Wendy Carlos, Trans Queen of the Synthesizer | LGBT+ History Month
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2017
- Wendy Carlos made history as a trans woman composer and as an innovator of the synthesizer. We at TLG are incredibly grateful for her work, and we'd like to honor her this LGBT+ History Month!
Check out her website here: www.wendycarlos.com/
Check out my feature in the Dallas Morning News here: www.dallasnews.com/arts/opera...
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Wind Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 103, I. Allegro, by Ludwig van Beethoven and performed by Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (creativecommons.org/licenses/.... Available for download at musopen.org/music/download/10....
Photo credits:
Boffy B, IBM PC 5150. Digital photo. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (creativecommons.org/licenses/.... commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Joe Haupt, Vintage Record Collection: Switched-On Bach, Wendy (Walter) Carlos Performing on the Moog Synthesizer, Columbia Masterworks Records, Released in 1968. Released under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (creativecommons.org/licenses/.... www.flickr.com/photos/5176451....
Ludovic Bertran, Rainbow flag and blue skies. Released under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (creativecommons.org/licenses/.... commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi....
my left ear loves this
Yea, my right ear hated it though
@@1300l I prefer being looked at one eye at a time.
I agree! I can't believe they put this audio trash on here without testing it!
@I M what a clown
This was informative. However, Wendy has stated on her website that she would like people to respect her privacy re: her transition. She prefers to be known for her music, not for her being a transgender woman.
These morons base everything on gender, identity politics 101.
@@Baghuul Except people still are assholes about certain identities, so it's not moronic to want to improve that
Exactly ! There are thousands, perhaps millions of transgender people in this world, but there is only one Wendy Carlos, and the world is yet to see another synthesist as talented, innovative and as creative as Wendy Carlos.
@Farzaan Ali People are sent to the hospital or killed over these topics. No.
@Farzaan Ali The Internet has plenty that is light-hearted, but also plenty that is very serious. If you think threats online have not turned into deaths in the real world, count yourself fortunate.
This was great. I've been meaning to make a video about Carlos's work on non-octave scales for a while now. If I ever get around to it, I'll definitely be linking to this for more context on her as a person.
Thanks! And are you talking about like microtonal scales? I didn't come across anything about her particular musical language, but then again, most of the stuff I was looking at was her synthesizer arrangements of existing music.
Yeah, she did some work with scales where the repeating interval was something other than the octave. Like, her Alpha scale takes a justly-tuned perfect fifth, splits it into 9 even parts (about 78 cents each) and just scales up from there. She wrote about it (and a couple others) here: www.wendycarlos.com/resources/pitch.html
Well this video is now available! 😄 Great both videos!
@@12tone You did wonderful job on Carlos's non octave scales.
She seems have controlled her image to the point where she has also written herself out of of the history of electronic music. Which is a shame, because for me, she is the THE pioneer electronic musician. I'm surprised at how many fellow electronica fans haven't heard of her, let alone listened to her music. An amazing innovator, engineer, musician, soundscaper, and creative. I love her music until I shuffle off for the final time.
Agreed. Her music helped pave the way for Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, YMO, Tomita, Jarre, Vangelis, and countless others.
Wonder if this was because he/she was involved with Disney...
@joe curtin I bought her first two albums when she was Walter.
Her music is in the film A Clockwork Orange and on the record album produced for it. That album is how I first found her work and ended up reading about her.
Delia Derbyshire is THE pioneer.
As a trans woman myself , well done in not showing a photo of her previous self.
he asked for post pics, I think...
@Nelson Robert Willis Because she doesn't identify as that person anymore, so it's just personal respect.
Nelson Robert Willis well your not wendy carlos and gender and age are entirely different things so learn a little respect
She was also the inspiration for Susumu Hirasawa l, the mind behind the Berserk soundtrack. His album Switched on Lotus was named after her first album in memory of his transgender friends who had passed away in Thailand
"Switched On Bach" was the album who really changed the history of the Music. Carlos is a genius and a American Pride.
