Wendy Carlos (born Walter Carlos, November 14, 1939) is an American musician and composer best known for her
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
and film scores. Born and raised in
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
, Carlos studied physics and music at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
before moving to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in 1962 to study music composition at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. Studying and working with various electronic musicians and technicians at the city's
Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center
The Computer Music Center (CMC) at Columbia University is the oldest center for electronic and computer music research in the United States. It was founded in the 1950s as the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.
Location
The CMC is hou ...
, she helped in the development of the
Moog synthesizer
The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...
,
Robert Moog
Robert Arthur Moog ( ; May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthesi ...
's first commercially available keyboard instrument.
Carlos came to prominence with ''
Switched-On Bach
''Switched-On Bach'' is the debut album by American composer Wendy Carlos, originally released under her birth name Walter Carlos in October 1968 by Columbia Records. Produced by Carlos and Rachel Elkind, the album is a collection of pieces by J ...
'' (1968), an album of music by
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
performed on a Moog synthesizer, which helped popularize its use in the 1970s and won her three
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
. Its commercial success led to several more albums, including further synthesized classical music adaptations, and
experimental
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...
and
ambient music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...
. She composed the score to two
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
films – ''
A Clockwork Orange
''A Clockwork Orange'' may refer to:
* ''A Clockwork Orange'' (novel), a 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess
** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (film), a 1971 film directed by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel
*** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (soundtrack), the film ...
'' (1971) and ''
The Shining'' (1980) – and ''
Tron
''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action-adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer a ...
'' (1982) for
Walt Disney Productions
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
.
In 1979, Carlos raised public awareness of
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
issues by disclosing she had been living as a woman since at least 1968, and in 1972 had undergone
sex reassignment surgery
Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and alle ...
.
, much of Carlos's discography is out of print, and has not been licensed for digital distribution to streaming or download platforms.
Early life
Carlos was born in
Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence and East Providence to the south, Central Falls ...
, the first of two children born to working-class parents.
Her mother played the piano and sang; one uncle played the trombone and another played the trumpet and drums.
She began piano lessons at six years of age, and wrote her first composition, "A Trio for Clarinet, Accordion, and Piano," at 10. Carlos attended
St. Raphael Academy, a Catholic high school in Pawtucket. In 1953, at fourteen, Carlos won a scholarship for building a computer presented at the
Westinghouse Science Fair, a science competition for high-school students. From 1958 to 1962, Carlos studied at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
and graduated with a degree in music and physics, during which she taught lessons in
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
at informal sessions.
In 1965, Carlos graduated from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
with a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. in music composition, and assisted
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
in presenting an evening of electronic music at the
Philharmonic Hall.
Carlos studied with
Vladimir Ussachevsky
Vladimir Alexeevich Ussachevsky (November 3, 1911 in Hailar, China – January 2, 1990 in New York, New York) was a composer, particularly known for his work in electronic music.
Biography
Vladimir Ussachevsky was born in the Hailar Distric ...
and
Otto Luening
Otto Clarence Luening (June 15, 1900 – September 2, 1996) was a German-American composer and conductor, and an early pioneer of tape music and electronic music.
Luening was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to German parents, Eugene, a conducto ...
, two pioneers of electronic music in the 1960s; they were based in the
Columbia–Princeton Electronic Music Center in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the first of its kind in the United States. After Ussachevsky suggested to Carlos that she work in a recording studio to support herself, Carlos began working as a recording and
mastering engineer at Gotham Recording Studios in New York City; she worked in this position until 1968.
She called it "a really lovely occupation" and found it a useful learning experience.
During her time at Columbia, Carlos met
Robert Moog
Robert Arthur Moog ( ; May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthesi ...
at the annual
Audio Engineering Society
The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is a professional body for engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or products ...
show,
which began a partnership; Carlos gave advice and technical assistance in the development of the
Moog synthesizer
The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...
, Moog's new electronic keyboard instrument, convincing Moog to add a touch-sensitive device for greater musical dynamics, among other improvements. By 1966, Carlos owned a small Moog synthesizer, which she used to record sound effects and jingles for television commercials, which earned her "anywhere from $100 to $1000.”
In 1967, Carlos befriended
Rachel Elkind
Rachel Elkind (born February 23, 1939) is an American classical musician, record producer and composer. She produced the work of Wendy Carlos, most notably the bestselling 1968 album ''Switched-On Bach''.
