Wendy Carlos synthesizes Purcell and Bach

Synopsis

The Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange opened in New York City on this date in 1971. The music was composed, and in some cases re-composed, by Wendy Carlos. As in his earlier hit, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick used classical music. This time, however, in keeping with the film’s futuristic storyline, the classics were adapted and arranged for Moog synthesizer by Wendy Carlos. The main title music, which we’re sampling, was Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary.

Carlos had just read the Anthony Burgess novel, A Clockwork Orange, when she saw a notice in the New York Times that Kubrick was at work filming it. She immediately airmailed Kubrick two Moog synthesizer pieces, one original and one a classical arrangement. Kubrick wrote back, inviting her to London to talk, and the rest is history.

Wendy Carlos had become an international celebrity with her earlier album Switched-On Bach, consisting of her Bach arrangements for synthesizer. It became the first classical recording ever to be certified platinum. Musical genius pianist Glenn Gould, whose own recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations was one of the biggest sellers of all time, said: “Carlos’ realization of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 is, to put it bluntly, the finest performance of any of the Brandenburgs — live, canned, or intuited — I’ve ever heard.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Henry Purcell (arr. Wendy Carlos): Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary; Wendy Carlos, synthesizers Eastside; Digital 81362

J.S. Bach (arr. Wendy Carlos): Brandenburg Concerto No. 4; Wendy Carlos, synthesizers; CBS/Sony 42309

On This Day

Births

• 1676 - French composer and organist, Louis Nicolas Clérambault, in Paris

• 1825 - American composer George Frederick Bristow, in Brooklyn, New York

• 1894 - German composer Paul Dessau, in Hamburg

Premieres

• 1865 - Rimsky-Korsakov: Symphony No. 1, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Dec. 31)

• 1873 - Tchaikovsky: symphonic fantasia The Tempest (after Shakespeare), in Moscow (Julian date: Dec. 7)

• 1890 - Tchaikovsky: opera, Pique Dame, in St. Petersburg, at the Mariinsky Theatre, Eduard Napravnik conducting (Julian date: Dec. 7)

• 1919 - Griffes: The White Peacock (orchestral version), by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting

• 1930 - American premiere of Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms, by the Boston Symphony under Serge Koussevitzky (who commissioned the work to celebrate the Boston Symphony's 50th Anniversary). The world premiere had occurred in Brussels on December 13, 1930, conducted by Ernest Ansermet.

• 1991 - Corigliano: opera The Ghosts of Versailles, in New York City at the Metropolitan Opera

• 2002 - Rodion Shchedrin: The Enchanted Wanderer for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra, by the New York Choral Artists and New York Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel conducting