My dad always used to play an 8-track tape of "Switched on Bach" in his VW Bug. (Yes, this was the 70's.) I loved it so much I bought the album on vinyl, then CD. It's one of my Desert Island Discs, and when I die I want this version of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 played at my memorial.
Was my Mum’s fave too here in the US. I was a teen but I learned to love it and wedged it in between the Beatles and Led Zeppelin.
It's sad that her music has kinda been scrubbed from the internet.
yeah it looks from her website like she was having licensing issues with her label. hopefully we can get a collection sometime!
As near as I can tell, Carlos herself is largely responsible for much of her current obscurity. Apparently, she has been very tight with permissions to use her music, to the point that the only way to hear her music is to listen to the CDs....you won't hear any Carlos on places like TH-cam (and I don't blame her for wanting to control her copyrights). With much of her oeuvre out of print/distribution, it is a shame that newer/younger potential fans can't hear her work.
don't you mean him
@@joeroganofficial5433 wow you're transphobic, just like joe rogan irl
@@saaataaaaaandaaagiiiiii fear of trans. So if I project the idea that I am a surgeon but am really a auto mechanic, or 7 year old says he feels like he is a middle aged man. You would play pretend for their sake as well or are You xyz-phobic too?......you seem intelligent until you speak/type.
Never knew Wendy was trans. "Tron" remains one of my favorite soundtracks of all time.
She also did some stellar work for the film A Clockwork Orange
I had already been a totally fanboy of Wendy's in my teens. When I first discovered the "Switched on Bach" albums in college, my reaction was, "Wait … Wendy has a brother who's a successful musician of electronic music?!? Damn, that's one talented family!"
@@error.418 That’s the best
SHE DID TRON!?!?
She did all of the best soundtracks
I'm surprised you are finding photos of Wendy difficult to source. There are plenty post transition. I love how she kept her Moog for ages in its original pristine state. With Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire she showed just how amazing female electronic musicians were as pioneers. So privileged to live at the same time as these giants.
Wendy Carlos is one of the Great Musical Innovators, Musician and a Genius composer of all time!
Been in awe of her talent as a kid, and I'm still amazed by an exceptional musical prodigy like her! Her recordings should be more readily available, finding them becomes a rewarding quest!
One correction... Moog rhymes with "rogue". Wendy would have corrected you had you spoken to her.
Agreed, people who pronounce Moog like this person get on my nerves.
The man should change his name to "Mogue" then, my dudes.
@@bille77 He’s dead...
I had no idea this woman even existed, so thank you so much for making a video about her.
Whenever you guys come back to this show, it would be neat to see you talk about Henry Cowell or Harry Partch, particularly given that bisexual erasure continues to be an issue even in modern LGBT+ circles but also just because they were so wonderfully out there.
Ahh, I love Wendy Carlos' music, especially the original TRON soundtrack. The synthesizer along together with orchestra works together so well, and the sounds sound futuristic, yet sound like the 80's. Sad to know not many know her music. :(
YES !! She is so underrated.
Why is there only audio in the left channel?
Someone forgot to set the audio to dual mono in editing.
Because not only did Walter---WENDY---refuse to let her photos be used, she also wouldn't help them with the audio.
Pauline Oliveros would be a great composer for the next LGBT+ History Month video
I got to take classes from her at RPI (Deep Listening), and got to work with her on novel instruments for disabled children. She was absolutely astounding. I miss her :(
Moog is a long O, like Vogue. Wendy Carlos is a genius.
It's really cool to learn about the history behind music I've actually already heard in movies. I never would have known about Wendy Carlos (or to be honest....synth music) otherwise. Thank you for sharing this!
She is THE pioneer of electronic music. It's impossible to overstate how influential she was on music that followed. Thanks for sharing.
*Eclipses* and *Synthesizers* , both have to do with hiding, revealing, and transforming.
Also with math and science, things that Ms. Carlos is obviously very passionate about😁
Moog rhymes with vogue.
I think a better title for this video is, "Trans Grandmother of Synth."
