston mentioned above, some of her best work remained unreleased until then.

The last update to her massive website wendycarlos.com was made 3/7/2009, although she did emerge again in August 2020 to decry Amanda Sewell's biography of her -- which was all sourced from public records, no original research, no input from Wendy (who is famously a hermit), and includes lots of speculation about motives and mental states which Wendy loudly denounces as "pure fiction."

Wendy's success at classical music is rather a two-edged sword. Yes, it is the source of her name-recognition, but it overshadowed her talents as a composer in her own right. "Beauty in the Beast" is unbelievably advanced, "Sonic Seasonings" unbelievably beautiful, and "Timesteps," "Rocky Mountains" and "Tales of Heaven and Hell" are evidence of her genius.

Wendy's music unfortunately remains hard to find, because she lost her distributor and isn't comfortable with digital streaming services. It's too bad. She deserves to be better known for her own music, not just the Bach renditions.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

NoCoPilot said:


> The above track is not *by *Wendy Carlos, it's a track called "Wendy Carlos" by the Sacramento duet named Venetian Veil.
> https://venetianveil.bandcamp.com/album/there-is-a-sadness-at-the-heart-of-this-world
> 
> Wendy herself has not been heard from since 2005, when she released "Rediscovering Lost Scores" (parts 1 & 2) where she finally released incidental music to _The Shining, Tron, Woundings, Clockwork Orange_ and some UNICEF films she scored. As Weston mentioned above, some of her best work remained unreleased until then.
> ...


Right you are.

I'll fix it in the post.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

At the time I thought _Switched on Bach_ (by *Walter Carlos*) was a gimmick capitalizing on the then new Moog synthesizer. I was never interested in the music of Walter Carlos and even less so when Walter became Wendy ten years later.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

SanAntone said:


> At the time I thought _Switched on Bach_ (by *Walter Carlos*) was a gimmick capitalizing on the then new Moog synthesizer. .


Same. I was young and arrogant at the time thinking sounds outside by dictions rubbish.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

SanAntone said:


> I was never interested in the music of Walter Carlos and even less so when Walter became Wendy ten years later.


Actually, Walter was already Wendy by the time SOB came out. She was afraid to admit it though, because treatment of gender dysphoria was much less enlightened sixty years ago.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

NoCoPilot said:


> Actually, Walter was already Wendy by the time SOB came out. She was afraid to admit it though, because treatment of gender dysphoria was much less enlightened sixty years ago.


The album was originally credited to Walter Carlos, which was what I posted. It was the music I didn't care for, and only knew it as something put out under that name.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

NoCoPilot said:


> "Beauty in the Beast" is unbelievably advanced


that album is amazing indeed, and it still sounds incredible. I recommended it not so long ago to a person I know who is really into synthesizers and he didn't believed his ears about it was possible that such music was produced in the eighties.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

It was Wendy Carlos' presentation of the Bach Brandenburg #4 that got me seriously into Bach and the BBs. His version of the Presto is superb.


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