Stuff

One of my favourite albums from the late 1960s was Switched-On Bach.

The album was a number of classical pieces written by J S Bach performed on an early Moog synthesiser by Walter, actually Wendy Carlos.

I loved this album, and actually still do. My vinyl copy is very well worn. I remember dj Alan Freeman played bits of it on his show. It felt like the future, something different. The performances were fantastic, and it seemed that the entire work had been a labour of love, especially the Brandenburg number 3 performance.

The album was a smash hit. I remember that my friends did not like it. Why was classical music being performed on a synthesiser? Well, these performances were, and are, great to listen to, you can hear very clearly the lines in the music and how it is constructed. This record’s existence does not stop any traditional performances existing, nor does it undermine them. And if it makes people investigate classical music more when they might otherwise not have, then great.