Clockwork Orange soundtrack awesome just picked up my third copy on vinyl yesterday for $2 at op-shop
That's where I first discovered her work!
Look up making of The Shining docs. She composed it. There is post-transition video there.
When he says "literally invent a new vocoder" I wonder how one might figuratively invent one and thus justify the need to clarify this particular case of invention.
Thank you this video about one of my heroes.There is a photo of Wendy on her web page (a site that is in dire need of an update). I'm not surprised pictures are rare. Wendy has always been strict in policing her image and music rights especially after some cruel responses to the Playboy interview. She pursued copyright violations decades before TH-cam and file sharing made it such a public crime.
@Nelson Robert Willis Yeah, personal respect is so confusing, crazy to be respectful of people's wishes
@Nelson Robert Willis Nice job side-stepping my point. Have some respect for others.
The Playboy article itself was an act of cruelty, taking the interview and twisting it to ridicule and humiliate her.
there are plenty of images of wendy post-transition though, just a google search away
I am so stoked! I randomly found The Well Tempered Synthesizer in a shop! Still has the original sleeve and insert, too.
Jamie Clayton should play Carlos in a Biopic.
Awesome video! I can't wait for more videos like these
there's plenty of pictures online of her as a woman posing and everything "freely" so idk what ur talking about with there not being images of her to display.
Moog is pronounced to rhyme with "rogue."
For pictures of Wendy, (and her cats) have a look at her website: www.wendycarlos.com/
There's also this BBC interview of her: th-cam.com/video/Z3cab5IcCy8/w-d-xo.html
no photo of her. none of her music. so what is this clip about again?
An unnecessary opportunity to lecture to troglodyte heterosexuals about how narrow minded you are. Just so you know, not all LGBTQIAI people, of which I am one, don't find it necessary to constantly remind others that they are not us
I love the WC/WAY collaboration on a story Al likes to call, "Peter and the wolf." I do not think of it as a parody at all.
Wendy Carlos what a hero
Her 1986 album Beauty in the beast is a masterpiece.
only freely available image is of her pre-transition ?? do a google image search of wendy carlos... there are dozens of pictures her..
REPLY
+free slideshows what I meant by "freely available" is that the remaining photos all require permission from Wendy herself to use in a video. Any photo you see of her is likely her property, with the exception of one pre-transition photo.
Why is the audio nearly almost entirely in the left channel?
This was a great video but why was the audio panned all the way left?
All the dislikes are from the right ears who didn't get to listen
happy birthday wendy!
The sound of this video is only on the left side channel, did you notice?
I’m just waiting for here to release this music on Spotify. I want to be able to listen to the full soundtrack of a clockwork orange without having to go and find a Sketchy website to listen to it.
She never will -- she's become a bit like Prince, not allowing her music to be heard anywhere, and to make matters worse, no-one can sell her stuff on eBay either. She's become quite apt at undermining her musical legacy, I feel.
Her photo's on her website... but good luck trying to find her music on YT and most of her back catalog goes for a lot of $$ now.
When it comes to Disney films, I feel like I'm in the minority, enjoying the live action films best. And Tron is my number one favourite. Wendys' music is part of a whole which helped me escape so many bleak time in my childhood, including being trans. Wendys' music will always remind me of a heroic program who refused to bow down to the system and continued to fight for freedom and justice.
Fine, but as a gay man, don't throw me into whatever causes you find necessary to create a building block of LGBTQIAI.......and on and on
I love Wendy's music. That she is a woman zero impact on my opinion of her music. That she is trans also has zero impact. Her art stands by itself, and I would always seek to address her as she would prefer. The weird bit in this video is that it says there aren't any photos of her post transition....she has her photo on her website.....
Is this video only available in mono?
This is so cool! Great video!
I was one of those who was captivated by "Switched on Bach" and the following number of releases by Walter/Wendy Carlos (LOVE what she did with the MOOG!)..I .have most of the early recordings on tape...and yes I knew she was transgender...as am I in what I like and feel. LOVE Walter/Wendy Carlos!
