51-472: Peter Zinovieff (26 January 1933 – 23 June 2021) was a British composer, musician and inventor. In the late 1960s, his company, Electronic Music Studios (EMS), made the VCS3 , a synthesizer used by many early progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd and White Noise , and Krautrock groups as well as more pop-orientated artists, including Todd Rundgren and David Bowie . In later life, he worked primarily as
102-517: A noise generator , two input amplifiers, ring modulator , voltage-controlled low-pass filter , trapezoid envelope generator , voltage-controlled reverberation , level meter, two output amplifiers thus providing a stereo output, and a joystick providing 'X' and 'Y' modulation control. A distinctive design feature of the VCS3 (and later EMS systems) was that, rather than using patch cords to route audio and control signals between modules, Cockerell employed
153-543: A 10,000 clock event with 6x6bit D/A outputs. e.g. 256 duophonic events (512 CV events) digital sequencer. About 30 units were built by EMS, and these enjoyed wide use in the 1970s and beyond; one model was sold to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and was used extensively on BBC productions including Doctor Who , Blake's 7 and the original radio version of The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy . The sequencer module of
204-471: A Hymn for Alexander Maconochie (flute, clarinet, percussion, mandolin, guitar, violin, double bass) 1989: Round Dance (sitar, tabla, flute, cello, keyboard) 1990: Sine nomine (alto saxophone/bass clarinet, percussion) 1993: Rain Drums (4 percussionists) 1994: Kali Dances (flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, tuba, vibraphone, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass) 1975: Dum medium silentium (SATB) 1985: Where
255-731: A composer of electronic music . Zinovieff was born on 26 January 1933; his parents, Leo Zinovieff and Sofka, née Princess Sophia Dolgorouky , were both Russian aristocrats, who met in London after their families had emigrated to escape the Russian Revolution and soon divorced. During World War II , he and his brother Ian lived with their grandparents in Guildford and then with their father in Sussex . He attended Guildford Royal Grammar School , Gordonstoun School and Oxford University , where he earned
306-652: A doctorate in geology. Zinovieff bought his first computer from the proceeds gained from auctioning his first wife's tiara. It raised £4,000 (equivalent to £80,000 in 2021). He used this computer to control an array of oscillators and amplifiers he had bought from an army surplus store. He claimed that "This was the first computer in the world in a private house". Zinovieff's work followed research at Bell Labs by Max Mathews and Jean-Claude Risset , and an MIT thesis (1963) by David Alan Luce. In 1966–67, Zinovieff, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson ran Unit Delta Plus, an organisation to create and promote electronic music. It
357-507: A flood. He then moved to the remote Scottish island of Raasay , (also the home of Birtwistle between 1975 and 1983). His cottage had no mains electricity supply and he powered his remaining synth equipment from batteries hooked up to a windmill. He subsequently moved back to England, settling in Cambridge , and in the 1980s received two commissions from Clive Sinclair including a piano-sampling project and consultations on sound support during
408-504: A four-channel version. Zinovieff claimed that he invented sampling in his work on Chronometer. Two years later, Pink Floyd used a similar effect on their album, The Dark Side of the Moon . The soundtrack for Sidney Lumet 's film The Offence (1972) was composed by Birtwistle with 'electronic realization' by Zinovieff. As well as working with sound, Zinovieff also wrote the libretto for Birtwistle's opera The Mask of Orpheus , and also
459-409: A horizontal box casing, with a 29-note mini-keyboard controller and two small built in speakers. Only one prototype unit was built and this was subsequently sold to the progressive rock group Yes . EMS moved into direct competition with Moog in 1971 with the development of its first large-scale modular synthesiser, the " Synthi 100 ", which originally retailed for £6,500. This unit was first known as
