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Archae

(46,328 posts)
Fri May 13, 2016, 06:35 AM May 2016

We lost another musician...

I love his music.

Isao Tomita Dies at 84; Combined Electronic and Classical Music

At the turn of the 20th century, when Claude Debussy sat down to write his haunting piano piece “Claire de Lune,” he had before him little more than pen, paper and piano.

Toward the end of the century, when Isao Tomita sat down to record the piece, he had before him a thicket that included a Moog synthesizer, comprising (among many other things) a 914 extended range fixed filter bank, two 904-A voltage-controlled low-pass filters, nine 901-B oscillators, four 911 envelope generators, five 902 voltage-controlled amplifiers, a 950 keyboard controller and a 6401 Bode ring modulator; several tape recorders, among them an Ampex MM-1100 16-track and a Sony TC-9040 4-track; two Sony MX-16 mixers; an AKG BX20E Echo unit; an Eventide Clockworks Instant Phaser; two Binson Echorec 2 units; and the electronic keyboard instrument known as a Mellotron.

Released by RCA in 1974, the resulting recording, “Snowflakes Are Dancing,” brought Mr. Tomita — who died on May 5, at 84, and was widely considered the father of Japanese electronic music — international renown. Nominated for a Grammy Award for best classical album, the record, containing Mr. Tomita’s renditions of a string of Debussy pieces, sold hundreds of thousands of copies, an almost unheard-of feat for a disc at least nominally rooted in the classical world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/arts/music/isao-tomita-widely-considered-the-father-of-japanese-electronic-music-dies-at-84.html?_r=0


7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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We lost another musician... (Original Post) Archae May 2016 OP
This message was self-deleted by its author TM99 May 2016 #1
I recall that album when it first came out. Very cool. Thank you. yourpaljoey May 2016 #2
"almost unheard of" reddread May 2016 #3
Back in the day...everyone I knew had the Switched On Bach album panader0 May 2016 #5
very good. Thanks for the OP alfredo May 2016 #4
Tomita! Bluenorthwest May 2016 #6
Loved his music lapfog_1 May 2016 #7

Response to Archae (Original post)

 

reddread

(6,896 posts)
3. "almost unheard of"
Fri May 13, 2016, 08:52 AM
May 2016

it is incredible the influence Switched On Bach was for so many early Moog adherents.
maybe it wasnt the music but the money that made the case?
I wonder if he is "Mitsui Bank Ltd"?

http://moogarchives.com/bode640x.htm

lapfog_1

(29,205 posts)
7. Loved his music
Fri May 13, 2016, 11:58 AM
May 2016

listening to this took me right back to college days...

so sad, but thank you for posting.

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