Don Buchla 1937 - 2016

[Kevin Austin]

RIP: Don Buchla, a pioneering force in the world of synthesizers, has died at 79

http://www.vanyaland.com/2016/09/16/rip-don-buchla-pioneering-force-world-synthesizers-died-aged-79/

Kevin

[Vivian Adelberg Rudow]

Sorry to hear that!

Vivian

Vivian Adelberg Rudow ASCAP Plus winner every year since 1987

www.vivianadelbergrudow.com
CD: Sound Portraits: Orchestra, Chamber and Electro-Acoustic Music by Vivian Adelberg Rudow; To order CD go to website above.

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[Judy Klein]

Thank you for posting the news.  This is a milestone, and I am sad.

How important his work was for so many of us, and what a huge contribution he made to the field of e.a. music.  

May he rest in peace. 

Judy Klein

[Kevin Austin]

I viewed his major importance as being in the development of algorithmic compositional instruments. In the model of modular synthesis being a three-level structure, signal / control / logic, as far as I know, he was the first builder to create compound modules that performed ‘compositional’ functions.

Kevin

On 2016, Sep 17, at 8:06 PM, Judy Klein <ja...@earthlink.net> wrote:

Thank you for posting the news.  This is a milestone, and I am sad.

How important his work was for so many of us, and what a huge contribution he made to the field of e.a. music.  

May he rest in peace. 

Judy Klein

On Sep 16, 2016, at 5:56 PM, Kevin Austin wrote:

[Barry Truax]

Although Don and his creative ingenuity in the world of synthesizer design has long been acknowledged and admired, as in the header of this post, may I add a personal tribute to this sad news.

The Buchla 100 was the first synth I ever used compositionally, back in 1969-71, at the Univ. of British Columbia (we still have one in the SFU studio), and one could say that it hooked me on electronic music. Although I went on afterwards to the Institute of Sonology with its sophisticated, custom designed voltage-control studios, and its much more modest efforts in computer music synthesis and composition, it was the programmability and improvisatory flexibility of voltage control that really inspired me. And of course, Mort Subotnick took Don's compositional vision to a whole new level - arguably one of the best designer/composer collaborations in our history.

I will leave it to others to expound on the brilliance and originality of Don's long succession of instruments, but let me also remind you all what a great performer Don was, as well. I will never forget his performance on multiple instruments of his own design in Bourges, where he elegantly moved from one setup to another, always perfectly in control of them, never a hesitation or a false start - a true virtuoso, creating a professional standard that many other 'live electronic musicians' can only aspire to.

As he moved into the MIDI world, my other fond memory is of his piece for percussion and 'thief' (played in this case by himself). It was a deceptively simple theatrical ploy where the audience is lulled into a conventional expectation that the performer is actually playing the percussion instruments on stage - even when the thief removes them one at a time, and the percussionist continues to 'air play' them in the very position of their absence. Even when the audience knows the ruse, or catches on to it, the result was a masterful commentary on virtuality which, for once, was given a brilliant theatrical presence.

As others have said, this is the end of an era for a great instrument designer. I trust that there are those who will preserve the amazing legacy he has created.

Barry Truax