510-509: A piano keyboard. It was marketed as being more portable than the huge Moog system, and at one point Robert Moog offered to sell out to EMS for one million dollars. Zinovieff turned down this deal. Unit Delta Plus ran a concert of electronic music at the Watermill Theatre in 1966, with a light show . In early 1967 they performed in concerts at The Roundhouse , at which the Carnival of Light
561-609: A post as senior lecturer at King's College London . He is published by The University of York Music Press and Universal Edition. In 1979 he married the composer Nicola LeFanu . David Lumsdaine died on 12 January 2024 at the age of 92. Lumsdaine disowned all works he composed before Annotations of Auschwitz (1964). His first acknowledged works were composed using a variety of pitch and rhythm techniques associated with serialism – techniques such as pitch rotation or permutation, and isorhythmic structures linking pitch and duration together. Central to all of Lumsdaine's work
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#1732883762382612-745: A presentation of the piece during the UN Ocean Conference , at The Explorers Club , New York City, the same month. Subsequently, a full b-format rendering of the piece was commissioned by TBA21, and presented at the TBA21-Augarten ambisonic sound space in Vienna , during the exhibition Tidalectics. An 8-track reduction, designed for two separate quadraphonic systems, was presented at the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum , Berlin, in October 2017. The piece
663-585: A single wooden cabinet. Although EMS lost track of the instrument in 1983, it survived and in the United States, until 2019 when musician Simon Desorgher sold it to the Goldsmiths College, University of London Electronic Music Studios. The company's next project, the Synthi KB1 (1970), designed by Cockerell, also never went into production. It featured the same synthesis modules as the VCS3, but housed in
714-558: A small matrix plugboard (patchboard) into which the user stuck special conductive pins that connected an input (listed on the X-axis of the matrix) to an output (on the Y-axis). This matrix plugboard gave the VCS3 a high degree of inter-connectivity, comparable to that of much larger modular systems, and far greater than similar small synthesisers like the Minimoog. It was also much easier to examine than
765-506: Is a list of Lumsdaine's acknowledged works: 1973: Meridian (percussion, piano, tape) 1968: Mandala I (wind quintet) 1969: Mandala II (flute, clarinet, percussion, viola, cello) 1971: Kangaroo Hunt (piano, percussion) 1978: Mandala III (solo piano, flute, clarinet, viola, cello, bell) 1983: Mandala IV (string quartet) 1985: Bagatelles (flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola, cello) 1986: Empty Sky – Mootwingee (flute, trombone/horn, cello, 2 percussionists, 2 pianos) 1988: A Dance and
816-514: Is now based in Ladock , Cornwall . The founding partners had wide experience in both electronics and music. Cockerell, who was EMS' main equipment designer in its early years, was an electronics engineer and computer programmer. In the mid-1960s Zinovieff had formed the electronic music group Unit Delta Plus with Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop . Cary
867-508: Is the notion of 'ground', a term borrowed from Baroque musical terminology (specifically Purcell). The orchestral works 'Salvation Creek with Eagle' and 'Hagoromo' (1974 and 1977 respectively) continue and develop Lumsdaine's personal take on Australian nature. Lumsdaine's output also included piano works – notably the Bach-inspired 'Ruhe Sanfte, Sanfte Ruh' (1974) – and a considerable number of pieces involving electronics, such as
918-504: The IFIP congress that year, the composition ZASP by Zinovieff with Alan Sutcliffe took second prize in a contest, behind a piece by Iannis Xenakis . In 1969, Zinovieff sought financing through an ad in The Times but received only one response, £50 on the mistaken premise it was the price of a synthesiser. Instead he formed EMS with Cockerell and Tristram Cary. At the end of the 1960s, EMS Ltd.
