From Clockwork Orange to Switched on Bach, few have had an impact on contemporary music, specifically electronic music, as Wendy (Walter) Carlos. Born in Pawtucket Rhode Island as Walter, Carlos studied physics and music at Brown University before moving to New York City in 1962 to study music composition at Columbia University. Carlos came to prominence with her Switched-On Bach in 1968. This is an album of music by Johann Sebastian Bach performed on a Moog synthesizer which is credited as being the major reason the moogs use came about in the 1970s and won her three Grammy Awards. Its commercial success led to several more keyboard albums from Carlos of varying genres including further synthesized classical music adaptations and experimental and ambient music. She composed the score to two Stanley Kubrick films, A Clockwork Orange (1971) and The Shining (1980), and also Tron (1982) for Walt Disney Productions. She also did the original score for 2001 a Space Odyssey, before Kubrick decided to go in the direction it is known for today.
Her career really began with the album Switched on Bach. This album was her interpretation of several Bach pieces recorded on her Moog modular synthesizer. This album came to her in 1967, when Carlos asked Rachel Elkind to listen to some compositions written by Carlos and musicologist Benjamin Folkman ten years prior at the Electronic Music Center. One of these tracks was Bach’s Two-Part Invention in F major, which Elkind had a soft spot for. Elkind would later Produce her Album Switched on Bach. In an interview with Ocean Drive magazine, Dutch trance DJ Armin van Buuren name-checked the release as the catalyst of his music career:
“I remember an LP called Switched-On Bach by Walter (Wendy) Carlos, and that’s considered to be one of the very first electronic records ever made. I think it was made in 1968 or something. My father actually gave me that copy of Walter (Wendy) Carlos because it’s not available online anywhere — you can’t get it anywhere legally. […] That’s sort of where it all started, that’s where my interest in electronic music began. (S)He made digital works of Bach and (s)he played it on a [Moog] synthesizer, which is a very interesting thing, I think.”
She has also been cited by Daft Punk and Joy Electric as being a major influence of their work.
At the time of Switched on Bach’s iconic release, Wendy was six months into transgender hormone therapy. The Album was the first classical album to go platinum in America, remaining at No 1 in the classical album charts for more than three years and peaking at No 10 in the pop charts. It is regarded as one of the first true Pop Electronic albums ever made and it brought the synthesizer from the laboratory to the recording studio.
Listen to her work on the Tron Soundtrack Below:
For more info on the unique life of Carlos, we recommend checking out the following:
The 1979 interview of Wendy Carlos with Playboy
Gen(d)erations: Wendy Carlos’ Life and Work Show the Beauty (and Trauma) of Being Openly Trans By Samantha Riedel on https://www.them.us/
Where is Wendy Carlos? By Esra Soraya Padgett on https://www.culturedmag.com/
Wendy Carlos: A Biography by Amanda Sewell https://global.oup.com/academic/product/wendy-carlos-9780190053468?cc=us&lang=en&#
Wendy Carlos’s Website: http://www.wendycarlos.com/
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