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Chris Swansen Moog

Not available for use in Recording Studios

On exhibit

Artifact TypeSynthesizer

Manufacturer Moog Music, Inc. (division of Norlin Music Instruments, Ltd.)

Manufacturer LocationUSA, North America

Date1969

New York’s Museum of Modern Art commissioned the Moog company to configure this synthesizer for a historic performance of electronic music held at the MOMA in the summer of 1969. It is one of only four such units produced, and used at the concert by a quartet led by jazz composer and musician Chris Swansen. This particular instrument was never used again—though another of the 1CA units was sold to Keith Emerson, who featured the synth on the Emerson, Lake & Palmer song “Lucky Man.”

Operation/FunctionThis particular artifact is an analog modular synthesizer system that was configured for use in a live performance. It contains a series of basic sound generating and modifying modules from the earliest R.A. Moog, Inc. modular series along with a single keyboard housed within a wooden cabinet. It employs 1/4”, or phone jacks for patching. A built-in preset box function enables the user to switch between various timbres or patches.Cultural SignificanceModular synthesis has left an indelible mark on the way in which current trends in synthesizer design are informed. In the 1960s, these instruments offered a way forward for composers and musicians who felt stifled by the rigour of early electronic music techniques, such as those practiced in Germany and France throughout the 1950s. They promised new timbres and uninhibited methods of control and ultimately set into motion the foundations of synthesis practices that would follow throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Although these bulky and cumbersome analog machines did not survive the technological and commercial advances of the late 1970s, the modular spirit was revived at the turn of the century and, today, this flexible design still proves to be a desirable and fruitful approach to music making. The Jazz in the Garden concert of August 1969 was especially important in helping the synthesizer establish itself as an instrument suitable for use in live or public contexts; at the time, prior to the release of the first compact, integrated units of the early 1970s, these larger, complex systems were typically confined to studio use. The event was an astounding success, as well, with advanced ticket sales reportedly reaching a level higher than had been obtained with prior concerts in the series. Historically, Robert Moog is perhaps the most notable synthesizer manufacturer referenced in popular culture; so much so that the name ‘Moog’ is often used in layman vernacular to describe the term ‘synthesizer’, regardless of the actual manufacturer, not unlike brand names ‘Kleenex’ and ‘Q-Tip’. Although Moog instruments were not the choice of all musicians – with many experimentally-minded composers opting for the more flexible Buchla systems and most European composers relying on the readily-available EMS systems emerging out of London – they were by far the most commercially successful, permeating popular music in a manner that few other manufacturers experienced throughout the 1970s. The cultural impact of the Moog modular system was eclipsed only by that of the hugely iconic Minimoog of 1970. Although the invention of the first voltage-controlled modular synthesizers can be equally credited to both Robert Moog and the Berkeley-based Donald Buchla, who independently built similar instruments at similar times on opposite sides of the country, Robert Moog is regarded as having set the standards that were largely followed in most synthesizer design, particularly throughout the 1970s but even into today.Technological SignificanceThe synthesizer is arguably one of, if not the most technologically significant contributions to the course of electronic music. Although earlier electronic instruments such as the Theremin, Clavivox, and Ondes Martenot offered new and unique ways of articulating sound, their sonic template was, for the most part, quite limited, capable of producing only a few distinct timbres. The modern synthesizer, on the other hand, was viewed as an integrated electronic orchestra, as it were, allowing the user to sculpt a wide and varied array of tones and gestures. What’s more, it allowed the user to modify their sounds in real time, seemingly without the sorts of physical limitations imposed on acoustic instruments. Of course, each instrument did come with its own characteristic tonal qualities and control limitations, however the wealth of opportunity inherent in the ability to manipulate and define nearly every parameter of sound structure solidified the synthesizer’s place as one of the most powerful musical innovations of the twentieth century. The concept of modular design was initially quite desirable to professional and studio musicians in that it allowed one to more or less completely customize their instrument and modify its functions as desired; for instance, if an extra oscillator was required, an extraneous module was simply removed and the additional oscillator module was inserted into the integrated cabinet. The modular nature of early synthesizers also meant that an array of patches, or defined sounds that could be altered in real time, were possible, offering the musician a high degree of flexibility and the opportunity to develop their own performance technique and signature tone. Analog modular synthesis was quite prevalent as a music-making practice in academic