969-478: The Synthi AKS , which retailed for £420 and featured a sequencer and a small keyboard built into the lid. The first 30 AK units featured a black and silver touch pad, a Spin-and-touch random note selector and a resistive touch-sensitive keyboard; these original keyboards proved difficult to use, so they were subsequently replaced with blue capacitive touch-sensitive keyboard with integrated sequencer, and became known as
1020-464: The VCS 3 , designed by David Cockerell, was introduced in 1969. It was developed in the basement of Zinovieff's house and was nicknamed "The Putney" after the London suburb where he was living at the time. EMS' original aim was to create a versatile monophonic synthesiser that would retail for just £100. While this proved unattainable in practice, the company nevertheless succeeded in manufacturing and selling
1071-551: The "Digitana" another was later dubbed "The Delaware", after Delaware Rd, Maida Vale, the location of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Mounted in a free-standing console cabinet, the Synthi 100 was the third development level of the original VCS3, being in essence 28 VCS3 units by circuit board count. It was driven by twelve VCOs and eight VCF oscillators. Featured a built-in oscilloscope , two 60 x 60 patchbays, two joystick controllers, dual five-octave velocity-sensitive keyboard controllers and
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#17328837623821122-537: The 1970s. The EMS Synthi Hi-Fli analog multi effect processor was used extensively by Tony TS Mcphee of The Groundhogs and was used on the album SOLID in 1974. Footage exists of them live at the Marquee Club in London and it is clearly visible on its stand on stage. This footage was broadcast on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1974. In late 2010 Zinovieff put his original Synthi A synthesiser (serial number 4016) up for sale. This instrument, which he believes
1173-504: The KS version. The Synthi AKS proved very popular and AKS units owned by Eno, Pink Floyd and Jean-Michel Jarre featured prominently in music by these artists in the early 1970s; one of the best-known appearances of an AKS on record is the track " On the Run " from Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), and it can be seen being used by Roger Waters and David Gilmour during the recording of
1224-551: The Moon , Wish You Were Here , Animals , The Wall ), The Who ( Won't Get Fooled Again ), BBC Radiophonic Workshop , Brian Eno and Roxy Music , Tangerine Dream (all early albums ), Hawkwind , Tim Blake , Jean Michel Jarre and Kraftwerk and David Vorhaus ( White Noise 2 ). As noted above, the Synthi 100 "Delaware" owned by the Radiophonic Workshop was used extensively for BBC radio and television productions in
1275-558: The Synthi 100 was also made available as a separate unit, the Synthi Sequencer 256 , which originally sold for £1,100. In 1971 EMS released a portable version of the VCS3, the EMS Synthi A , originally called the "Portabella", a pun on London's Portobello Road . Built into a compact Spartanite attaché case, this unit was even cheaper than the original VCS3 and retailed for just £198. The following year EMS released an expanded version,
1326-496: The VCS3 for just £330, less than its nearest American competitor the Minimoog (which originally retailed for US$ 1495 when released in 1970) and far cheaper than Moog's modular systems, which cost thousands of dollars. EMS also released the DK1, a velocity sensitive dynamic monophonic keyboard controller for use with VCS3; this included an extra VCO and VCA and retailed for £145. The DK1
1377-501: The album in footage included in the 1st Director's Cut of Live at Pompeii and in the DSOTM episode of the BBC documentary series Classic Albums , respectively (Gilmour used his to demonstrate the sequence used in the song). EMS synthesisers and their London studios were used by many prominent rock and electronic artists including Pink Floyd ( Meddle , Obscured by Clouds , The Dark Side of
1428-411: The concert included the premiere of Zinovieff's Partita for Unattended Computer, the first ever unaccompanied performance of live computer music, with no human performer involved, and the piece read from paper tape . The programmes were covered in foil so the audience could participate by rustling them. Later that year, as part of Cybernetic Serendipity , the first UK international exhibition devoted to
1479-625: The development of the Sinclair QL . After a break of many years, in 2010 Zinovieff became active again publicly in music composition. This started with a commission from TBA21 , instigated by Russell Haswell , to create an audio work for the large-scale installation The Morning Line by artist Matthew Ritchie , which contains a 47-speaker spatial sound system. The result was Bridges from Somewhere and Another to Somewhere Else , shown during its exhibition in Istanbul . A second piece Good Morning Ludwig