Elkind grew up in San Francisco. She moved ...
, a former singer
who had a musical theatre background and worked as a secretary for
Goddard Lieberson
Goddard Lieberson (April 5, 1911 – May 29, 1977) was the president of Columbia Records from 1956 to 1971, and again from 1973 to 1975. He became president of the Recording Industry Association of America in 1964. He was also a composer, and ...
, then-president of
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
. The two shared a home, studio, and business premises in a
brownstone building in the
West Side
West Side or Westside may refer to:
Places Canada
* West Side, a neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario
* West Side, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia
United Kingdom
* West Side, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland
* Westside, Birmingham E ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in New York City.
Carlos recorded several compositions in the 1960s as a student at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Two of them were re-recorded and released on ''By Request'' (1975), ''Dialogues for Piano and Two Loudspeakers'' (1963) and ''Episodes for Piano and Electronic Sound'' (1964), both featuring
Phillip Ramey
Phillip Ramey (born September 12, 1939 in Elmhurst, Illinois, Elmhurst, Illinois, United States) is an American composer, pianist, and writer on music.
He studied composition with the Russian-born composer Alexander Tcherepnin from 1959 to 1962, f ...
on piano. A third, ''Variations for Flute and Electronic Sounds'' (1964, featuring John Heiss on flute) was recorded and released in 1965 on a Turnabout Records "Electronic Music" compilation. Other known, but unreleased student compositions include "Episodes for Piano and Tape" (1964), "Pomposities for Narrator and Tape" (1965), and "Noah" (1965), a two-hour opera blending electronics with an orchestra. Carlos's first commercial release was ''Moog 900 Series – Electronic Music Systems'' (1967), an introduction to the technical aspects of the Moog synthesizer released as a nine-minute single-sided mono LP and narrated by Ed Stokes.
Part of her compensation for making the recording was in Moog equipment.
Career
1960s
Carlos's music career began with ''
Switched-On Bach
''Switched-On Bach'' is the debut album by American composer Wendy Carlos, originally released under her birth name Walter Carlos in October 1968 by Columbia Records. Produced by Carlos and Rachel Elkind, the album is a collection of pieces by J ...
'', an album formed of several pieces by
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
performed on a
Moog modular synthesizer
The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...
. The idea came about around 1967, when Carlos asked Elkind to listen to some recordings by Carlos and musicologist Benjamin Folkman made up to ten years prior at the Electronic Music Center, one of them being Bach's
Two-Part Invention in F major, which Elkind took a liking to. Plans for an album of several Bach compositions developed from there, leading to a recording contract with
Columbia Masterworks
Columbia Masterworks was a record label started in 1924 by Columbia Records. In 1980, it was separated from the Columbia label and renamed CBS Masterworks. In 1990, it was revived as Sony Classical after its sale to the Sony Corporation.
History ...
through Elkind's contacts, a deal that lasted until 1986. The label had launched an album sales campaign named "Bach to Rock,” though it had no album of Bach's works in a contemporary context in its catalogue.
With a $2,500 advance,
Columbia granted Carlos and Elkind artistic freedom to produce and release the album. Carlos performs with additional synthesizers played by Folkman and with Elkind as producer. Recording was a dragged-out and time-consuming process as the instrument could only be played
one note at a time.
Released in October 1968, ''Switched-On Bach'' became an unexpected commercial and critical success and helped to draw attention to the synthesizer as a genuine musical instrument.
''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' dedicated a full page to Carlos with the caption "Plugging into the
Steinway
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...
of the future.”
It peaked at No. 10 on the US
''Billboard'' 200 chart and was No. 1 on its Classical Albums chart from January 1969 to January 1972. It was the second classical album to sell over one million copies and was certified
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
in 1969 and Platinum in 1986 by the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
.
Carlos performed selections from the album on stage with a synthesizer with the
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the first of two live performances since her days as a student (the other being with the Kurzweil Baroque Ensemble for "Bach at the Beacon" in 1997).
In 1970, the album won a
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
for
Best Classical Album
The Grammy Award for Best Classical Album was awarded from 1962 to 2011. The award had several minor name changes:
*From 1962 to 1963, 1965 to 1972 and 1974 to 1976 the award was known as Album of the Year – Classical
*In 1964 and 1977 it wa ...
