And now, a moment of synthesized sound.

Electronic music pioneer Robert Moog passed away Sunday. He was the vital connection between inventors and experimenters like Leon Termen and Raymond Scott, and virtuosi like Wendy Carlos.

His brilliance will be missed. His true genius lay in that he created esoteric high-end electronics not for a few wealthy aficionados, but for anyone who had an interest. Few of us could swing $3000 for his top-level MIDI theremin; most of us could probably scratch up the $300 or so for a standard Etherwave, if we wanted to.

I think one of the greatest tributes paid his genius was this: the only man other than the inventor himself to be allowed to service the custom-built Termen theremin played by the Immortal Clara was Robert Moog.

I’m going to go listen to Switched-On Bach for a while, I think.

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