1530-488: The end, when EMS went bankrupt, it pulled the studio down." Throughout his career, Zinovieff often worked in collaboration. Between 1969 and 1978 he collaborated with Harrison Birtwistle on a number of works. These include Chronometer (1971–2) which features recordings of the ticking of Big Ben and the chimes of Wells Cathedral clock . Chronometer was premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 24 April 1972 in
1581-743: The lilies grow (8 voices) 1991: The Crane (flute, percussion, harp, synthesizer) 1968-9 Episodes (orchestra) 1974: Salvation Creek with Eagle (chamber orchestra) 1975: Sunflower (chamber orchestra) 1975: A Little Dance of Hagoromo (orchestra) 1977: Hagoromo (large orchestra) 1982: Shoalhaven (orchestra) 1988: Mandala V (orchestra) 1990: The Arc of Stars (string orchestra) 1992: A Garden of Earthly Delights (cello, orchestra) 1990: 2 Just So Stories (The Elephant's Child, The Sing Song of Old Man Kangaroo) (narrator, dancer, live electronics) 1966: Kelly Ground 1967: Flights (2 pianos) 1974: Ruhe sanfte, sanfte Ruh' 1980: Cambewarra, 1980 1994: 6 Postcard Pieces 1992: Blue upon Blue 1993: Curlew in
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1632-498: The night of 23 June 2021. He was 88, and had been hospitalised ten days earlier after falling at his home. with Harrison Birtwistle with Harrison Birtwistle, Hans Werner Henze and others with Aisha Orazbayeva with Lucy Railton Solo Electronic Music Studios Electronic Music Studios ( EMS ) is a synthesizer company formed in Putney, London in 1969 by Peter Zinovieff , Tristram Cary and David Cockerell . It
1683-629: The power of modern computer technology allowed him to realise ways of working he had pursued throughout his career in music and electronics. He also continued to work mainly in collaboration during this time. With violinist Aisha Orazbayeva , Zinovieff composed two concertos for violin and electronics: OUR (2010) and Our Too , premiered at London Contemporary Music Festival in 2014. A series of works created from 2011 onwards in collaboration with poet Katrina Porteous combined her poetry with soundscapes created by Zinovieff using sound sources related to physics and astronomy. The first piece, Horse (2011),
1734-551: The relationship between the arts and new technology at the Institute of Contemporary Arts , Zinovieff and his team created a computer system, based on the PDP-8, which could analyse a tune whistled by a visitor to the show and improvise upon it. In the same year, part of the studio was also recreated at Connaught Hall , for a performance of pieces by Justin Connolly and David Lumsdaine . At
1785-527: The synthesizer revolution, see him rather as aristocratically averse to "trade". In a 2019 interview Zinovieff commented on EMS as a business: "It's always been a problem with me because I don't like synthesizers. So this side of EMS was never interesting to me, it was always the studio. The basic purpose of EMS was to finance the studio, but unfortunately that's not what happened. EMS got bigger and bigger and we made more and more products and it took up more time. And instead of making money, it started to lose it. In
1836-544: The tangle of patch cords used to interconnect other modular systems of the day, such as the Moog modular synthesizer and was many times smaller than the cumbersome Moog patch bays, which used patch cord leads capped with 1/4-inch 'phone' jacks. A live performance version, the VCS4 , was built later the same year but was never put into production. It comprised two VCS3s side-by-side with a keyboard, mixer and signal processing in front, all in
1887-478: The tape montage/re-composition of events from the Durham Miners Gala 'Big Meeting'. The chamber works include a series of works entitled 'Mandala', a cello concerto, several song cycles and an orchestral fifth 'Mandala' (1989), a homage to Australian landscapes and soundscapes. Shortly after composing his dense and energetic 'Kali Dances' for ensemble in 1996, Lumsdaine retired from composition. The following
1938-534: The words for Nenia: The Death of Orpheus (1970). He also worked with Hans Werner Henze , and the section Tristan's Folly in Tristan (1975) included a tape by Zinovieff. After EMS ran into financial difficulties in the mid 1970s, Zinovieff closed his Putney studio, which was sold to the National Theatre , but never put back together as a working studio. His equipment was put into storage, and later destroyed in
1989-529: The years 2013–2017, Zinovieff composed an extended computer work, entitled South Pacific Migration Party , derived from hydrophone recordings of blue whales recorded by British oceanographer Susannah Buchan off the coast of Chile and originally proposed and then curated by Andrew Spyrou. As its premiere, a preliminary quadraphonic mix of the piece was played in Athens as part of documenta 14 in June 2017, followed by
2040-521: Was a noted composer and a pioneer in electronic music—he was one of the first people in the UK to work in the musique concrete field and built one of the country's first electronic music studios; he also worked widely in film and TV, composing scores for numerous Ealing Studios and Hammer Films productions, and he is well known for his work on the BBC's Doctor Who , notably on the classic serial The Daleks . The company's first commercial synthesiser,