,
Best Classical Performance – Instrumental Soloist or Soloists (With or Without Orchestra), and
Best Engineered Classical Recording. Carlos released a follow-up, ''
The Well-Tempered Synthesizer
''The Well-Tempered Synthesizer'' is the second studio album from the American musician and composer Wendy Carlos in November 1969 on Columbia Masterworks Records. Following the success of her previous album, ''Switched-On Bach'' (1968), Carlos p ...
'', with synthesized pieces from multiple composers. Released in November 1969, the album reached No. 199 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and received two Grammy nominations. The success of both albums allowed Carlos to move into Elkind's more spacious New York City home in 1971.
1970s
After the release of ''Switched-On Bach'', Carlos was invited to compose the soundtrack of two science fiction films, ''
Marooned Marooned may refer to:
* Marooning, the intentional act of abandoning someone in an uninhabited area
Film and television
* ''Marooned'' (1933 film), a British drama film
* ''Marooned'' (1969 film), an American science-fiction film
* ''Marooned ...
'' (1969), directed by
John Sturges
John Eliot Sturges (; January 3, 1910 – August 18, 1992) was an American film director. His films include ''Bad Day at Black Rock'' (1955), ''Gunfight at the O.K. Corral'' (1957), ''The Magnificent Seven'' (1960), '' The Great Escape'' (1963 ...
, and ''
A Clockwork Orange
''A Clockwork Orange'' may refer to:
* ''A Clockwork Orange'' (novel), a 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess
** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (film), a 1971 film directed by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel
*** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (soundtrack), the film ...
'' (1971) by
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
. When the directors of ''Marooned'' changed their minds about including a soundtrack, Carlos chose to work with Kubrick, as she and Elkind were fans of his previous films, adding: "We finally wound up talking with someone who had a close connection to Stanley Kubrick's lawyer. We suddenly got an invitation to fly to London."
Before Carlos knew about the offer, she read the book and began writing a piece based on it named "Timesteps". A soundtrack containing only the film cuts of the score was released as ''
Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange'' in 1972, combining synthesized and classical music by
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer.
Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest E ...
,
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
and
Gioacchino Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards ...
with an early use of a
vocoder
A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation.
The vocoder was ...
. The album peaked on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart at No. 146. Later that year, Carlos released an album of music not included in the final score titled ''
Walter Carlos' Clockwork Orange''. Carlos later described the project as "a lot of fun ... a pleasurable venture".
Carlos experimented with
ambient music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...
on her third studio album ''
Sonic Seasonings'', released as a
double album
A double album (or double record) is an audio album that spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording i ...
in 1972, with one side-long track dedicated to each of the
four seasons. Recorded as early as 1970 and finished in mid-1971, before the ''A Clockwork Orange'' project was complete, Carlos wished to produce music that did not require "lengthy concentrated listening", but more than a collection of ambient noises to portray an environment.
It combined
field recording
Field recording is the term used for an audio recording produced outside a recording studio, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It also applies to sound recordings like electromagnetic fields or vibra ...
s of animals and nature with synthesized sounds, occasionally employing melodies, to create
soundscape
A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, r ...
s. It reached No. 168 in the ''Billboard'' 200 and influenced other artists who went on to pursue the ambient and
new-age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...
genres in later years.
By 1973, Columbia/
CBS Records CBS Records may refer to:
* CBS Records or CBS/Sony, former name of Sony Music, a global record company
* CBS Records International, label for Columbia Records recordings released outside North America from 1962 to 1990
* CBS Records (2006), founde ...
had received a considerable number of requests for Carlos to produce another album of synthesized classical music. She agreed to the request, opting to produce a sequel to ''Switched-On Bach'', which began with her and Elkind seeking compositions that were most suitable for the synthesizer; the two picked selections from
Suite No. 2 in B minor,
Two-Part Inventions in A minor and major, Suite from
Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach
The title ''Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach'' (german: Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach) refers to either of two manuscript notebooks that the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach presented to his second wife, Anna Magdalena. ...
, and
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major. The latter features a
Yamaha Yamaha may refer to:
* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below).
** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...
E-5 Electone organ for certain passages, as a reliable
polyphonic
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
keyboard had not been developed. The result, ''
Switched-On Bach II'', was released in 1973 and sold over 70,000 copies in the US during the first five weeks of its release.
Following ''Switched-On Bach II'', Carlos changed musical directions once more. In 1971, she and Elkind had asked Columbia Records to attach a pre-paid business reply card in each new pressing of her albums, which resulted in a considerable amount of suggestions from the public regarding the subject of her future releases.
The ideas received were divided; some asked for more classical adaptations, while others wanted more of Carlos's original compositions. Carlos decided, "If I was going to spend months for mere minutes of music, I certainly wasn't going to be pigeonholed into only retreading existing music", and so began a process of "re-directing new ideas, reworking old ones". By mid-1974, Carlos and Elkind had selected tracks of varying styles to record on the Moog synthesizer, which Carlos found liberating, as it demonstrated the flexibility of the instrument.
Released as ''By Request'' in 1975, the album includes pieces from Bach,
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
,
Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
, two of Carlos's compositions from the 1960s, and renditions of "
Eleanor Rigby
"Eleanor Rigby" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1966 album ''Revolver''. It was also issued on a double A-side single, paired with " Yellow Submarine". The song was written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to L ...
" by
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
and "
What's New Pussycat?
''What's New Pussycat?'' is a 1965 screwball comedy film directed by Clive Donner, written by Woody Allen in his first produced screenplay, and starring Allen in his acting debut, along with Peter Sellers, Peter O'Toole, Romy Schneider, Capuci ...
", originally sung by
Tom Jones.
The final track, entitled "Pompous Circumstances," a "witty and serious" set of variations based on themes by
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
, was replaced by CBS with tracks from ''The Well-Tempered Synthesizer'' on UK pressings after members of Elgar's estate refused to have his music presented in this style, which "devastated" Carlos.
Between 1974 and 1980 she scored several short films for producer Dick Young for
UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
(seven of which were released in 2005 on ''Rediscovering Lost Scores, Vol.1'').
''By Request'' was followed by ''
Switched-On Brandenburgs'', a double album containing all six of Bach's ''
Brandenburg Concertos
The ''Brandenburg Concertos'' by Johann Sebastian Bach (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, BWV 1046–1051), are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt, Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg ...
'' played on a synthesizer, in 1980.
1980s
Carlos reunited with Kubrick to compose the score for his psychological horror film ''
The Shining'' (1980). Before filming began, Carlos and Elkind read the
book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...
, as per Kubrick's suggestion, for musical inspiration. Carlos recorded a considerable amount of music, but Kubrick ended up using existing music by several
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
composers he had used as guide tracks in the final version. ''The Shining (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)'', released in 1980 on
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
, features two tracks credited to Carlos and Elkind: the main title theme and "Rocky Mountains", the former a reinterpretation of the "Dies Irae" section of ''
Symphonie fantastique
' (''Fantastical Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections'') Op. 14, is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period. The first performan ...
'' by
Hector Berlioz
In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...
. Some of Carlos's music had some legal issues regarding its release, but much of it was made available in 2005 as part of her two-volume compilation album ''Rediscovering Lost Scores''.
With work on ''The Shining'' complete, Elkind ended her long-time collaboration with Carlos when she moved to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
with her husband in 1980. Carlos remained in New York City, sharing a converted loft in
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
with her new business partner Annemarie Franklin. It housed her new, remodelled studio, which was enclosed in a
Faraday cage
A Faraday cage or Faraday shield is an enclosure used to block electromagnetic fields. A Faraday shield may be formed by a continuous covering of conductive material, or in the case of a Faraday cage, by a mesh of such materials. Faraday cage ...
to shield the equipment from
white noise
In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used, with this or similar meanings, in many scientific and technical disciplines, ...
and outside interference from radio and television signals.
Carlos's first project with Franklin began around 1980, when
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
asked her to record the soundtrack to its science fiction feature ''
Tron
''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action-adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer a ...
'' (1982). Carlos agreed, but was not interested in composing solely with electronic music, as she wished to incorporate an orchestra with her musical ideas. She recalled their demands were "tightly specified ... there wasn't a lot of elbow room, and that made it fun".
The score incorporated Carlos's analog and
digital synthesizers
A digital synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds. This in contrast to older analog synthesizers, which produce music using analog electronics, and samplers, which play back digital ...
with the
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...
