Dictionary of Music - Birding America

synthesizer 417first beat for the length of two beats instead of one,in effect skipping the second beat (one . . . -three).Still another way would be to skip the first beat altogether,replacing it with a rest (silence-two-three).These three methods are the most common types ofsyncopation. However, there is another, more subtleway of altering the pattern; it consists of tiny hesitations,playing a note very slightly sooner or laterthan it would normally be played. This last kind ofsyncopation is very common in jazz but is usedmuch less in other kinds of music, probably becauseit is very hard to notate exactly (the hesitation could,conceivably, be indicated by a very short rest).Syncopation has been used since the MiddleAges. It most often occurs in a single voice-part,since the effect is heightened when the other voicepartscontinue the regular rhythmic patterns. However,since Beethoven’s late works (from the mid-1820s on) it has occasionally been used throughoutall the voice-parts of a work. Syncopation is basic toblues, ragtime, and jazz, and it has become increasinglyimportant in the works of twentieth-centurycomposers. Some authorities consider suddenchanges of meter (from one measure to the next) aform of syncopation, but others disagree. Still othersregard a dynamic accent (sudden loudness) on aweak beat as a form of syncopation (see ACCENT).Synket (sin′kət).A kind of SYNTHESIZER.synthesizer A machine that consists of a collectionof circuits or modules for the purpose of creatingELECTRONIC MUSIC. Basically it consists of fivetypes of component: signal (sound) generators,devices to modify signals, devices to control signals,mixers to combine signals, and internal communicationto enable interaction of the components. It mayalso contain an amplifier and speaker, and thesounds created may be recorded on tape or someother medium and/or produced live.In the earliest synthesizers, such as the RCAMark I developed in the early 1950s, the composerselected the desired sounds by manipulatingswitches and then punching the code for theswitches onto a paper tape. The tape was insertedinto the machine, bringing into play oscillators, filters,and other sound generators and modifiers asbrushes passed over the holes in the tape. These elementsthen were combined into sound and recordedon magnetic tape, which could be played back(and/or altered further). Its successor, the RCA MarkII, installed in the Columbia-Princeton studio in1959, used a binary number system on punchedcards. Both these machines were huge and unwieldy.Although some noteworthy works were composedon them, such as Milton Babbitt’s Philomel (1963)for live voice and synthesized accompaniment andCharles Wuorinen’s Time’s Encomium (1968–69),the 1960s saw the invention of smaller and lesscostly synthesizers that could achieve far betterresults. One was the Synket, a compact devicedeveloped by John Eaton and Paul Ketoff; it hadthree two-octave keyboards and took up little morespace than an upright piano. Another, the Moog,invented by Robert A. Moog and popularized byWalter (later Wendy) Carlos through his Bacharrangements (Switched-on Bach, 1968), controllednot only pitch but tone color, attack and decay of thetone, and numerous other characteristics. TheBuchla, devised by Donald Buchla, used a keyboardwithout movable keys that worked much like the fingerboardof a violin; Morton Subotnick used it tocompose Silver Apples of the Moon (1967). Similarto these synthesizers was the first ARP, named forinventor Al R. Pearlman, who developed it in theearly 1970s; it became particularly associated withstudios and performers devoted to popular music.These synthesizers all embodied an importantnew principle called voltage control, which eliminatedthe tedious and less accurate process of manuallysetting and resetting the various components.Now, instead of turning a dial or flicking a switch foreach change, an electric voltage could be used to acton oscillators and other components. In the next twodecades further technological advances bothimproved the machinery and cut its cost. The newermachines could register any frequency or interval,including microtones, and repeat complex rhythmswith inhuman speed and accuracy. They also couldimitate the sound of conventional instruments sowell that it took a fine ear to distinguish between, forexample, synthesized and real drums. Increasingly,synthesizers were used not only by serious composersbut for popular music ranging from film