Bob’s Archives: Jumping Into a World of Imoogination
The Bob Moog Foundation Preserves Electronic Music History Through Bob’s Archives
Marc Doty is a songwriter, composer, and synthesist from Washington State. His obsession with Moog and other vintage analog synthesizers led to him the creation of a synthesizer demonstration YouTube channel, Automatic Gainsay, which now has nearly 4 million views. His video work as well as his passion for the work of Robert Moog, synthesizers, and the history of electronic music has resulted in the Bob Moog Foundation bringing him on as “Artist in Residence” for one month this summer. Marc will be using his visual and videographical skills to aid the Bob Moog Foundation in various projects including developing materials for the MoogLab curriculum. You can see more of his synth education work at http://www.youtube.com/automaticgainsay.
If you’re like me (and you probably are), there was a time in your life (or is a time in your life) where you have looked at a piece of music technology and said, “I wish I had that.” If you’re like me, you’ve looked at a Moog synthesizer and said “I wish I had that.” And lastly (and most importantly), if you’re like me, you’ve looked at the history of electronic music and said “I wish I could experience some of that.”
A week ago, I was asked to help at the Bob Moog Foundation’s archive facility. There was a new donation coming in, and we needed to assemble some shelves. We were using some donated shelves, and these shelves were of the variety which depends on the little plastic sleeves which hold the shelf in place. As most of you know, these sleeves are made from a sort of plastic which is not entirely stable in our universe, and they are quite likely to wink out of existence at any given moment when not holding up a shelf. As such, most of them were missing for the shelves we were assembling. Because of the time delay the acquisition of more sleeves would generate, most everyone parted ways temporarily. This left me standing in the Bob Moog Archives. Alone. For at least an hour.
The phrase that kept playing in my head was “kid in a candy store.” But it was not that. It was more like a kid in a candy world… in a world… well, of pure imagination. Yeah, that’s right. Let Gene Wilder sing that song in your head for a bit, and listen to the lyrics. They all apply.
My blog about the Bob Moog Foundation document archives described them as living history… but they are only half of the living history. The other half was in this facility, where all of the devices are. This is where the physical work of Bob Moog resides. I found myself standing surrounded by the technology Bob created, and had nothing to do for the next hour but experience it.
I looked around in slack-jawed amazement. What did I see? Let me tell you:
•David Borden’s Moog modular synthesizer. Keyboard, ribbon controller, everything. Some of you might be surprised to know this, but this is the first Moog modular I’ve ever seen in person, or ever touched.
•Not one, but TWO RCA theremins. One is disassembled, but all of the parts are there. Yeah, that’s right… the rarest and most sought-after theremin in history, and the Foundation possesses two.
•A gizmotron with correspondence about its testing.
•A Synton vocoder.
•A number of Moog modules in various forms.
•The speakers used at the 1969 MOMA “Jazz in the Garden” performance, the first live performance of four Moog modular synthesizers.
•A Moog LAB series amp, serial number one
•Boxes of prototype Moogerfoogers, hand wired by Bob.
•Tons of original audio, including original Wendy Carlos, Isao Tomita, Roger Powell, and Beaver and Krause recordings.
•Tons of theremins of various types.
•Crumar Spirit No. 1. Yep, that’s right, the very first one.
•The last Minimoog ever made, serial number 13, 269.
•Tons more documents and correspondence which literally portray the history of electronic music. And that is no exaggeration. While many of you probably only think of Bob in the context of the Moog synthesizers he produced, you should know that he was involved with a huge amount of collaboration with a number of important composers, musicians, and technologists in regard to electronic music.
•Several reel to reel recorders, including some designed or altered by Bob.
•An Oberheim Xpander and a Rhodes Chroma Expander.
•A Micromoog
A Solovox
•A slew of vintage antique oscillators.
•An Edison cylinder player.
And more, and more, and more.
I ran from wonder to wonder just like those awful children did at the Wonka factory, but unlike them, I was in silent adoration and awe. Not only are all of these things incredibly interesting, they’re all incredibly important. They portray the great work of a talented man, and the history that sprung up around him pursuing his interests.