, the UCLA Chorus, and the
Royal Albert Hall Organ
The Grand Organ (described by its builder as The Voice of Jupiter) situated in the Royal Albert Hall in London is the second largest pipe organ in the United Kingdom, after the Liverpool Cathedral Grand Organ. It was originally built by Henry ...
. ''
Tron: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' was released in 1982 and reached No. 135 on the ''Billboard'' 200. Carlos intended to release her scores on her own album, but Columbia/CBS showed a lack of interest in the prospect.
Three studio albums from Carlos were released in the 1980s. The first was ''
Digital Moonscapes
''Digital Moonscapes'' (1984) is an album by Wendy Carlos. "Written for orchestra (or orchestra replica), it is inspired by several astronomical subjects." '' in 1984, Carlos's first to only feature digital synthesizers. She wrote the album's tracks for orchestra "or orchestra replica", inspired by various astronomical subjects, which used some leftover material from her score to ''Tron''. Soon after, Carlos secured a deal with Audion Records, a smaller label, as she wished to "get away from that kind of big, monolithic government-like aspect that
hehad dealt with for so many years".
In 1986, Audion released ''
Beauty in the Beast
''Beauty in the Beast'' is a studio album from the American keyboardist and composer Wendy Carlos, released in 1986, on Audion Records, her first for a label other than Columbia Records since 1968. The album uses alternate musical tunings and s ...
'', which saw Carlos experiment with
just intonation
In music, just intonation or pure intonation is the tuning of musical intervals
Interval may refer to:
Mathematics and physics
* Interval (mathematics), a range of numbers
** Partially ordered set#Intervals, its generalization from numbers to ...
,
Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
nese scales, and four new
microtonal
Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of tw ...
scales she devised for the album:
Harmonic
A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the ''fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', the ...
,
Alpha
Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...
,
Beta
Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...
, and
Gamma
Gamma (uppercase , lowercase ; ''gámma'') is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter re ...
. The album features the first instance of a 35-note
octave
In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
.
Carlos considers the album as the most important of her career. She followed the album with ''Secrets of Synthesis'' in 1987, her final album for CBS/Columbia, featuring several introductions and demonstrations of synthesized music from Carlos with audio examples from her previous albums.
In 1988, CBS Records asked Carlos to collaborate with comical musician
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...
to release a parody of ''
Peter and the Wolf
''Peter and the Wolf'' ( rus, Петя и Bолк, r="Pétya i volk", p=ˈpʲetʲə i volk, links=no) Op. 67, a "symphonic fairy tale for children", is a musical composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. The narrator tells a children's s ...
'' by
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
. Carlos agreed to the project, as she felt it presented a chance "to let your sense of humor out of the cage".
Yankovic adapted and narrated its story, while Carlos rearranged the music with a "
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
orchestra", her first venture using the digital interface.
The album's second side also contains a humorous adaptation of ''
The Carnival of the Animals
''The Carnival of the Animals'' (''Le Carnaval des animaux'') is a humorous musical suite of fourteen movements, including "The Swan", by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. The work, about 25 minutes in duration, was written for private ...
'' by
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...
titled "The Carnival of the Animals–Part II", with Yankovic providing funny poems for each of the featured animals in the style of poet
Ogden Nash
Frederic Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971) was an American poet well known for his light verse, of which he wrote over 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyming schemes, he was declared by ''The New York Times'' the country's best ...
, who did similar for the original. Released in October 1988, ''
Peter and the Wolf/Carnival of the Animals–Part II'' was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Album for Children
The Grammy Award for Best Children's Album (from 2020: Grammy Award for Best Children's Music Album) is an honor presented since 2012 at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honor ...
in 1989.
1990s–2000s
To mark the 25th anniversary of ''Switched-On Bach'', Carlos re-recorded the album with her set of digital instruments and recording techniques. Released in 1992 on
Telarc Records
Telarc International Corporation is an American audiophile independent record label founded in 1977 by two classically trained musicians and former teachers, Jack Renner and Robert Woods. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the label has had a long associ ...
, ''Switched-On Bach 2000'' took roughly one and a half years to produce; Carlos estimated around 3,000 hours were invested in the project, which involved using several
digital audio workstation
A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for Sound recording and reproduction, recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software pro ...
software packages, including
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...
