The Well-Tempered Synthesizer
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The Well-Tempered Synthesizer is a 1969 album released by Wendy Carlos (originally credited as by Walter Carlos) following the groundbreaking Switched-On Bach in the previous year. The album consists of a selection of pieces by Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, and Handel as well as Bach whose music was exclusively featured on the first album. The title of The Well-Tempered Synthesizer is a play on Bach's own collection of pieces entitled The Well-Tempered Clavier.
All selections were performed on a Moog modular synthesizer system. Like Switched On Bach, The Well-Tempered Synthesizer was recorded on an 8-track Ampex tape recorder using numerous takes and overdubs. This was long before the days of MIDI sequencers and recording the album was by all accounts a laborious process.
About Carlos' rendition of Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, renowned Canadian concert pianist Glenn Gould had the following to say:
- Carlos' realization of the Fourth Brandenburg Concerto is, to put it bluntly, the finest performance of any of the Brandenburgs—live, canned, or intuited—I've ever heard. [2]
Track listing
- Stereo Test Tone
- Monteverdi: "Orfeo Suite" (Toccata; Ritornello I; Choro II; Ritornello II; Choro II; Ritornello II)
- Scarlatti: "Sonata In G Major, L. 209/K. 455"
- Scarlatti: "Sonata In D Major, L. 164/K. 491"
- Handel: "Water Music: Bourrée"
- Handel: "Water Music: Air"
- Handel: "Water Music: Allegro Deciso"
- Scarlatti: "Sonata In E Major, L. 430/K. 531"
- Scarlatti: "Sonata In D Major, L. 465/K. 96"
- Bach: "Brandenburg Concerto #4 in G Major: Allegro"
- Bach: "Brandenburg Concerto #4 in G Major: Andante"
- Bach: "Brandenburg Concerto #4 in G Major: Presto"
- Monteverdi: "Domine Ad Adjuvandum" (from the 1610 Vespers)
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