Monday, May 21, 2007

Duo Portraiture (5)

1 comment:

Ahab Cloud said...

"Another early post-war project was the development by Dr. Olson and Herbert Belar of the RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer. This work antedated the transistor as well as all of the computer technology now so commonplace. Using primitive digital-control techniques, as well as analog techniques, all implemented by means of vacuum tubes and relays, the Synthesize was capable of producing any audio signal that could be conceived and specified by the operator. The Synthesizer was used by composers at the RCA Laboratories in Princeton and at the RCA Records Division in New York to compose a number of musical selections. Some of these were issued on an RCA 45 rpm album that is now a collector's item. Shortly thereafter the Synthesizer was moved to the Columbia–Princeton Music Center in New York City where it is still functional. A second model which remained at the Laboratories for a number of years now resides at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. More recently the Synthesizer in New York was used by composer Charles Wuorinen to produce his 1970 Pulitzer-Prize-winning "Times Encomium" record. The record was released by None Such Records as Stereo H-71125." (J. Guy Woodward)