Robert Moog

Robert Moog
Born	May 23, 1934(1934-05-23) New York City, New York
Died	August 21, 2005(2005-08-21) (aged 71) Asheville, North Carolina
Nationality	American
Occupation	Electronic music pioneer, inventor of Moog synthesizer

Robert Arthur Moog (pronounced /ˈmoʊɡ/ mohg), commonly called Bob Moog (May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American pioneer of electronic music, best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer.

Life

A native of New York City, Moog attended the Bronx High School of Science in New York, graduating in 1952. Moog earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Queens College, New York in 1957, another in electrical engineering from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in engineering physics from Cornell University. Moog's awards include honorary doctorates from Polytechnic Institute of New York University (New York City) and Lycoming College (Williamsport, Pennsylvania)

During his lifetime, Moog founded two companies for manufacturing electronic musical instruments. He also worked as a consultant and vice president for new product research at Kurzweil Music Systems from 1984 to 1988, helping to develop the Kurzweil K2000. He spent the early 1990s as a research professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

Moog received a Grammy Trustees Award for lifetime achievement in 1970. In 2002, Moog was honored with a Grammy Tech Award, and an honorary doctorate degree from Berklee College of Music.

He gave an enthusiastically-received lecture at the 2004 New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME-04), held in Hamamatsu, Japan's "City of Musical Instruments", in June, 2004. Moog was the inspiration behind the 2004 film Moog.

Moog's first wife was Shirleigh Moog (née Shirley May Leigh), a grammar school teacher whom he married in 1958. The couple had three daughters (Laura Moog Lanier, Michelle Moog-Koussa, Renee Moog) and one son (Matthew Moog) before their divorce. Moog was married to his second wife Ileana Grams, a philosophy professor, for nine years until his death. Moog's stepdaughter, Miranda Richmond, is Grams's daughter from a previous marriage. Moog also had five grandchildren.

Moog was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor on April 28, 2005. Nearly four months later, he died at the age of 71 in Asheville, North Carolina on August 21, 2005. His end of life journey was captured using CaringBridge. The Bob Moog Foundation was created as a memorial, with the aim of continuing his life's work of developing electronic music.

Development of the Moog synthesizer

Main article: Moog synthesizer

The Moog synthesizer was one of the first widely used electronic musical instruments. Early developmental work on the components of the synthesizer occurred at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, now the Computer Music Center. While there, Moog developed the voltage controlled oscillators, ADSR envelope generators, and other synthesizer modules with composer Herbert Deutsch.

Moog created the first voltage-controlled subtractive synthesizer to utilize a keyboard as a controller and demonstrated it at the AES convention in 1964. In 1966, Moog filed a patent application for his unique low-pass filter U.S. Patent 3,475,623, which issued in October 1969. He held several dozen patents.^[1]

Moog employed his theremin company (R. A. Moog Co., which would later become Moog Music) to manufacture and market his synthesizers. Unlike the few other 1960s synthesizer manufacturers, Moog shipped a piano-style keyboard as the standard user interface to his synthesizers. Moog also established standards for analog synthesizer control interfacing, with a logarithmic one volt-per-octave pitch control and a separate pulse triggering signal.

The first Moog instruments were modular synthesizers. In 1971 Moog Music began production of the Minimoog Model D which was among the first widely available, portable and relatively affordable synthesizers.

One of Moog's earliest musical customers was Wendy Carlos whom he credits with providing feedback that was valuable to the further development of Moog synthesizers. Through his involvement in electronic music, Moog developed close professional relationships with artists such as Don Buchla, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, John Cage, Gershon Kingsley, Clara Rockmore, and Pamelia Kurstin. In a 2000 interview, Moog said "I'm an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers. They use my tools."

R.A. Moog Co. and Moog Music

The Moog Music logo

Main article: Moog Music

In 1953 at age 19, Moog founded his first company, R.A. Moog Co., to manufacture theremin kits. During the 1950s, composer and electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott approached Moog, asking him to design circuits for him. Moog later acknowledged Scott as an important influence. Later, in the 1960s, the company was employed to build modular synthesizers based on Moog's designs.

In 1972 Moog changed the company's name to Moog Music. Throughout the 1970s, Moog Music went through various changes of ownership, eventually being bought out by musical instrument manufacturer Norlin. Poor management and marketing led to Moog's departure from his own company in 1977.

In 1978 after leaving his namesake firm, Moog started making electronic musical instruments again with a new company, Big Briar. Their first specialty was theremins, but by 1999 the company expanded to produce a line of analog effects pedals called moogerfoogers. In 1999, Moog partnered with Bomb Factory to co-develop the first digital effects based on Moog technology in the form of plugins for Pro Tools software.

Despite Moog Music's closing in 1993, Moog did not have the rights to market products using his own name throughout the 1990s. Big Briar acquired the rights to use the Moog Music name in 2002 after a legal battle with Don Martin who had previously bought the rights to the name Moog Music. At the same time, Moog designed a new version of the Minimoog called the Minimoog Voyager. The Voyager includes nearly all of the features of the original Model D in addition to numerous modern features.

