IWD: WENDY CARLOS: THE GENRE - BENDING ELECTRONIC MUSIC PIONEER
Wendy Carlos' impressive career spans decades, and despite transphobic prejudice, she has changed the face of electronic music forever.
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Wendy Carlos is rightly celebrated as a groundbreaking experimental composer and musician. Her 1968 debut album ‘Switched-On Bach’ showcased her talent for surpassing the boundaries of electronic music; as well as this, she contributed to the creation of the world’s first commercial synthesizer. All the while, Carlos was dealing with the personal trauma of gender dysphoria and prejudice against her gender transition. To mark Women’s History Month, VOCAL GIRLS remembers Carlos’ monumental achievements, both as a pioneering musician and a gender-transitioning woman in the 1970s.
Despite her remarkable accomplishments, the first biographical account of Carlos’ life wasn’t published until last year. The biographer, Amanda Sewell, tells of Carlos’ working class upbringing in Rhode Island: her parents were unable to afford instruments, so her family resorted to drawing pianos for her to practise playing on, sparking her adoration for composition. Described by Sewell as ‘an anxious, bullied teenager’, Carlos’ musical interest led to endless nights of reclusivity in her basement. Here, Carlos meticulously developed machinery, including the likes of a computer, a Hi-Fi system and a tape machine for music-making, all inspired by the likes of pivotal Electronic artist Pierre Henry. Little did she know, she, herself was paving the way to becoming as influential as her electronic music inspirations.
After graduating from Brown and Columbia in Physics and Music, Carlos attended a New York conference where she met Richard Moog, the creator of the Moog synthesizer (the world’s first commercial synthesizer). Carlos offered him suggestions like sound filter banks and pitch-sliding controls, which later became iconic features of the original Moog release. Prior to this creation, synthesizers were regarded as scientific room-filling machinery, rather than commercial portable musical instruments. The Moog synthesizer went on to fill university classrooms all over the world, allowing students and musicians to create sound affordably and electronically. Next came the electronic age of music.
Image Credit: @PRITHANDPEN
Wendy Carlos forefronted the boom in Electronic music from here onwards. In 1968, Carlos released her debut quadrupel Grammy award-winning album, ‘Switched-On Bach’, an album of classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s music performed entirely on a Moog synthesiser. Not only did her album popularise the use of the Moog, it also drew huge success. Carlos went on to compose then frighteningly experimental and progressive film soundtracks, with her work being featured on the discographies of ‘The Clockwork Orange’ and ‘The Shining’. Carlos changed the face of film music with her use of electronic ambience, which was even more evident in her second release ‘Sonic Seasonings’ (1972). Composed three years before the familiar sounds of artists like Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno, the record was the first notable use of musical ambience the world had ever heard. The album investigated the atmospheric soundscapes of the seasons which has even inspired the likes of ‘Stranger Things’ composer, Kyle Dixon.Carlos opened the world’s eyes to the limitless capabilities of music through electronic instruments; she demonstrated there was so much more to sound than classical instruments.
However, despite Carlos’ huge initial success, she was fearful of the soon-to-come prejudice she would face in response to her gender transition. ‘Switched-On Bach’ exceeded all of her expectations of success, and so, overwhelmed, she disappeared from the public eye for a decade whilst undergoing her gender transition. In her first open article with Play Boy in 1979, she was named as ‘a phantom figure, living in [her] own version of the opera house’. Carlos spoke of being terrified of how coming out openly as a woman would impact her and her friends in fear of becoming victims of wrath or abuse. On reflection, this interview reveals the heartbreaking personal turmoil underpinning a woman at the peak of her career, showered in fame and awards. However, it is also notable how Carlos became one of the first openly transgender individuals in the industry, once again pushing societal boundaries in an even more admirable form.
Following this interview, Carlos remained relatively isolated. Whilst her work lives on to ignite today’s music scene, she continues to live in solitarily with her close friendship group. She is now 81 years old and has declined many interview offers in regards to Amanda Sewell’s ‘Wendy Carlos: A Biography’. Endearing personal notes of hers can be found on her website, however. For Women’s History Month 2021, we reminisce on Wendy Carlos’ phenomenal contributions to today’s modern music world, her raw journey through gender transition and how she raised awareness of transgender rights, decades before our beginning.
