- RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer
The RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer (nicknamed "Victor") was the first programmable
electronic music synthesizer and the flagship piece of equipment at theColumbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center . Designed byHerbert Belar andHarry Olson atRCA , it was installed atColumbia University in 1957. Consisting of a room-sized array of interconnected soundsynthesis components, much of the design of the machine was contributed byVladimir Ussachevsky andPeter Mauzey . The synthesizer was funded with a large grant from theRockefeller Foundation .Earlier 20th century electronic instruments such as the
Telharmonium or thetheremin were manually operated. The RCA combined diverse electronic sound generation with a musicsequencer . This provided a huge attraction tocomposer s of the day, many of whom were growing tired of creating electronic works by splicing together individual sounds recorded on sections ofmagnetic tape . The RCA Mark II featured a fully automated binary sequencer using apaper tape reader analogous to aplayer piano , that would send instructions to the synthesizer, automatingplayback of the machine. The synthesizer would then output sound to a synchronizedshellac record lathe next to the machine. The resulting recording would then be compared against the punch-tape score, and the process would be repeated until the desired results were obtained.The sequencer features of the RCA were of particular attraction to modernist composers of the time, especially those interested in writing dodecaphonic music with a high degree of precision. In fact, the RCA is cited by composers of the day as a contributing factor to the rise of musical
complexity , insofar as it allowed composers the freedom to write music usingrhythm s andtempo s that were impractical, if not impossible, to realize onacoustic instrument s. This allure of precision as a mark ofaesthetic progress (played out even today with contemporarycomputer -based sequencers) generated high expectations for the Mark II, and contributed to the increased awareness of electronic music as a viable new art form.The synthesizer had a four-note variable
polyphony (in addition to twelve fixed-toneoscillator s and awhite noise source). The synthesizer was very difficult to set up, requiring extensive patching of analog circuitry prior to running a score. Little attempt was made to teach composition on the synthesizer, and with few exceptions the only people proficient in the machine's usage were the designers at RCA and the engineering staff at Columbia who maintained it.Princeton University composerMilton Babbitt [Babbitt describes the acquisition and use of the machine in an interview segment on the 2005 "Ohm+" DVD released by Ellipsis Arts.] , though not by any means the only person to use the machine, is the composer most often associated with it, and was its biggest advocate (Igor Stravinsky was rumored to have suffered a heart attack upon hearing Babbitt's glowing description of the synthesizer's capabilities).A number of important pieces in the electronic music repertoire were composed and realized on the RCA. Babbit's "Vision and Prayer" and "Philomel" both feature the RCA, as does
Charles Wuorinen 's 1970Pulitzer Prize for Music -winning piece "Time's Encomium". After the RCA was vandalized by thieves in the 1970s it fell into disrepair, and remains only partly functional. The last composer to get any sound out of the synthesizer wasR. Luke DuBois , who used it for a thirty-second piece on theFreight Elevator Quartet 's "Jungle Album" in 1997.Though part of the history of electronic music, the RCA was hardly ever used. Made to
United States Air Force construction specifications (and even sporting a USAFoscilloscope ), its operating electronics were constructed entirely out ofvacuum tube s, making the machine obsolete by its tenth birthday, having been surpassed by more reliable (and affordable) solid state modular synthesizers such as theBuchla andMoog modular synthesizer systems. It was prohibitively expensive to replicate, and an RCA Mark III, though conceived of by Belar and Olsen, was never constructed. Nor was RCA long for the synthesizer business, prompting Columbia to purchase enough spare parts to build two duplicate synthesizers.Much of the historical interest of the RCA, besides its association with the Electronic Music Center, comes from a number of amusing (and possibly apocryphal) stories told regarding the synthesizer. One common story is that Ussachevsky and
Otto Luening effectively conned RCA into building the machine, claiming that a synthesizer built to their specifications would "replace thesymphony orchestra," prompting RCA executives to gamble the cost of the synthesizer in the hopes of being able to eliminate their (unionized) radio orchestra. The RCA is sometimes (falsely) attributed as the direct cause of theNew York City Blackout of 1977 , having been powered on moments before the lights went out.The RCA is still housed at the Columbia
Computer Music Center facility on 125th Street inNew York City , where it is bolted to the floor in the office of ProfessorBrad Garton , taking up quite a bit of precious floor space.References
External links
* [http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/rca/ Information on the RCA]
* [http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=17 Wuorinen's story of Time's Encomium]
* [http://www.furious.com/perfect/ohm/babbitt.html Babbitt on "Philomel']
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