Proving Moog's academic theory was sound; As its creator comes to

In the most iconic scene from Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm McDowall's droogs terrorise an old couple as a synthesised version of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony roars in the background. Along with the rest of the soundtrack, this demented version of Beethoven was arranged and played by Walter (now Wendy) Carlos, and was commissioned by Kubrick in the wake of the success of Switched-On Bach, in which Carlos took the German composer's work and re-arranged it to be played entirely on Moog synthesisers.

An unexpected hit in 1968 - it was launched as a piece of avant- garde experimentation, but went on to sell over a million copies - Switched-On Bach introduced a new word to the lexicon: synthesiser. A huge, cabinet-sized box of tricks with a fascia of sockets sprouting connecting wires, it was developed by young Cornell University graduate Robert Moog. Intended as a tool for academic theorists and experimental composers, it sounded, on its debut in 1964, like the future.

Switched-On Bach made the Moog the must-have instrument for any self-respecting and adventurous rock star. The Beatles used one on Abbey Road's Because; Tangerine Dream made a career out of them and even Mick Jagger bought one. And this week, as part of the Triptych festival, the man himself - now 70 - arrives in Scotland to demonstrate, with French musician and collaborator Jean-Jacques Perrey, how his invention became a household name.

"I think that the single most influential use of a Moog synthesizer was Switched-On Bach," says Moog. "After that, people understood that one could produce "real music" with a Moog synthesizer."

Moog says he "worked closely with many talented musicians during the 1960s and early 1970s. A few are well known, but most aren't." His first collaborator, Herbert Deutsch, was a composer and teacher at Hofstra University, outside New York. He also "got loads of good ideas" from Vladimir Ussachevsky, who was then the director of the Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York City.

"Wendy Carlos was very helpful as we developed our modular synthesizer equipment. Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Jan Hammer, and Patrick Moraz were all great contributors during the 1970s. There are dozens more, but these are the collaborators that I generally think of first."

During these collaborations, Moog says he "doesn't remember thinking very much about how much technology would change or about what music would result from that change," He was, generally, '"in the moment', designing and building stuff for what musicians wanted right then and not worrying about how that would change in the future".

As the 1970s dawned, Moog moved on. His original synths were almost room sized but the new Minimoog distilled its parents' properties into an instrument that could be used on stage. Progressive rock bands embraced them and used them to create imagined worlds; German electro-pioneers Kraftwerk constructed their hymns to the future using them; and disco producer Giorgio Moroder constructed Donna Summer's smash hit I Feel Love almost entirely on them.

"Each generation of new instruments has had its own characteristic way of interacting with its users," says Moog. "Our first synthesizers required the musician to organise the whole sound with patch cords [wires with jack plugs], which encouraged experimentation and reflection. The original Minimoog did away with patch cords, enabling musicians to develop sound-shaping virtuosity. Ten years later it was possible for entire panel settings to be stored in digital memories, enabling musicians to switch from one sound to another with great speed."

In the 50 years between Moog building his first musical instrument and musicians editing music at the touch of a button, his efforts have opened up new sonic worlds; imagining a world without the Moog would be as impossible as imagining a world without the electric guitar.

Robert Moog appears at The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, April 28; The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, April 29 and Tramway, Glasgow, May 2 as part of the Triptych festival. See Review for details on how to win Triptych tickets

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