Robert Moog, Toolmaker, 1934-2005
Yesterday's news of Robert Moog's death at the age of 71 was sobering, to say the least. My musical tastes have been at least partially indebted to his synthesizer since I purchased Wendy Carlos' Switched On Bach at the age of ten and insisted my music teacher play the tape during class (my classmates didn't get it). I had the good fortune of meeting Bob Moog when he gave a short lecture at my school on the history of the theremin--a lecture that quickly turned into a Q & A on the history of the Moog synthesizer. He only reluctantly acknowledged his influence as a pioneer of electronic music, seeing himself instead as an engineer devoted to musicians. To him, the Moog wasn't a revolution--it was a tool. In light of that, this paragraph in today's NYT coverage of Moog's life and work really resonated with me:
"Artist feedback drove all my development work," Mr. Moog said in an interview with the online magazine Salon in 2000. "The first synthesizers I made were in response to what [composer] Herb Deutsch wanted. The now-famous Moog filter was suggested by several musicians... The point is that I don't design stuff for myself. I'm a toolmaker. I design things that other people want to use."
If you've ever played with a Moog, you know why people so loved using them; tweaking the knobs of an analog modular synthesizer is among the most gratifying things you'll ever do with a circuit. Musicians have accomplished so much with the Moog (and its numerous successors) because it's such an addictive tool--one of the most transformative to the arts in the last century. What Bob Moog did right in building his synthesizer is not much different from what we try to do as toolmakers today; he built a simple, gratifying tool and let its use dictate its design. To properly honor Robert Moog's achievements, you have to see him not only for his influence on music, but also for his devotion to the craft of user interface design. In fact, to anybody whose work involves the creation of tools--analog, digital, mechanical, whatever--I would say, simply: consider Robert Moog.
Posted by tangentialist at August 22, 2005 07:36 PM | more tangentialism
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