Robert Moog | |
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| Born | Robert Arthur Moog (1934-05-23)May 23, 1934 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | August 21, 2005(2005-08-21) (aged 71) |
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| Children | 4 |
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Robert Arthur Moog (/moʊɡ/MOHG; May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American engineer andelectronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturerMoog Music and the inventor of the first commercialsynthesizer, theMoog synthesizer, which debuted in 1964. In 1970, Moog released a more portable model, theMinimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history. Among Moog's honors are aTechnical Grammy Award, received in 2002, and an induction into theNational Inventors Hall of Fame.
By 1963, Moog had been designing and sellingtheremins for several years while working toward a PhD in engineering physics atCornell University. He developed his synthesizer in response to demand for more practical and affordable electronic-music equipment, guided by suggestions and requests from composers. Moog's principal innovation was thevoltage-controlled oscillator, which usesvoltage to controlpitch. He also introduced fundamental synthesizer concepts such asmodularity,envelope generation and thepitch wheel. He is credited with introducing synthesizers to a wider audience and influencing the development ofpopular music.
Moog pursued his work as a hobby, and he is regarded as a poor businessman. His onlypatent was on histransistor ladderfilter design; commentators have speculated that he would have become extremely wealthy had he patented his other innovations, but that their availability in thepublic domain helped the synthesizer industry flourish.
In 1971, Moog sold Moog Music toNorlin Musical Instruments, where he remained as a designer until 1977. In 1978, he founded the company Big Briar, and in 2002 he renamed it Moog Music after reacquiring the rights to the name. In later years, Moog taught at theUniversity of North Carolina at Asheville and continued designing instruments for the revived Moog Music. He died at the age of 71 inAsheville from a brain tumor.
Robert Moog was born atFlushing Hospital in New York City on May 23, 1934. His father was George Conrad Moog, of German descent. His mother was Shirley (Jacobs) Moog, of Polish-Jewish descent.[1] He was raised inFlushing,Queens.[2]
When he was a boy, Moog's mother forced him to study the piano. He was active in theBoy Scouts, and especially enjoyed spending time with his father, aConsolidated Edisonengineer, visitingManhattan'sRadio Row and working onradio andelectronics projects.[3] He became fascinated by thetheremin, anelectronic instrument controlled by moving the hands overradio antennae. In 1949, at the age of 14, he built a theremin from plans printed inElectronics World.[2]
He graduated from theBronx High School of Science in 1952.[4] He earned aBachelor of Science inphysics fromQueens College of theCity University of New York in 1955, and aBachelor of Science inelectrical engineering from theColumbia UniversitySchool of Engineering and Applied Science under a3-2 engineering program in 1957.[5][6] He earned aPhD inengineering physics fromCornell University in 1965.[3][7]
In 1953, Moog produced his own theremin design, and in the following year, he published an article on the theremin inRadio and Television News. That same year, he foundedR.A. Moog Co., building theremins and theremin kits in his parents' home and selling them viamail order. In 1956, Moog and his father visitedRaymond Scott's Manhattan Research facility, and Scott purchased a Moog Model 305 theremin. Scott rewired the Moog theremin to be controlled by a keyboard, dubbing his creation theClavivox.[3][8] Moog married in 1958 and continued building and selling theremin kits from his own home inIthaca, before establishing the company's first commercial space at 41 East Main Street inTrumansburg, New York in 1963,[9] all while continuing to pursue hispostgraduate education.[2][10]
At Cornell, Moog began work on his first synthesizer components with composerHerb Deutsch.[11] At the time, synthesizers were enormous, room-filling instruments;[12] Moog hoped to build a more compact synthesizer that would appeal to musicians.[11] He believed that practicality and affordability were the most important parameters.[11]
In 1964, Moog began creating the Moog modular synthesizer.[11] It was composed of separatemodules that created and shaped sounds, connected bypatch cords.[2] Previous synthesizers, such as theRCA Mark II, had created sound from hundreds ofvacuum tubes.[13] Instead, Moog used recently available silicontransistors with anexponential relationship between inputvoltage and outputcurrent. With these, he created thevoltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), which generates awaveform with apitch that could be adjusted by changing the voltage. Similarly, he used voltage to controlloudness withvoltage-controlled amplifiers (VCAs).[14] One innovative feature was itsenvelope, which controls how notes swell and fade.[3] According to theGuardian, Moog's 1964 paperVoltage-Controlled Music Modules, in which he proposed the Moog synthesizer modules, invented the modern concept of theanalog synthesizer.[15]
Moog debuted the instrument at the 1964Audio Engineering Society convention in New York.[12] It was much smaller than other synthesizers, such as theRCA Synthesizer introduced a decade earlier, and much cheaper, at US$10,000, as compared to the six-figure sums of other synthesizers.[12] Whereas the RCA Synthesizer was programmed withpunchcards, Moog's synthesizer could be programmed with knobs and patch cables and played via keyboard, making it attractive to musicians.[12]New Scientist described it as the first commercial synthesizer.[16]At this time, Moog and then Fred Cochran constructed the so-called Moogtonium for the composer Max Brand. It is still operational and exhibited in theLangenzersdorf Museum near Vienna (Austria).[17]
