A Woman to Know: Wendy Carlos
Composition has almost always been solitary. — Wendy Carlos
(image via The Music Museum of New England)
"A Clockwork Orange," "The Shining," "Tron" -- Wendy is the fingers on the keyboard (electronic keyboard, to be exact) behind each of these iconic soundtracks. She first made waves (~electronica waves~) in the music world with "Switched-on Bach," a Moog synthesizer rendition of classical music.
At the time, she was writing and composing as "Walter Carlos," hiding her gender dysphoria from all but her closest friends. When she first moved to New York in the 1960s and began working on "Switched-on Bach," she sought hormone treatment and, eventually, gender reassignment surgery. She came out publicly in Playboy in 1979 (Playboy "has always been concerned with liberation," she explained, "and I was anxious to liberate myself").
In 1980, when Disney approached her to compose the music for "Tron," she branched out beyond her self-designed synthesizers, equipping an entire orchestra to score what she called "a futuristic, digital moonscape."
Add to your library list:
The Music Highlights from Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" (Walter Carlos, now Wendy Carlos)
Read more:
Meet Wendy Carlos, the trans godmother of electronica music (Vice)
Play it jazzy, switched on or straight, it's Bach (The New York Times)
An interview with Wendy Carlos (American Public Media)
After several eclipses, Wendy Carlos treads a new digital moonscape (People)
Wendy Carlos's mind houses a glorious fusion of art and science (Independent)
Wired for sound (The Guardian)
Wendy Carlos (Synth Museum)
Making musical history (The New York Times)
Hear more:
Switched on Bach (Wendy Carlos)
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