Synth inventor Moog passes away

Moog, who died Sunday, was diagnosed in April with an inoperable brain tumor.

The Moog synthesizer -- a versatile keyboard instrument that could electronically mimic a panoply of musical sounds, including horns and strings -- was introduced in 1964. Originally employed as a sonic novelty, it became widely used by several rock, pop and classical musicians and opened the door for the mainstreaming of the synth in the electronica genre.

Moog said in a 1997 interview, "To me, the synthesizer was always a source of new sounds that musicians could use to expand the range of possibilities for making music."

Born in New York in 1934, Moog studied piano as a child and was encouraged to explore electronics by his father, an amateur radio operator. As a youth, he was fascinated by the theremin, the early electronic instrument invented by Russian Leon Theremin. Moog's first company marketed theremins and other electronic products.

Moog's first voltage-controlled synthesizer unit was developed in 1964 with composer Herb Deutsch; the first commercial modular synthesizer hit the market the same year.

The Moog synthesizer made its major breakthrough into mass culture in 1968, when keyboardist Wendy Carlos (then known as Walter Carlos) issued "Switched-On Bach," an album of synthesized performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's works. The album won three

Grammys, including classical album of the year, and unleashed a flood of albums featuring synthesized music. (Carlos also famously deployed the synthesizer in the score for Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film "A Clockwork Orange.")

Pop and rock performers rapidly adopted the technology: The Beatles, the Who and Stevie Wonder, among others, were early exponents of the Moog synthesizer. It became a key building block of '70s progressive rock in the hands of such practitioners as Yes, Manfred Mann and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

"The sound defined progressive music as we know it," ELP's keyboardist Keith Emerson said.

Moog received a Trustees Award for lifetime achievement from the Recording Academy in 1970.

He sold his Buffalo-based instrument company in 1973 and moved to Asheville in the late '70s. After teaching music at the University of North Carolina in Asheville, he returned to instrument-building with a new firm, Moog Music, whose clients included Nine Inch Nails, Sonic Youth, Widespread Panic, Beck and Phish.