. A Moog synthesizer is only used once on the record; the rest is performed on 13 modern synthesizers. The album also marked her first venture into mixing in
Dolby Surround
Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology developed by Dolby Laboratories, designed to decode soundtracks encoded with Dolby Surround.
Dolby Stereo (also known as ''Dolby MP'' or ''Dolby SVA'') was developed by Dolby in 1976 f ...
sound.
Carlos wrote the soundtrack to the British film ''
Brand New World
''Brand New World'', also called ''Woundings'', a UK film based on Jeff Noon's play ''Woundings'' and released in 1998. It was filmed in Cregneash, Isle of Man
)
, anthem = "O Land of Our Birth"
, image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg
, ...
'' (1998), also known as ''Woundings'', directed by
Roberta Hanley
Roberta Hanley is an actress and movie director. She directed the 1998 movie ''Brand New World'', for which she was awarded the ''Grand Jury Prize'' for Best Feature Film at the 2001 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival.
Films ...
and based on a play by
Jeff Noon
Jeff Noon (born 1957 in Droylsden, Lancashire, England) is a British novelist, short story, short story writer and playwright whose works make use of word play and fantasy. Noon's speculative fiction books have ties to the works of writers such ...
. Carlos explained the style of her music: "I was given fairly large carte blanche to do some horrific things and also some inside-psyche mood paintings, and that's what the film became".
In 1998, Carlos released her most recent studio album, ''Tales from Heaven and Hell'', for the
East Side Digital
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...
label.
Beginning in 1998, Carlos digitally remastered her studio albums, culminating in the ''Switched-On Box Set'' released in 1999 featuring her four synthesized classical albums.
In 2005, the two-volume set ''Rediscovering Lost Scores'' was released, featuring previously out-of-print material, including the unreleased soundtrack to ''Woundings'' and music recorded for ''A Clockwork Orange'', ''The Shining'', and ''Tron'' that was not used in the films.
Personal life
Gender transition
Carlos became aware of her
gender dysphoria
Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used until ...
at an early age, recalling: "I was about five or six
..I remember being convinced I was a little girl, much preferring long hair and girls' clothes, and not knowing why my parents didn't see it clearly".
While at
Brown
Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...
, she went on a date with a girl and felt "so jealous of her I was beside myself".
Sometime after entering graduate school at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in the fall of 1962 she encountered studies of
transgender issues for the first time, which explained to her what she was feeling. In the summer of 1966 New York sexologist and pioneering transgender advocate
Harry Benjamin
Harry Benjamin (January 12, 1885 – August 24, 1986) was a German-American endocrinologist and sexologist, widely known for his clinical work with transgender people.
Early life and career
Benjamin was born in Berlin, and raised in a German ...
published his landmark book ''The Transsexual Phenomenon,'' and in the fall of 1967 Carlos began counseling with him (well before ''
Switched-On Bach
''Switched-On Bach'' is the debut album by American composer Wendy Carlos, originally released under her birth name Walter Carlos in October 1968 by Columbia Records. Produced by Carlos and Rachel Elkind, the album is a collection of pieces by J ...
'').
By early 1968 Carlos had begun
hormone replacement treatments under Benjamin's care, which began altering her appearance.
This created some problems for Carlos when ''Switched-On Bach'' became an unexpected hit after its release in October 1968. Prior to a live performance of excerpts from the album with the
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Carlos felt terrified to appear in public. She cried in her hotel room and left wearing fake sideburns and a man's wig, and drew facial hair on her face with an eyebrow pencil to appear more like a man. Carlos did the same thing when she met Kubrick and for an appearance on ''
The Dick Cavett Show
''The Dick Cavett Show'' was the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks, including:
* ABC daytime, (March 4, 1968–January 24, 1969) originally titled ''This Morning''
* ABC prime time, Tuesdays, We ...
'' in 1970.
Finally, the commercial success of ''Switched-On Bach'' allowed Carlos to undergo
sex reassignment surgery
Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and alle ...
in May 1972,
although for marketing reasons she released two more albums as Walter Carlos (1973's ''Switched-On Bach II'' and 1975's ''By Request''.)