So, okay… if I were you reading this, I’d be thinking “I wish I could see and experience all of that stuff.”
Well, guess what? You can experience it. You have the opportunity to experience all of this incredible history, all of these interesting devices, and all of the musical instruments. The plan is for everyone to benefit from this incredible legacy- in the form of the Moogseum. The only thing between you and this experience you covet (or should covet) is funding.
The Bob Moog Foundation needs support to make the Moogseum a reality. It’s no easy task to fund a museum, but once that happens, you will have the ability to do what I did in the archives. Yeah, that’s right… while you were hating on me for being able to see all of that stuff, you didn’t know that you can see it too. Awesome, isn’t it?
If you want to have that experience, the best way for you to do it is to help us raise the money through volunteering or donating. Then everyone benefits… and the world gets to see the actual history of the man, his legacy, his collaborators and the broader legacy of electronic music, we love.
If you’re like me, you can’t wait one more minute for that. Consider supporting the Foundation’s important effort to preserve the history which is so important to our understanding and culture.
You can get your own cool piece of Moog history! Sign up for the Bob Moog Foundation’s eNewsletter and get a free download of a rare document and rarely seen photos from the archives.
A Moogsperience of a Lifetime [Part 2]: MoogLab
Bob Moog’s Legacy Comes Alive in Engaging, Interactive Curriculum
By Marc Doty
Marc Doty is a songwriter, composer, and synthesist from Washington State. His obsession with Moog and other vintage analog synthesizers led to him the creation of a synthesizer demonstration YouTube channel, Automatic Gainsay which now has nearly 4 million views. His video work as well as his passion for the work of Robert Moog, synthesizers, and the history of electronic music has resulted in the Bob Moog Foundation bringing him on as “Artist in Residence” for one month this summer. Marc will be using his visual and videographical skills to aid the Bob Moog Foundation in various projects including developing materials for the MoogLab curriculum. You can see more of his synth education work at http://www.youtube.com/automaticgainsay.
I come from a long line of great teachers, so I come by my urge to help people learn about stuff honestly. What you might not know is that I also have a degree in music education.
I majored in music education because it afforded me the most music classes possible, which I preferred over the less-intense music major. But the drawback with majoring in music education was the fact that, in addition to all the great extra music classes I got to take, I also had to take education classes.
Personally, I don’t believe a someone can be taught to teach. Teaching is a talent. You can’t teach a person to have a talent, you can only foster that talent. I feel similarly about curricula. So often, they are well-intentioned but uninspired structures which end up interfering with the specific talents of teachers. I think that curricula are often designed by people who have passion for education, but lack passion for the subject(s) addressed. It’s easy to get bogged down in various requirements, challenging administrative environments, and a general lack of inspiration in regard to the talent that is teaching.
One of the greatest educational challenges is creating a curriculum which delivers required content as well as being fun and interesting. As a college student, I saw a lot of curricula which succeeded in either one or the other. As a classroom student, I saw a lot of curricula which succeeded in neither.
So, when I was taken on to design support materials for the MoogLab curriculum project here at the Bob Moog Foundation, you can imagine what I expected.
But immediately… not only were my fears assuaged and my expectations proven inaccurate, but my faith in education, love for sound, and inspiration to help children learn effectively were ignited. The group assigned to this task is made up of talented, skilled, and enthusiastic people. We’ve worked together to create the curriculum I thought impossible: one that is as informative and effective as it is fun and interesting.
We have wrapped the science of sound in the love of music and simplified it in a way that is both digestible by the second grader, and completely accurate. That is quite an accomplishment!
It is incredibly exciting to be involved with a program that will have the impact this will have, and it is truly inspiring (and no surprise at all) that it’s all built around the genius of Bob Moog. See? This is another reason why the Bob Moog Foundation is so important. His legacy is a powerful motivation and inspiration for education, and the passion of people here at the Foundation who recognize that legacy inspires incredible results.
I am continually amazed and inspired by the many ways the BMF is weaving the genius of Bob Moog through people’s lives with a goal of igniting the innovators in all of us.