David Diamond might be a good subject for a video. I think he's less well known these days than some of his contemporaries, but seems like quite an interesting character.
OMG he's from Rochester! I might actually be able to do a documentary-style video with some local historians!
I have always been a big Wendy Carlos fan ever since I heard her music in Tron. I've figured out a few of the songs in the score, it is not easy to do. She writes in synthetic scales and constant key changes. This is the epitome of 20th century 'classical'. But beyond music composition, she creates sounds on her synths that you just don't hear anywhere else. I'm an electronic musician myself, and Wendy Carlos is very much one of my most influential electronic musicians ever. Everything else you hear on synthesizer or movie score composition is amateur hour. I do love the Tron Legacy soundtrack, but it is nowhere near the harmonic or tonal complexity that Carlos' score is.
Personally, I couldn't care less about Wendy's private life except for that which led to her unique synth and compositional style. I believe she had a formal music education and was one of Bob Moog's earliest customers and a personal friend. She is a great musician and a sorely underrated and unknown giant in the world of electronic music and movie score composition.
now check out the wonderfully strange and dark music of Anna-Varney Cantodea - Sopor Aeternus and The Ensemble of Shadows
I don't have any favourite LGBT musicians, I just have favourite musicians. I prefer to enjoy the qualities of music that are unifying, that brings us together and helps us to see our connection to one another and the world around us, rather than something that categorises, segregates and divides is pigeonholes us (that never seems to bode well in humans).
Of least importance in life and in music, in my opinion, are those pigeonholes based on gender, race, sexuality, they're so superficial and unimportant when you consider all the amazing, meaningful things that we can allow to define who we are, e.g; love, our relationships to those close to us, creativity, science... etc.
Yeah, but recognizing how much torment she went through and given that a lot of that factors in to how she has essentially withdrawn entirely from society says a lot about how we need to do better about talking about these issues. Until people are able to accept others for who they are without becoming angry at them and taking aggressive and spiteful actions, we have to keep talking about this stuff.
@@error.418 honestly I've seen you under every comment like this one, good on you for defending people's right to exist :)
@@heckicusdoomicuswizardus1382 You'd think it wouldn't be all that hard to value human life...
My right ear wants to know where the audio is .... Literally you channeled all the audio for this video into the left channel..... why?
Interesting topic well presented. The light reflection on your glasses can be a bit distracting. I think there are ways to angle things differently to reduce that. That would be worth looking into.
I can totally get that. The recording situation-my living room-is incredibly limiting space-wise, unfortunately, so the lights are really just too close to me. There is a studio I can use on-campus, which I originally did for this (and the coming three) videos, but I wasn't used to the lights there and everything came out even worse than this, if you can imagine. Hopefully before I record my December footage I can get some help from people who actually know what they're doing! I'm always learning here >_
The Listener's Guide thanks for the background. Lightning can be tricky. Unfortunately I’m not an expert in that area either. Diffusion and reflection may be helpful. If you have a big white wall or ceiling you may be able to bounce some light off that for a more diffused look. There are trade offs but it might be worth experimenting with. A large white sheet may also be an option for a diffuser. There are floor to ceiling poles that act as clamps for holding up plastic sheeting walls for construction partitioning that could be an improvised way to make a diffuser wall with a sheet.
Thanks for making and sharing these videos with us.
Wonderful. Thank you!
Here's a clip with Wendy talking about her music: th-cam.com/video/Z3cab5IcCy8/w-d-xo.html
"the only freely photo of Carlos is pre transition"
Could you not screenshot a video of her or something?
She is so wonderful. And icon!
Great Video. She needs more recognition.
Check out Pablo Alborán from Spain. Amazing musician, beautiful voice, plays piano and guitar. He recently came out publicly in a video
So? What does that have to do with his craft?
Feature Hardy Fox from the Residents who just passed away recently.
And all these tik tok kids thinking they breaking boundaries..Wendy been there first!
