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At 2:22 PM +0000 2/5/04, Steve Goodman wrote:
>I wonder what Robert Moog, who apprenticed with Scott, would think.
Bob Moog is a pretty silly guy himself (I once saw him play theremin
in a duet with Keith Emerson - it was definitely silly).
>One might think it clever to call it "silly"
Not "clever" at all. Most of Scott's electronic music is obviously
silly. All one needs to do is to listen to it and the silliness is
quite clear. Remember that most of this was done as commercial
jingles (Auto-Lite spark plugs, Bendix, Sprite, Cheer, Hostess
Twinkies, etc.).
>it's a major precursor to electronic music as we know it
In a musical-historical sense it's a "minor" precursor. Most of
Scott's output dates from the 1960s, by which time "major" pioneering
works of electronic music had already been created and disseminated
by "major" composers such as Stockhausen, Henry, Berio
>Raymond Scott made the first sequencer process for electronic sound
>production.
According to Moog's description, in 1955 Scott's sequencer consisted
of "rack upon rack of these stepping relays that were used by the
telephone company..." It was a clever adaptation of existing
technology. In that same year the RCA Synthesizer Mark II was also in
existence and being used much more publicly for "serious" music.
The word "precursor" is important in discussing Scott's work, since
it was certainly not much of a direct "influence" on anybody. While
there is no doubt that Scott was an inventor of some talent and
imagination, he was also inclined to "hide his light under a bushel"
for fear of imitators. As a result very few people knew what he was
really doing and therefore he had little impact on subsequent
developments (both musical and technological).
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