Word: instrument
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...Venusian atmosphere were 50 times as high as expected. Since then, the sulfur dioxide lev els have been slowly tapering off, just as they drop after a major volcanic eruption on earth. Another investigator, Fred Scarf of TRW Inc., the spacecraft's builders, disclosed that an on-board instrument called a plasma-wave detector had recorded repeated lightning discharges over two mountain regions. On earth, such electrical activity commonly accompanies volcanic outbursts...
...most provocative development in music today is not a song, a singer or a style; it is the sound of the electronic synthesizer, which is boldly claiming a place in the family of instruments. Probably not since Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone about 1840 has a newcomer been so widely embraced by musicians. "A synthesizer works like a magnifying glass," says Chariots Composer Vangelis, who also used several in the score of Blade Runner. "With it, you can go deeper into sound than you can with an acoustic instrument...
...rockers, though, who have so far used the new instrument most extensively. From the rippling ecstasy of The Who's Baba O'Riley (1971) to the hypnotic insistence of Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), the synthesizer has become almost as important to rock as drums and electric guitars. Novelty is part of its attraction. "People are tired of guitar-based music," says Mark Mothersbaugh, a member of Devo. "Synthesized sounds are as close as you can get to V-2 rockets, mortar blasts and TV news...
More warily than their pop music colleagues, serious composers have taken notice. An instrument that can reduce the forces needed to perform Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra from a 100-piece symphony orchestra to a couple of keyboards, electrical outlets and multitrack stereo tape is obviously something to be reckoned with, even if its characteristically metallic tones and dispassionate air will never replace the luster or emotion of a Berlin Philharmonic. But experimenters such as Anderson, Glass, Pierre Boulez and Morton Subotnick are seeking to conjure new sounds in such works as Subotnick's Silver Apples...
...machines, bristling with plugs and wires that looked more at home in a scientist's laboratory than on a stage. In 1968 Wendy Carlos (then Walter, before a sex change) used a Moog for the album Switched-On Bach, a fetching electronic counterfeit that alerted musicians to the instrument's possibilities. Carlos, however, had to synthesize each phrase individually and put the whole thing together on tape, a laborious, time-consuming process. By contrast, today's advanced digital synthesizers, such as the Synclavier and the Fairlight (typical cost: $30,000) are easier to play, far more versatile...