Theremin

Moog constructed his own theremin as early as 1948. Later he described a theremin in the hobbyist magazine Electronics World and offered a kit of parts for the construction of the Electronic World's Theremin, which became very successful. In the late 1980s Moog repaired the original theremin of Clara Rockmore, an accomplishment which he considered a high point of his professional career. He also produced, in collaboration with first wife Shirleigh Moog, Mrs. Rockmore's album, The Art of the Theremin. Moog was a principal interview subject in the award-winning documentary film, Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey, the success of which led to a revival of interest in the theremin. Moog Music went back to its roots and once again began manufacturing theremins. Thousands have been sold to date and are used by both professional and amateur musicians around the globe. In 1996 he published another do-it-yourself theremin guide. Today, Moog Music is the leading manufacturer of performance-quality theremins.

Pronunciation

The surname Moog is one of the most divergently pronounced names in popular culture. The following interview excerpt reveals Robert Moog's preferred pronunciation:

— Reviewer: First off: Does your name rhyme with "vogue" or is like a cow’s "moo" plus a g at the end?

— Dr. Robert Moog: It rhymes with "vogue." That is the usual German pronunciation.^[2] My father's grandfather came from Marburg, Germany. I like the way that pronunciation sounds better than the way the cow's "moo-g" sounds.^[3]

In a deleted scene from the DVD version of the documentary Moog, Moog describes the three pronunciations of the name Moog: the original Dutch /moːx/, which he believes would be too demanding of English speakers; the preferred Anglo-German pronunciation, /moʊɡ/; and a more anglicized pronunciation, /muːɡ/. Moog reveals that some of his family members prefer the anglicized pronunciation, while others, including himself (and his wife) prefer the Anglo-German pronunciation.

See also

Bob Moog Foundation Moog (film) Moog Music Moog synthesizer List of Moog synthesizer players Moogfest Electronic music

Harald Bode Herbert Deutsch Gershon Kingsley Raymond Scott Léon Theremin Bruce Haack List of notable brain tumor patients

Footnotes

1. ^ ""Moog Patents"". http://www.till.com/articles/moog/patents.html. 
2. ^ The German pronunciation is [moːk], or [moːɡ] before a vowel. The English pronunciation /moʊɡ/ is an approximation.
3. ^ The Origins of the Synthesizer: An Interview with Dr. Robert Moog

References

• Pinch, Trevor and Trocco, Frank (2002). Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. hardcover: ISBN 0-674-00889-8, 2004 paperback: ISBN 0-674-01617-3

External links

• Bob Moog — official website
• The Bob Moog Memorial Foundation for Electronic Music
• Robert Moog discography at Discogs
• Robert Moog at the Internet Movie Database
• Moog Music — official website
• Moog Archives illustrated history of company and products
• MoogFest — festival celebrating Moog
• Vintage Synth Explorer
• Bob Moog's links at ThereminVox
• The Moog Taurus Bass Pedals, the Minimoog and the Moog Prodigy
• Pictures of Bob Moog
• Sound samples from the Moog Modular at BlueDistortion.com
• NIME-04 — International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Interviews and articles

• Bob Moog Interview at electronicmusic.com
• Article of Bob Moog and his relationship with Raymond Scott and the inventions they made in the mid 1950’s (the unaddressed letter and the UJT-Relay sequencer invention)
• Radio feature with Bob Moog on Voice Of America (MP3)
• Radio feature with Bob Moog on NPR (MP3)
• Article about Bob Moog on SynthMuseum.com
• Interview with Bob Moog on Amazing Sounds
• Article about Robert Moog's career on Salon.com
• Robert Moog interview in magazine New Scientist
• Radio interview with Moog from 2004 on WNYC (RealAudio) (Moog portion begins 30 minutes into program.)
• Article with pictures of Bob Moog and various Moog synthesizers on Obsolete.com
• Sweetwater Video Interview with Bob Moog discussing his design philosophy and future of synthesis, on Sweetwater.com

Patents

• Descriptive list of Moog patents by J. Donald Tillman
• U.S. Patent 3,475,623 Electronic High-pass and Low-pass Filters Employing the Base-to-Emitter Resistance of Bipolar Transistors, issued October 1969
• U.S. Patent 4,050,343 Electronic music synthesizer, issued September 1977
• U.S. Patent 4,108,041 Phase shifting sound effects circuit, issued August 1978
• U.S. Patent 4,117,413 Amplifier with multifilter, issued September 1978
• U.S. Patent 4,166,197 Parametric adjustment circuit, issued August 1979
• U.S. Patent 4,180,707 Distortion sound effects circuit, issued December 1979
• U.S. Patent 4,202,238 Compressor-expander for a musical instrument, issued May 1980
• U.S. Patent 4,213,367 Monophonic touch sensitive keyboard, issued July 1980
• U.S. Patent 4,280,387 Frequency following circuit, issued July 1981
• U.S. Patent 4,778,951 Arrays of resistive elements for use in touch panels and for producing electric fields, issued October 1988

Obituaries

• [1] / [2] in BBC News
• [3] in Asheville Citizen-Times
• [4] in CNN
• [5] in Los Angeles Times
• [6] in The New York Times (may require free registration to access)
• [7] in The Economist
• [8] in Mix magazine
• [9] in The Times

Tributes

• Bob Moog Guestbook at CaringBridge
• Switched On and Ready To Rumble from The New York Times
• A Tribute To Robert Moog — tribute album, entry on Discogs
• Waves of Inspiration: The Legacy of Moog, museum exhibition
• We Will Miss You, Bob Moog from BlueDistortion.com

Persondata
Name	Moog, Robert
Alternative names
Short description	Electronic music pioneer, inventor of Moog synthesizer
Date of birth	May 23, 1934
Place of birth	New York City, New York
Date of death	August 21, 2005
Place of death	Asheville, North Carolina