I'm trying to find this one trans composer on TH-cam but forgot her username. She uses a picture of a girl wearing glasses with a paintbrush in her teeth. Anyone remember her name?
I love her work
first off theres plenty of pictures of her, and second off she passed away in 2001?
Excellent bio! Please profile Anohni next
shoutout 12tone
Your very respectful
This is my 2nd cousin😊
Klaus Nomi is fascinating.
Awesome musician.
currently filming a commercial documentary on Wendy.
Just curious... What is a "commercial documentary"?
Hi Matt, super interested in your doco, please get in contact. I would be very interested in helping in any way possible.
left ear: why would you hurt me in that way
bounce in stereo next time! :O
It's pronounced Moog (rhymes with "Vogue"). Will people ever stop mis- pronouncing it????? Get it right. It's NOT the sound a cow makes.....
This feels wrong. It would be far more productive & respectful just to treat Wendy as person that instead simply as an excuse for an LGBTQ piece.
This is a great video but please fix the audio.
Why is this in mono?
Very informative.
I'm enjoying your videos - but you are mispronouncing the inventor of the Moog synthesizer - it's not "moo" as in "moo cow", "mo" as in "mow the lawn". When they were first commercially introduced I went to a presentation by Moog Music. It was primitive at first, but clearly a step forward.
Yeah, or you can say rhymes with "rogue" or "vogue"
Wendy Carlos' websites has plenty of images of her...
Yes, but he doesn't have permission to reproduce them in a video
@@error.418 True, but he can include a link to her website. There's also a clip on TH-cam of a BBC interview of her, something else he could link to.
If you didn't want to show pictures out of respect to Wendy's control over her image, why is there a picture of her in the thumbnail, which is like the first thing a lot of us see? Is that picture not of her? The person in the picture's outfit looks very like Declaration-of-Independence dated, and from the video it sounds like Wendy Carlos is still alive? I'm confused.
pretty sure the thumbnail is from the album cover of Switched On Bach (the full thing is shown around 1:30) it's a photograph so it isn't actually Bach but it's certainly someone dressed up to look like Bach. as to who that someone is, idk and frankly idgaf. i was a little bit confused by the thumbnail as well (synthesizers but old-timey clothes?) but it made perfect sense when i watched the video
Sorry for the confusion! But yes, that photo is form the cover of Switched-On Bach-I just thought it would be more appropriate to have a human in the thumbnail than a computer or synthesizer, but I can definitely see how that might lead to some misunderstanding.
The Listener's Guide oh! That makes way more sense! Thanks!
I don't think the picture on the album cover is Wendy, she looks completely different in all other photos of her, as unepommeverte17 states, it's just someone dressed like Bach. Although it was misleading to put someone on the album who isn't the performer, but at the time the album was released she was something of a recluse.
The album cover is NOT Wendy. I know Wendy. NOT her!
my right ear is lonely
COIL , LUULI (PSYTRANCE ARTIST),
My favourite lgbt+ musician is wendy. of course the second favourite is myself lolol
I thought my right ear bud broke😂
"New age muisc" you mena new wave right?
Tchcossky
Pronounced Mogh, not Moog.
Mooooooooooooooog
The fact that she doesn't like to talk about gender at all and protect her privacy makes me respect her all the more.
Coil
Moog is pronounced like the father of the Klingon Worf, “Mohg”, not “Moooog“, like a cow.
i dont know what to say
Please do a video on Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles. The world would be a completely different place if he didn't believe in them.
@Nelson Robert Willis Yes, but that proves how much of an issue people make of his sexuality,, not his genius in recognizing greatness. Whatever his personal drive was is irrelevant.
@Nelson Robert Willis Yes, I read it and it completely killed my impression of John Lennon, what a mean asshole he was! It's a great read, really gets inside the story.
No one really went into her her transitioning. What she is known for is music. The rest is her private life. Please stop trying to pry into it for your social causes and appreciate the music and science that were the important things.
Thank you
Wish it was easier to actually listen to her music casually...