2091-532: Was also played; they split up later in 1967. Paul McCartney had visited the studio, but Zinovieff had little interest in popular music. In 1968, Zinovieff's computer music system featured in several pioneering events in London. In January, the First London concert of Electronic Music by British composers event was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall . Alongside pieces by Delia Derbyshire and Tristram Cary ,
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2142-516: Was based in the studio Zinovieff had built, in a shed at his house in Putney . (The house is near the Thames, and the studio was later partially destroyed by a flood). EMS grew out of MUSYS, which was a performance controller operating as an analogue–digital hybrid. It was a synthesiser system which Zinovieff developed with the help of David Cockerell and Peter Grogono, and used two DEC PDP-8 minicomputers and
2193-588: Was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 . Subsequent works with Porteous were commissioned by the Centre for Life , Newcastle upon Tyne for live performance in its planetarium . These pieces— Edge (2013), Field (2015), Sun (2016)—are surround-sound works with live visuals created by planetarium supervisor Christopher Hudson. A final work in the series, Under The Ice , a 30-minute piece based on recordings of Antarctic glaciers, premiered online on 23 June 2021. Zinovieff's collaboration with cellist Lucy Railton , entitled RFG ,
2244-406: Was commissioned in 2012 when the installation moved permanently to ZKM , Karlsruhe . Following these projects, Zinovieff continued to work primarily as a composer for the remaining years of his life. His work during this time combined sounds from live instrumentation and field recordings and continued his long-term interest in computer music and spatial multi-channel performance setups. Embracing
2295-476: Was initially conceived as a live piece for a spatially configured loudspeaker system and performed between 2016 and 2017. An album version was released as RFG Inventions for Cello and Computer on PAN in 2020. A retrospective compilation covering Zinovieff's work in the EMS era, including collaborations with Hans Werner Henze and Harrison Birtwistle, was compiled by musician Pete Kember and released in 2015. Between
2346-616: Was loaned to "The Rank Organisation" by Dartington College in Devon, and the featured Synthi Sequencer 256 was recently sold on the "Vintage Electronic Musical Instrument Auction" VEMIA website in April 2011. David Lumsdaine David Newton Lumsdaine (31 October 1931 – 12 January 2024) was an Australian composer. David Newton Lumsdaine was born on 31 October 1931. He studied at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music (as it
2397-559: Was nicknamed "The Cricklewood" after the London suburb where Cockerell lived. EMS used to have a R&D department based over a DIY shop in Cricklewood Lane, Cricklewood, London, so that could have influenced the name of the mechanical keyboard. It is not widely known that EMS electronic equipment was mostly made by another company "Hilton Electronics" based in Wareham, Dorset. The VCS3 consisted of 3 voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs),
2448-531: Was one of four companies offering commercial synthesizers, the others being ARP , Buchla , and Moog . In the 1970s Zinovieff became interested in the video synthesizer developed by Richard Monkhouse, and EMS produced it as the Spectron. Jon Lord of Deep Purple described Zinovieff as "a mad professor type": "I was ushered into his workshop and he was in there talking to a computer, trying to get it to answer back". Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco, in their history of
2499-587: Was released on the record label The Association for Depth Sound Recordings on 30 July 2021. In 2015 Zinovieff was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree by Anglia Ruskin University . In 1960, Zinovieff married Victoria Heber-Percy, daughter of Robert Heber-Percy and Jennifer Ross ; in 1978, he married Rose Verney. He later married Tanya Richardson, and was survived by his fourth wife, Jenny Jardine. He had seven children: Sofka , Leo, Kolinka, Freya, Katia, Eliena, and Kyril, who died in 2015. Zinovieff died on
2550-452: Was the one featured in the "Every Picnic Needs a Synthi" press advertisement, was fully restored by Robin Wood at EMS. EMS equipment can be seen in the 1978 British horror film The Shout starring Alan Bates , John Hurt and Susannah York , the equipment featured includes a Synthi Sequencer 256 , a Vocoder 2000 and a VCS3 , the film is available on DVD (Network 79527630), the equipment
2601-490: Was then known). He moved to England in 1953 and for a while shared a flat with fellow expatriate, the poet Peter Porter , with whom he collaborated on several projects including the cantata Annotations of Auschwitz (1964). In London he first studied composition with Mátyás Seiber and then at the Royal Academy of Music with Lennox Berkeley . In 1970 he took a lecturing position at Durham University . In 1981 he took
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