Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2013 The yS nthesizer: Modernist and Technological Transformations in Film Sound and Contemporary Music Dusin J. Green Claremont McKenna College Recommended Citation Green, Dusin J., "The yS nthesizer: Modernist and Technological Transformations in Film Sound and Contemporary Music" (2013). CMC Senior Theses. Paper 700. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/700 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. CLAREMONT McKENNA COLLEGE THE SYNTHESIZER: MODERNIST AND TECHNOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN FILM SOUND AND CONTEMPORARY MUSIC SUBMITTED TO PROFESSOR JAMES MORRISON AND DEAN GREGORY HESS BY DUSTIN GREEN FOR SENIOR THESIS SPRING 2013 APRIL 26, 2013 1 Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….3 Film…………………………………………...………………………………………………..….9 Music…………………………………………………………..…………………………………20 Connections and Conclusions…………………………………………………………………....36 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………...……40 2 Introduction The Invention of a Sound The sound synthesizer is the ultimate electronic instrument. Traditionally in the form of a keyboard, synthesizers generate electronic signals which are converted to sound through a medium such as speakers or headphones. With its invention, the possibility of creating virtually any sound was achieved. Since its initial emergence, constant technological advancements in the field of electronic instruments and synthesizer technology led to an explosion of electronic sounds in music. As a result, transformations within film and popular music transpired that never would have happened as the result of any other instrument’s invention. The first synthesizer was constructed in 1955 by Harry Olsen and Herbert Belar as a device for the artificial creation of human speech.