Carlos disclosed her transgender status in a series of interviews with
Arthur Bell held between December 1978 and January 1979 and published in the May 1979 issue of ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
'' magazine. She explained in ''Playboy'' that she had "always been concerned with liberation, and
wasanxious to liberate myself".
In 1985, Carlos spoke about the reaction to her transition: "The public turned out to be amazingly tolerant or, if you wish, indifferent
..There had never been any need of this charade to have taken place. It had proven a monstrous waste of years of my life."
The first album released after the ''Playboy'' interview, ''
Switched-On Brandenburgs'' (1980) and all subsequent releases and re-releases have been issued under the name Wendy Carlos.
Lawsuit
In 1998, Carlos sued the songwriter/artist
Momus
Momus (; Ancient Greek: Μῶμος ''Momos'') in Greek mythology was the personification of satire and mockery, two stories about whom figure among Aesop's Fables. During the Renaissance, several literary works used him as a mouthpiece for their ...
for $22 million regarding the song "Walter Carlos" (from the album ''
The Little Red Songbook
''The Little Red Songbook'' is the twelfth studio album by Scottish musician Momus, released by Le Grand Magistery in 1998. Momus describes the album's style as part of his "analog baroque" phase: "an odd blend of classicism and kitschy futur ...
'', released that year), which postulated that after the
sex reassignment surgery
Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and alle ...
Wendy could travel back in time to marry her pre-transition self, Walter.
The case was settled out of court, with Momus agreeing to remove the song from subsequent editions of the CD and owing $30,000 in legal fees.
Published biography
A biography by musicologist Amanda Sewell, ''Wendy Carlos: A Biography'', was published by
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
in 2020. Although the author was unable to secure on-the-record interviews with the artist or anyone close to her, it was positively received by critics. On her personal website, Carlos describes the work as "fiction" that mischaracterizes her life and deceased parents.
Awards and honors
''Switched-On Bach'' was the winner of three 1969 Grammy Awards:
* Album of the Year, Classical
* Best Classical Performance – Instrumental Soloist Or Soloists (With Or Without Orchestra)
* Best Engineered Recording, Classical
In 2005, Carlos was the recipient of the
SEAMUS Lifetime Achievement Award "in recognition of lifetime achievement and contribution to the art and craft of electro-acoustic music" by the
Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States
The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) is a nonprofit US-based organization founded in 1984 that aims to promote the performance and creation of electro-acoustic music in the United States. In particular, the organizat ...
.
[ ().]
Other activities
Carlos contributed a review of the then-available synthesizers to the June 1971 edition of the ''
Whole Earth Catalog
The ''Whole Earth Catalog'' (WEC) was an American counterculture magazine and product catalog published by Stewart Brand several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articl ...
'', contrasting the
Moog,
Buchla and Tonus (aka
ARP) systems. She was dismissive of smaller systems like the EMS
Putney
Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
History
Putney is an ancient paris ...
and the
Minimoog
The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...
as "toys" and "cash-ins".
Carlos is also an accomplished
solar eclipse
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six month ...
photographer. Her work has been published online by
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
and has appeared on the cover of ''
Sky & Telescope
''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following:
*current events in astronomy and space exploration;
*events in the amateur astronomy community;
*reviews of astronomic ...
''. She has developed various techniques for the extension of dynamic range in eclipse photography by the use of darkroom techniques and digital composites.
Discography
Studio albums
* ''
Switched-On Bach
''Switched-On Bach'' is the debut album by American composer Wendy Carlos, originally released under her birth name Walter Carlos in October 1968 by Columbia Records. Produced by Carlos and Rachel Elkind, the album is a collection of pieces by J ...
'' (1968)
* ''
The Well-Tempered Synthesizer
''The Well-Tempered Synthesizer'' is the second studio album from the American musician and composer Wendy Carlos in November 1969 on Columbia Masterworks Records. Following the success of her previous album, ''Switched-On Bach'' (1968), Carlos p ...
'' (1969)
* ''
Sonic Seasonings'' (1972)
* ''
Walter Carlos's Clockwork Orange'' (1972; reissued in 1998 as ''A Clockwork Orange: Wendy Carlos's Complete Original Score'')
* ''
Switched-On Bach II'' (1973)
* ''By Request'' (1975)
* ''
Switched-On Brandenburgs'' (1980)
* ''
Digital Moonscapes
''Digital Moonscapes'' (1984) is an album by Wendy Carlos. "Written for orchestra (or orchestra replica), it is inspired by several astronomical subjects." '' (1984)
* ''
Beauty in the Beast
''Beauty in the Beast'' is a studio album from the American keyboardist and composer Wendy Carlos, released in 1986, on Audion Records, her first for a label other than Columbia Records since 1968. The album uses alternate musical tunings and s ...
