The Music Division is buzzing this week! Composer Morton Subotnick will be featured in a special event with composer Steve Antosca and members of the Modular Electronic Music Systems (MEMS) team on Thursday, December 5, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. (Thomas Jefferson Building, Room LJ-119). They will discuss the history and impact of Subotnick’s Buchla 100 synthesizer, as well as its recent restoration, completed by members of the MEMS team in March 2024 (read more here). Event attendees will have a chance to hear a live demonstration of the Buchla’s distinctive sounds and enjoy a screening of “Null Adjustments,” a new short film by Andrew Northrop of the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London that documents the Buchla 100 modular synthesizer and its repair, captured on 16mm film.
Free tickets for Thursday’s event are available at loc.gov/concerts. The event will also be streamed live at 5:00 p.m. ET for those who would like to attend remotely. Please register for the Zoom webinar here.
Morton Subotnick is one of the pioneers in the development of electronic music and an innovator of works involving instruments and other media, including interactive computer music systems. In 1963, Subotnick commissioned and helped design the Buchla “synthesizer,” perhaps the first of its kind, conceived as an analog computer for making a new music. The work that brought Subotnick celebrity, “Silver Apples of the Moon” (1966–1967), was commissioned by Nonesuch Records, marking the first time an original large-scale composition had been created specifically for the disc medium—a conscious acknowledgment that the home stereo system constituted a present day form of chamber music. It has become a modern classic and was entered into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry in 2009. Only 600 recordings throughout the entire history of recorded music have been chosen. Subotnick pioneered works that offered musical creative tools for young children that became available internationally. These include a series of CD-ROMs, a website and programs for classrooms. He tours extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe as a lecturer and composer/performer. Along with his Buchla 100, Subotnick’s body of works, and many of the physical performance hardware devices such as his Ghost machine, are archived with the Library of Congress Music Division (finding aid).
The Music Division thanks the following contributors who helped to make this event possible: Robert Rabinowitz, Cynthia Webster, Buchla USA and Genelec gave equipment donations. Nova Labs provided workspace for the restoration. The project also received support from the Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Funding from University College London. Additionally, the Music Division acknowledges the assistance of: Steve Antosca, Stephanie Akau, Dave Brown, Cait Miller, Morton Subotnick, Tom Beyer, Dave Brown, Ted Gordon, the volunteers at Nova Labs, Larry Confino, Jane Beethoven, Robert Gluck, Thomas Jenkins, Jayne Parker, Jon Nensén, Elektronmusikstudion (Mats Lindstöm, Mats Erlandsson) and the Ernst Krenek Institut (Alethea Neubauer, Clemens Zoidl and Martina Pröll).