The Well-Tempered Synthesizer
| The Well-Tempered Synthesizer | ||||
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Reissue front cover
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| Studio album by Wendy Carlos | ||||
| Released | November 1969 | |||
| Recorded | 1969 | |||
| Genre | Electronic, classical | |||
| Length | 35:50 | |||
| Label | Columbia Masterworks Records | |||
| Producer | Rachel Elkind | |||
| Wendy Carlos chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |
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The Well-Tempered Synthesizer is the second studio album from the American musician and composer Wendy Carlos, originally released under her birth name, Walter Carlos, in November 1969 on Columbia Masterworks Records. Following the success of her previous album, Switched-On Bach (1968), Carlos proceeded to record a second album of classical music performed on a modular Moog synthesizer from multiple composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Claudio Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, and Handel. Its title is a play on words from Bach's set of preludes and fugues named The Well-Tempered Clavier.
Upon its release, the album peaked at No. 199 on the US Billboard 200 chart and was nominated for two Grammy Awards.
In 1969, during the unexpected commercial success of her debut studio album Switched-On Bach (1968), Carlos and her friend, collaborator, and producer Rachel Elkind started work on a follow-up using the same formula as Switched-On Bach: performing selections of classical music on a modular Moog synthesizer. Carlos planned to record an "ambitious 19th-century work", but the lack of sufficient multi-track recording capabilities at the time could not allow such an undertaking. Ideas for Carlos to record her own compositions seemed "untimely" and was shelved for potential future albums. The two decided on a "new switched on Baroque album" featuring multiple composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Claudio Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, and Handel.
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