'' (1986)
* ''Secrets of Synthesis'' (1987)
* ''
Peter & the Wolf
''Peter and the Wolf'' ( rus, Петя и Bолк, r="Pétya i volk", p=ˈpʲetʲə i volk, links=no) Op. 67, a "symphonic fairy tale for children", is a musical composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. The narrator tells a children's s ...
'' (1988; with
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...
)
* ''Switched-On Bach 2000'' (1992)
* ''Tales of Heaven and Hell'' (1998)
Soundtracks
* ''
A Clockwork Orange
''A Clockwork Orange'' may refer to:
* ''A Clockwork Orange'' (novel), a 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess
** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (film), a 1971 film directed by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel
*** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (soundtrack), the film ...
'' (1971)
* ''
The Shining'' (1980)
* ''
Tron
''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action-adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer a ...
'' (1982)
* ''Rediscovering Lost Scores, Volume 1'' (2005; compiles previously unreleased music from ''The Shining'', ''A Clockwork Orange'' and several
UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
films)
* ''Rediscovering Lost Scores, Volume 2'' (2005; compiles previously unreleased music from ''The Shining'', ''Tron'', ''Split Second'', ''Woundings'' and two
Dolby
Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (often shortened to Dolby Labs and known simply as Dolby) is an American company specializing in audio noise reduction, audio encoding/compression, spatial audio, and HDR imaging. Dolby licenses its technologies to ...
demonstration tracks)
Compilations
* ''Switched-On Brandenburgs, Vol. I'' (1987; comprises the first LP of ''Switched-On Brandenburgs'' (1979) and selections from ''Switched-On Bach II'' (1973).)
* ''Switched-On Brandenburgs, Vol. II'' (1987; comprises the second LP of ''Switched-On Brandenburgs'' (1979), selections from ''Switched-On Bach II'' (1973), and Bach's ''"Little" Fugue in G minor, BWV 578'' from ''By Request'' (1975).)
* ''Switched-On Boxed Set'' (1999; compiles ''Switched-On Bach'', ''The Well-Tempered Synthesizer'', ''Switched-On Bach II'' and ''Switched-On Brandenburgs'')
Appears on
* ''Electronic Music'' (1967) from Vox Turnabout. Includes two Carlos compositions "Dialogues for Piano and Two Loudspeakers" (with Phillip Ramey, pianist) and "Variations for Flute and Tape" (with John Heiss, flutist)
* ''Moog 900 Series – Electronic Music Systems'' (1967) demonstration disc of the capabilities of the first commercially available Moog synthesizer
* ''Childe Harold'' - "Brink of Death" / "Anne, With Love" (single, 1968,
Limelight Records Limelight Records was a jazz record label and subsidiary of Mercury Records started in 1962. The catalogue included music by Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Hines, Milt Jackson, Gerry Mulligan, and Oscar Peterson.
Originally headed by Quincy ...
)
See also
*
List of ambient music artists
This is a list of ambient music artists. This includes artists who have either been very important to the genre or have had a considerable amount of exposure (such as those who have been on a major label). This list does not include little-known ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
* as Walter
* as Wendy
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carlos, Wendy
1939 births
20th-century American composers
20th-century American keyboardists
20th-century American women musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century women composers
21st-century American composers
21st-century American keyboardists
21st-century American women musicians
21st-century classical composers
21st-century women composers
American classical composers
American classical musicians
American electronic musicians
American film score composers
American women classical composers
American women film score composers
American women in electronic music
Brown University alumni
CBS Records artists
Classical musicians from Rhode Island
Columbia Records artists
Columbia University staff
Columbia University alumni
Electronic composers
Grammy Award winners
LGBT classical composers
LGBT classical musicians
LGBT film score composers
American LGBT musicians
LGBT people from Rhode Island
Living people
Microtonal composers
People from Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Telarc Records artists
Transgender women musicians
Trautonium players
Women in classical music