Hugh Le Caine

by Jay Somerset

Electronic music pioneer Hugh Le Caine designed and built more than 20 analogue musical instruments, including the Electronic Sackbut, considered the world’s first voltage-controlled synthesizer, which he invented in 1945. In 1959, Le Caine helped establish Canada’s first electronic music studio at the University of Toronto and equipped it almost entirely with his own inventions, including his Special Purpose Tape Recorder, one of the first multi-track devices of its kind. As a composer, he was responsible for creating “Dripsody” (1955), still considered an electroacoustic classic.