Moog described himself as a toolmaker designing things for his users, not himself.[2] His development was driven by requests and suggestions from various musicians, including Deutsch (who devised the instrument's keyboard interface),Richard Teitelbaum,Vladimir Ussachevsky (credited with devising the ADSR envelope shape), andWendy Carlos.[2] His other early customers included choreographer and composerAlwin Nikolais and composerJohn Cage.[11] Universities established electronic music studios with Moog synthesizers.[2] In 1970, Moog released the portable fixed-architectureMinimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history.[18][19][20]
Though commentators have praised Moog's engineering abilities, some have also described him as a poor businessman.[3][11] Moog had pursued the development of his synthesizer as a hobby, stressing that he was regarded as a businessman but had not known what abalance sheet was.[21] He likened the experience to a theme park ride: "You know you're not going to get hurt too badly because nobody would let you do that, but you're not quite in control."[21]
Moog only patented hisfilter design;David Borden, one of the first users of the Minimoog, felt that if Moog had patented hispitch wheel design, he would have become extremely wealthy.[20] According toSound on Sound, if Moog had created amonopoly on other synthesizer ideas that he created, such as modularity, envelope generation and voltage control, "it's likely the synth industry as we know it today would never have happened."[22]
Beginning in 1971, Moog Music absorbed investors, merged withNorlin Musical Instruments and moved to "less than ideal" premises nearBuffalo, New York, amid a debilitating recession.[11] Moog remained employed as a designer at the company until 1977.[2] He said that he would have left earlier if his contract had not required him to remain employed there for four years to cash his stock.[11] By the end of the decade, Moog Music was facing competition from cheaper, easier-to-use instruments by competitors includingARP, Aries,Roland,Sequential Circuits, andE-mu.[23]
In 1978, Moog moved to North Carolina and founded a new electronic instrument company, Big Briar.[2] He also worked as a consultant and vice president for new product research atKurzweil Music Systems from 1984 to 1988.[12] In the early 1990s, he was aresearch professor of music at theUniversity of North Carolina at Asheville.[24] In 2002, he renamed Big Briar to Moog Music after retrieving the rights to the name.[2] In later years, he continued to design electronic instruments, including atouchscreen-operated piano.[3]
Moog married Shirley May Leigh on June 15, 1958.[25] They had four children, Laura (1961), Renée (1963), Michelle (1967), and Matthew (1970).[26] They divorced in 1994.[2] On May 19, 1996 Moog married Ileana Grams.[27]
Moog was diagnosed with aglioblastoma multiforme brain tumor on April 28, 2005. He died on August 21, 2005, at the age of 71 inAsheville, North Carolina.[11] He was survived by his second wife Ileana, four children, one stepdaughter and five grandchildren.[2]
Moog has had a lasting influence on music. The BBC describes him as a pioneer of synthesized sound.[10] According to theGuardian, his inventions "changed the complexion of the pop and classical music worlds."[11] Moog's name became so associated with electronic music that it was sometimes used as ageneric term for any synthesizer.[2][28]
Moog's awards include honorary doctorates fromPolytechnic Institute of New York University (New York City),Lycoming College (Williamsport, Pennsylvania) andBerklee College of Music.[29] He received aGrammy Trustees Award for lifetime achievement in 1970, thePolar Music Prize in 2001 and a Special Merit/Technical Grammy Award in 2002.[30] In 2012, to celebrate Moog's birthday,Google created an interactive version of the Minimoog as itsGoogle Doodle.[31] In 2013, Moog was inducted into theNational Inventors Hall of Fame.[32]
On July 18, 2013, Moog's widow Ileana Grams-Moog announced plans to donate Moog's archives, maintained by the Bob Moog Foundation, toCornell University. The foundation offered her $100,000 but Grams-Moog would not sell the archives. She felt that Cornell could provide better access for researchers and that the foundation had not made enough progress toward a planned museum to be worthy of maintaining the collection. The foundation responded that it had sufficiently preserved the collection and had made efforts to improve storage, although it could not yet afford to build the museum.[33]
In August 2019, the Bob Moog Foundation opened theMoogseum, a museum dedicated to Moog's work, in Asheville, North Carolina. The displays include rare theremins, prototype synthesizer modules and Moog's documents.[34]
Moog has been the subject of books about his life and work, including the 2004 bookAnalog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer byTrevor Pinch and Frank Trocco and the 2023 biographySwitched On: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution byAlbert Glinsky. Moog had contributed the foreword to Glinsky's first book,Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage, aboutLeon Theremin, who was a principal inspiration to Moog.[35]
Moog was also the subject ofMoog, a 2004 documentary directed byHans Fjellestad, who said that Moog "embodies the archetypal American maverick inventor."[23]
In honor of what would've been Robert Moog's 78th birthday, the Bronx High School of Science started its day with a tribute to the 1952 alumnus who began pioneering the synthesizer in high school.
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