Library of Congress restores Morton Subotnick’s Buchla 100 Synthesizer
The US Library of Congress has announced that it has restored Morton Subotnick‘s iconic Buchla 100 synthesizer, and is making it available for researchers to play.
They share the background at their website:
“Around 2008, the Library of Congress acquired one of the earliest Buchla 100 synthesizers through musician and teacher Michael Czajkowski, a friend of composer Morton Subotnick.
The system was purchased by Subotnick in 1966 for his Bleecker Street studio in New York City, where he composed “Silver Apples of the Moon” (1967) and the “The Wild Bull” (1968).
The first Buchla 100 system had emerged a few years earlier, during Subotnick’s time at the famous San Francisco Tape Music Centre, where he and Ramón Sender commissioned inventor Don Buchla to realize something that bridged the gap between tape music practice and the future capabilities of computers.”
The instrument has been restored to full operation, and in the process, high-resolution photographs were made of the front and back of each module.
The Buchla 100 system is now available for researchers to play (by appointment, and subject to approval by the Music Division).
It will also be featured at an upcoming Library of Congress event featuring Subotnick:
Morton Subotnick and the Buchla 100
Thursday, December 5, 2024, 5:00-7:00 p.m.
LJ-119, Thomas Jefferson Building
Free, tickets required (available Wednesday, October 2 at 10:00 a.m. ET)
Featured Speakers: Morton Subotnick, composer; Steve Antosca, composer
Members of the Modular Electronic Music Systems (MEMS) team: Chip Flynn, MEMS Research Associate; Mark Milanovich, MEMS
Research Associate; Andrew Northrop, Film and Media Technician, Slade School of Fine Art/UCL
Find out details on the LOC website.