institutions and private studios throughout the late 1960s and into the early 1980s, both in Europe and throughout North America. Electronic instruments of this era were entirely transistor-based, with solid-state devices such as the transistor representing the next generation in technology following the vacuum tube, which was used extensively throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Solid-state technology was far smaller, lighter, more reliable, more durable, and less expensive than vacuum tube technology. This technology developed even further in around 1970 into the form of integrated circuits (ICs), which house the many discrete components of transistor-based circuits within a single silicon chip, as they are often called. Integrated circuits were significantly smaller and less expensive to manufacture than the circuits from which they derived. Although not all analog synthesizers designed in the very early 1970s employed integrated circuitry, their use was mostly standardized by the late 1970s with the inclusion of the first affordable eight-bit microprocessors, such as the Zilog Z80, that emerged mid-decade. As a result, integrated circuits adapted to incorporate more sophisticated digital components. Although modular-type systems are still in production today ¬– the Buchla 200e, for instance, is based on the modular design of the Buchla 200 analog system – the advent of affordable microprocessor chips in the mid 1970s and the rise of programmable polyphonic instruments in the late 1970s resulted in the relative obsolescence of the discrete transistor-based systems of the early 1970s. The earliest dedicated studios that arose in the 1950s and 1960s consisted of discrete components such as sine, sawtooth, and square wave generators, filters, noise generators, mixers, and units for reverberation and ring modulation. The music making practice of the time was cumbersome, requiring the composer to record audio components onto magnetic tape, which would then undergo a series of splicing and manipulations. The modular systems of the late 1960s and 1970s were differentiated from their “primitive” counterparts in that they could be made to interact with one another under the governance of voltage control. The concept of voltage control, which was implemented into early electronic instruments such as Hugh Le Caine’s Electronic Sackbut, is based on the principle by which the function of electrical components relates to voltage, or the flow of electrical current: in order for an oscillator to maintain a frequency, it requires a constant applied voltage; in order for the oscillator to increase in frequency, it requires a proportional increase in voltage. The most unique aspect of the concept of voltage control, which modular synthesizers took full advantage of, suggests that a voltage produced by one component or module can be used to control some function of another module via connection by patch cords or related means. For instance, envelopes and low frequency oscillators may be used specifically to affect the voltage of another module in some regular and repeatable way. These techniques enabled a very rich and highly interactive approach to the idiom of electronic music composition. The term ‘modular’ simply implies that various dedicated modules for sound production, manipulation, and amplification are integrated within a single cabinet, so as to operate as one system. Although the functions intended for specific modules were maintained, the design approaches of the major companies differed in some crucial ways: many Buchla instruments used a tunable pressure-sensitive touch-plate instead of a keyboard, while instruments such as the EMS Synthi AKS offered a combination keyboard-sequencer; unlike Moog, Buchla and Serge separated control and audio signals; certain early Moog systems featured a ribbon controller, which sat above the keyboard; frequency control on Moog oscillators was not as variable as on single-sweep Buchla oscillators, and resembled the system of ranking used on pipe organs; Buchla 100 series oscillators were not capable of producing frequencies below 5 Hz, while Moog low-frequency oscillators were able to reach below 1 Hz; unlike the patch cords used by Moog and Buchla, most EMS instruments instead used matrix-boards that enabled “circular” signal routing. The modular systems of the 1960s and 1970s were more compact than earlier synthesizers such as the RCA Mark II of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, however their overwhelming size and hefty price tag often meant that they were accessible, for the most part, only to professionals, with a number of systems having initially been installed in recording studios and educational institutions. In response to this, most of the major companies of the era also released smaller, more portable systems (both modular and non-modular) throughout the 1970s that were also suitable for live performance, such as the Minimoog, ARP 2600 and Odyssey, EMS VCS3 and Synthi, and the Buchla Music Easel. Although most of these instruments borrowed elements from their modular ancestors, they were not in themselves modular by nature, but rather featured set configurations that were usually internally affixed. With the advent of integrated circuits, synthesizers increasingly began to adopt the smaller, more compact aesthetic exhibited in these performance-oriented instruments, especially that of the revered Minimoog. The once popular modular approach gave way to more streamlined designs that, while still offering users the ability to control numerous aspects of the