A Moogsperience of a Lifetime [Part 1]
Marc Doty Reflects on Holding Living History In His Hands
Marc Doty is a songwriter, composer, and synthesist from Washington State. His obsession with Moog and other vintage analog synthesizers led to him the creation of a synthesizer demonstration YouTube channel which now has nearly 4 million views. His video work as well as his passion for the work of Robert Moog, synthesizers, and the history of electronic music has resulted in the Bob Moog Foundation bringing him on as “Artist in Residence” for one month this summer. Marc will be using his visual and videographical skills to aid the Bob Moog Foundation in various projects including developing materials for the MoogLab curriculum. You can see more of his synth education work at http://www.youtube.com/automaticgainsay.
Hi. I’m Marc Doty. When I was 8, it was my plan to be an astronaut. Unfortunately, there was a devastating complication: I get dizzy easily. A family friend pointed out that a person who got dizzy easily simply couldn’t be an astronaut. I was crestfallen. I think the indication of the trauma of this terrible news is that I, instead, careened off down a life path wholly comprised of making noises.
While certainly not as lucrative as astronauting, such a life path has been quite rewarding. But it has never been quite so rewarding as it has been in the first few days that I’ve been working for the Bob Moog Foundation. It feels like my education, my musical experience, and my synthesizer obsession has been leading up to this.
I’m going to be blogging about all of the incredible things that are happening, and all of the incredible things I’m doing to help promote the mission of this agonizingly worthy foundation.
—
In 1977, my brother dragged me into his room to listen to the song “Jungle” by the Electric Light Orchestra. I thought it was amazing. I seized the liner notes and sat there clutching them as I read and pondered such exotic words as “Minimoog (spelled “Mini-Moog”) and “Polymoog.” What is a “Moog?” What does it do? Why is it so important that this band listed it by name? This was a seminal pondering, and my life would never be the same after it.
34 years later, I found myself clutching a different document with the word “Moog” in it. Not some flashy record sleeve from a famous band, but rather a simple, modest notebook filed with handwritten notes.
If I were to hand this notebook to the average person, they would undoubtedly find little value in it. It contained lists of names, dates, and some relatively technical jargon relating to scientific equipment. Something like this could probably be found it just about anyone’s grandfather’s desk. These were just the notes of a businessman regarding the product requests and specifications of his clients in regard to the product he designed.
Despite the general accuracy of that description, it is also the understatement of the century. More accurately, It is a written documentation of who bought what when from a burgeoning musical instrument company which was poised on the edge of changing the face of music. It is a modest, handwritten history of the progression of an instrument, the ideas of the designer, and the desires of the musicians who introduced it to the world.
It focused on the period between 1967 and 1969, and featured clients with names like “Siday,” “Margouleff,” “Beaver,” “Zappa,” and “Carlos.” If you recognize those names and know what happened in that time period, you realize what an incredibly interesting and important document this notebook is. If you don’t recognize those names, they are a few of the artists who brought the synthesizer to the attention of the world… and by doing so, changed it.
So here am I, a self-avowed Moog-obsessed synthesist… 34 years after my discovery of the Moog synthesizer… holding Bob Moog’s handwritten description of the origin of my obsession. History is literally tangible.
In thinking about this, I realized how rare it is that we possess such detailed documents regarding the invention of a viable, versatile, and expressive musical instrument. While the exact history of the development of so many other instruments is lost to time, in regard to the Moog synthesizer (and most others since then, for that matter), we’re covered. The Bob Moog Foundation’s archives are large, extensive, and a living record of and testament to the amazing skill and talent of the creator of the modern synthesizer.
And that’s one of the reasons that the Bob Moog Foundation is so important for obsessive instrumentalists and enthusiasts like myself, as well as the music community as a whole. Its charge is to keep and protect the extensive documents which portray the invention of one of the most revolutionary musical instruments ever created.
That kid holding a record sleeve in 1977 and I are going to have a lot of incredible Moog-related surprises in the next month. For that, we’re both very thankful.
Making waves,
Marc
P.S. Some other names seen in the notebook:
John Chowning
Walter Sear
Mort Garson
Jean Jacques Perrey
Gershon Kingsley
The Beach Boys
Roger Powell
Morton Subotnick
