Bob Moog, We Hardly Knew Ye

And its a real tradgedy.

Bob Moog has the dubious honor of the Father of Electronic Music. I say dubious because there has been a lot of crappy electronic music that may taint the title that I believe he deserves. Its unfortunate, because the electronic music that Moog gave to us is generally very different than the contemporary electronic music that musicians disdain.

A little background... years ago my ex-girlfriend told me that, as a music major, none of her peers appreciated electronic music. The advent of computer sysnthesis of classical music could kill the delicate ecosystem of funding that classical musicians exist in. Flip on the radio, and tell me the next time that you hear a classical soloist on a commercial station - it should be obvious that classical training doesn't pay well, unless you happen to be in the top 99.5%. For those of you who went to college and happened to get a 4.0, 99.5% is a pretty small slice of the pie - for everyone else, you already know how it is. So the apprehension that classical students might have to the outsourcing of their profession (to a $500 machine) is understandable. An inexpensive program called Reason (www.propellerheads.se) can easily simulate an orchestra of hundreds of people for a hundredth the cost.

But music is about so much more than the rendition of sound For a quick example, compare the sounds of a virtuoso like Yo-Yo Ma, or Joe Satriani, or Jimi Hendrix, to an electronic equivalent like the backdrops of most rap songs and pop stars. Have you ever listened to Britney Spears and said "Damn! That is a fine guitarist!" Modern pop electronic music can be captivating, impressive, and infectious, but I wouldn't call it a reflection of the human soul. Pop electronica has as much to do with soul as WalMart has to do with quality.

So, is calling Moog the Father of this Electronic Music parallel to calling him the Father of WalMart?!? I was a fan of Sams Club in the past, but I wouldn't disgrace Moog with this comparison today. If Sam Walton sells discount products, Moog sells products of the most personal, quality, passionate kind. Moog's basis of electronic music is actually in the theramin, an instrument that is human by nature. A theramin is what makes those whacky 1950's sci-fi noises based on the interference of the human form in an electrical field. Both the theramin and Moog's later electronic synthesis are completely based in analog technogies, and are as much of a personal instrument as a violin. How can electronic music be analog, you ask?

Well, to start off, electronic music was never supposed to replace musicians. The whole idea came later, after Moog started selling instruments to ad agencies in NY. The idea of replacing musicians is also a digital idea, which came far after Moogs original instruments. It may be a startling fact to know that Moog had little to nothing to do with the digital revolution of computers. His instruments, the original Moog synth and the MiniMoog, are both completely analog based, leading to the modern abstraction of the analog synth which is so ubiquitous in modern culture. Haven't heard of the analog synth? Maybe you've heard of the Roland 808, or the "techno" synth pad, maybe the generic electronic keyboard, all extensions of early electronic synthesis. Bascially any "electronic" instrument is based heavily (if not entirely) on Moog's synthesizer. How can I be so sure? Well, the word "synthesizer" was invented by Moog, who sought to describe a sound composed by different electronic modules, or "synthesized".

It was Moog's passion about music and musicians that created the analog synth and the better part of electronic music as we know it. Tragicly, shortly after completing the Moog documentary, Moog learned that he had an inoperable brain tumor and died a few weeks ago. This is a fine example of the situations where religous people say that God had a plan, and everyone else is thankful that the project was completed while there was still time. We are fortunate that a number of amazing people have produced a fantastic musical documentary of this man's career. In the context of current events, Moog is a movie that I rank right next to Dancer in the Dark in movies that make me cry like a little girl. Normally I might oppose anything reminiscent of a little girl, but the passion and tradgedy of both Dancer in the Dark (because its deeply tragic) and Moog (because its true) that it seems the only thing appropriate. If you disagree, I double dog dare you to watch both of them, alone, with a beer in hand. Moog was a quiet but passionate visionary who excelled in something which was his own, tho he was too humble to lay claim to the full bredth of electronic music.