instrument’s tone and gesture, limited the way in which the instrument could be operated. Although the modular synthesizer was highly regarded for its flexibility, it was also criticized for being largely unintuitive and cumbersome; the smaller, integrated digital-analog hybrids of the late 1970s, such as the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, though still not relatively inexpensive, responded more readily to the technological demands of an increasingly burgeoning consumer market. The synthesizers of the microprocessor era were, to varying extents, programmable, meaning that various parameters could be stored within the instrument’s internal memory. The analog modular instruments of the 1960s and early 1970s lacked this ability, and required the user to make note of specific patch settings in order to recreate them later. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, synthesizers continued to develop following the compact, user-friendly model established in the mid 1970s. Interestingly, modular design resurfaced in the late twentieth century with the introduction of the Rack system. The Rack system – the most popular of which is referred to as Eurorack – encompasses a generalized design approach that is standardized in module size and power distribution, allowing any module that’s produced under its specifications to be operable with any other. This was certainly not the case with the earliest modular instruments, as each employed different patching methods, power distribution, and panel size; Buchla panels were shorter in height than those produced by Moog and ARP, and Moog was the only manufacturer to rely solely on the use of quarter-inch patch cables with Buchla employing both banana and mini cables, EMS employing pins, and ARP employing sliders. As such, it was difficult, if not impossible, to combine modules belonging to different manufacturers within the same system. There are a multitude of Rack system manufacturers currently in business, including New York’s Make Noise and Vancouver’s Intellijel, and thanks to a decrease in production costs and an increase in the stability of electronic components, this industry is still thriving into the twenty-first century. The flexibility of these systems allows users to purchase modules from any manufacturer and mount them into the same cabinet with any other Rack system module. The apparent renewed desires for the flexibility and physicality of the modular approach illustrate a very potent example of just one of the ways in which earlier technologies have overshadowed contemporary synthesizer design. Modular design has even resurfaced in the realm of computer music, with programming environments such as max/MSP borrowing from the concept of patching. The earliest customizable Moog modular systems were, along with the Buchla & Associates 100 Series modular system, the first voltage-controlled synthesizer to emerge in the commercial market. Both systems revolutionized the course of electronic music – albeit in very different ways – and offered future manufacturers a way forward in design approach and implementation. Although early Buchla modular systems were lauded for their unique and alternative approach, which appealed particularly to those composers in the emerging west coast experimental scene, the Moog modular systems were by far the more commercially successful, becoming the instrument of choice of many professional studio and performing musicians. One obvious difference between Moog’s approach to voltage-controlled synthesis and that employed by Buchla was the way in which control and audio signals were handled: in Buchla systems, these two signal forms are separated, each corresponding to a different type of jack, while in Moog systems they are subsumed under the same type of jack. Moog’s patching approach was also far less adventurous than that of its main commercial competitor, the Massachusetts-based ARP Instruments, Inc., founded by former NASA test engineer, Alan R. Pearlman, in 1969. ARP’s only modular offering, the model 2500 of 1970, employed a highly unique matrix scheme that eliminated the need for loose patch cables, resulting in a much cleaner albeit significantly less intuitive interface. ARP oscillators were also noticeably more stable than those of other manufacturers, even despite Moog’s upgrade of the earlier model 901 oscillators to the more stable 921B oscillators in 1973. In many ways, the functions of the Moog modular served as the standard upon which designers such as Buchla, ARP, and EMS strove to modify in new and experimental ways. And, although these manufacturers enjoyed varying degrees of success in future products, the Moog modular remained the most popular and well respected not only for its design, which was both sophisticated yet accessible, but also for its high quality sound. Unlike the ARP modular, which featured somewhat confusing arrows indicating paths of signal flow and an intricate patching matrix, or the Buchla modular, which used somewhat esoteric terms to describe its module’s functions as well as an experimental touch-plate keyboard, the modules of the Moog modular were straightforward and intuitive, relatively speaking. Although it may seem as though the Moog modular was perhaps not as pioneering in innovative designs as its competitors, this could not be farther from the truth: as aforementioned, the Moog modular set the standard that was followed and expanded upon by nearly every other manufacturer, with several of Moog’s module designs, having not previously existed, becoming essential and fundamental