Beauty in the Beast
1986 studio album by Wendy Carlos
| Beauty in the Beast | ||||
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| Studio album by Wendy Carlos | ||||
| Released | 1986 (1986) | |||
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| Length | 57:41 | |||
| Label | Audion Records | |||
| Producer | Wendy Carlos | |||
| Wendy Carlos chronology | ||||
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Beauty in the Beast is a studio album from the American keyboardist and composer Wendy Carlos, released in 1986, on Audion Records, her first for a label other than Columbia Records since 1968. The album uses alternate musical tunings and scales, influenced by jazz and world music. On the back she includes a quote by Van Gogh: "I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it."
As the liner notes state, the entire album is synthesized, meaning that "All the music and sounds heard on this recording were directly digitally generated. This eliminates all the limitations of microphones, the weak link necessary in nearly all other digital recordings, including those that use 'sampling' technologies."[1]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Musical content | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Incantation" | "tritone rich" | 6:45 |
| 2. | "Beauty In The Beast" | Beta and Alpha scales | 3:57 |
| 3. | "Poem For Bali" | Pelog and Slendro tunings | 17:39 |
| 4. | "Just Imaginings" | Harmonic Scale with modulation | 12:06 |
| 5. | "That's Just It" | Harmonic Scale, jazz | 3:36 |
| 6. | "Yusae-Aisae" (pronounced "You say I say") | Harmonic Scale, "Hollywoodesque Mid-Eastern marketplace" | 3:12 |
| 7. | "C'est Afrique" | African rhythm | 6:13 |
| 8. | "A Woman's Song" | Bulgarian Sheperdess's "Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin" with tambura and dilruba, instead of Bulgarian bagpipes, appropriate raga tuning, western horns, crotales, and several hybrid timbres | 4:10 |
| Total length: | 57:41 | ||
Reviews
Dave Benson wrote:
It seems that for most users of synthesizers the extra freedom has not had much effect, in the sense that most music involving synthesizers is written using the equal tempered twelve tone scale. A notable exception is Wendy Carlos, who has composed a great deal of music for synthesizers using many different scales. [Benson] particularly recommend[s] Beauty in the Beast...(SYNCD 200, Audion, 1986, Passport Records, Inc.).[2]
The music on this album cuts through a lot of the conventions and restraints that were used as frameworks for previous releases: instrumentation, tonality, and scaling, to name just a few[3]
References
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- Switched-On Bach (1968)
- The Well-Tempered Synthesizer (1969)
- Sonic Seasonings (1972)
- Switched-On Bach II (1973)
- Switched-On Brandenburgs (1980)
- Digital Moonscapes (1984)
- Beauty in the Beast (1986)
- Peter & the Wolf/Carnival of the Animals – Part II (1988)
- Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1972)
- Walter Carlos's Clockwork Orange (1972)
- The Shining (Original Sound Track) (1980)
- Tron: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1982)
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