components of synthesizer design. Perhaps Robert Moog’s most significant contribution came in the form of his 24 dB/octave low-pass filter, the only design for which he sought a patent. This filter, which is often referred to as a “ladder” filter, came to define the Moog sound and was used in nearly every subsequent Moog product. Many tried and failed to improve upon the filter’s design, which largely remained the industry standard for most synthesizer manufacturers throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s. Moreover, Moog was the first to introduce the ADSR (attack, sustain, decay, and release) shape in envelope generators, the result of a parameter specification requested by composer Vladimir Ussachevsky. Since its implementation in the earliest Moog modular systems, the ADSR envelope has been used in virtually every other synthesizer, both modular and non. Moog also pioneered the ribbon controller, which also became an oft-incorporated feature in many subsequent analog synthesizers such as the famed Yamaha CS-80. The waveforms employed in Moog oscillators – namely, sine, sawtooth/ramp, square/pulse, and triangle – have also since become standard offerings. One unique feature of the Moog modular system came in relation to its oscillator modules, which were not formatted in a dedicated low frequency oscillator (LFO) design. Instead, the oscillator’s range was made to extend below 1 Hz, allowing regular oscillators to function either as an audible-range oscillator or a low-frequency oscillator. What’s more is that these oscillators also extended one octave above the human limit of 20 000 Hz, allowing ultrasonic frequencies to also behave as control mechanisms. Moog was also the only modular manufacturer to offer both joystick controllers and foot pedal controllers in addition to keyboards and ribbon controllers. Perhaps the main drawback of the Moog modular’s interface is its use of S-trig logic, which is not compatible with the gate/trigger systems of other manufacturers. Moreover, the earliest modular prototypes and production systems were constructed with inexpensive parts, resulting in model 901 oscillators that were severely unstable, prone to drift even at the slightest external temperature change or power supply shift. The Moog modular was not the company’s only standard-setting product: the Minimoog, which was introduced in 1970, featured an integrated VCO-VCF-VCA architecture that also became the norm in virtually every synthesizer that followed. This artifact was comprised of standard R.A. Moog, Inc. modules. A particularly unique feature of this artifact is that it features a preset box function, which allows the user to switch between various patches or sounds via a button rather than through re-routing cables. Compared to the majority of Moog modular systems of the era, this particular unit was quite compact in its design.Users/PerformersAmong the most notable users of early Moog modular systems are Wendy Carlos, Keith Emerson, Tangerine Dream, and David Borden of Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company. This particular system was employed and owned by composer and musician Chris Swansen. Christopher Crittenden Swansen was born in 1939 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA and passed in Pittsville, Wisconsin, USA on 4 December 1995 as a result of a brain tumor. Swansen attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire between 1957 and 1961, initially majoring in music and pre-medicine and graduating with distinction in the former. While at Dartmouth, he performed trombone in several jazz groups including the Barbary Coast big band and Sultans, and became a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He then followed with studies at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts between 1961 and 1962, where he was afforded the opportunity to write for the Herb Pomeroy Orchestra. In 1963, Swansen became the first jazz composer to receive a spot at the Tanglewood music school in Boston, where he studied conducting with notable composers such as Gunther Schuller, Aaron Copeland, and Iannis Xenakis. Throughout his early career as a jazz musician, Swansen developed key relationships with players such as Phil Woods, John McLaughlin, Joe Henderson, Stan Kenton, and Maynard Ferguson, and received commissions from the BBC, Stan Getz, and the Los Angeles Orchestra. He also served as director, composer, and conductor for the New York Improvisation Ensemble, and assisted in the production of a documentary film on the group in collaboration with photographer Tom Zimmerman. A significant turning point in Swansen’s compositional approach came throughout 1968 and 1969, when he took up a position as composer in residence and musical director with R.A. Moog, Inc. in Trumansburg, upstate New York. Following the hugely successful Jazz in the Garden concert in New York City in August 1969, Swansen’s electronic quartet performed in a similar event held in Paris, France; a series of 200 concerts and clinics throughout the United States, as well as two solo synthesizer albums, Pulaski Skyway and Album 2, followed throughout the early 1970s. In 1974, Swansen settled in Pittsville, establishing his home and studio in a converted school building. Between 1981 and 1995, he worked as a videographer, editor, and composer for a series of instructional videos that were broadcast on PBS. A collaborative album with Phil Woods, Piper at the Gates of Dawn of 1982, received a Grammy award nomination in the jazz category.

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