Blog - Moog
Moog
On Thursday we went to see the Moog documentary at Shibuya Cinema Society. It was a fun and instructive film, including a lot of performances. It looks into the Moog's evolution, its concept and circuits, and also into Robert "Bob" Moog's head.
In Japan, all of the publicity for the movie puts big emphasis on the pronounciation of "Moog". Until now Japanese have always pronounced it "Moog" as read in English ("oo" as in "food"), while "oo" should be pronounced like the "o" in "vogue". I guess this mistake isn't only in Japan though.
The film is very well done and gives a great overview of Moog's career, the people he worked with and those who used his instruments. There are great live performances, both early and recent. I enjoyed very much the recent Emerson and Yes performances, clips of the first live performance by Kingsley's First Moog Quartet, also a funny old beer commercial featuring Edd Kalehoff.
The huge modular Moog synths with all the cables sure are very impressive and it was great to get a closer look.
Dr. Moog is interviewed, on his own and with celebrities (both musicians and early partners) and talks about everything. Interesting topics included how Dr. Moog who questioned whether the keyboard was the right interface for his instruments. He also says that he loves the theremin because it's a sort of natural instrument, with very simple circuitry and with a unique sound that transpires the player's skills and feelings.
I did find some of the film's elements sort of contradicting, or rather not quite at their place, like DJ Spooky talking about how he likes to put together samples from 20's and 60's and 80's records using his computer, while Robert's focus seems to make it possible to create synth music live... almost two opposites. So I didn't really get why there was that sequence with DJ Spooky. Maybe to show the contrast with recent electronic musicians?
A funny part and nice surprise was a part showing Dr. Moog when he came to Tokyo, having a try at Taiko no tatsujin. He can also be seen walking in Tokyo streets and talking about his surprise when he gave a talk show at LAOX in Akihabara for about 40 people, and out of them 4 were serious theremin students.
If you have a chance to see the movie and are curious about anything about Moog, the man and the machines, go!
Before the representation we went to, there as a fun talk show featuring Mooog Yamamoto (Buffalo Daughter) and Odajima Hitoshi (illustrator). They talked mostly about pronouncing "Moog" correctly (モ and not ム) giving a lot of wacky examples. Mooog had printed large Japanese characters all pronounced either モ (毛、猛), ム or グ (具). They ended with 無 (can be pronounced ム and also means "no") and saying that there's no "mu" (「ム」が無い！)! Good example, I thought. However, towards the end of the talk show, Odajima-san pointed at a Minimoog next to the stage and said "There's a Moog right here!", mis-pronouncing "Moog" and putting all their efforts to waste. :)
Mooog avoided the topic of his own name being both a tribute to Moog but also being pronounced incorrectly, so I concluded that he must be ashamed of it.
When exiting the theatre, in the hallway were all the printed characters, all signed by both speakers. We weren't of the first ones to leave, but it seems that no one had yet figured out they were being given away, so we could pick some of the best ones!
Posted on March 26, 2005 at 12:23 | Tweet
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Rhymes with Rogue.
Yes there is this instructional video - I think it's this one but I'm not 100% sure
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may00/articles/stessential.htm
Where two synth experts discuss his synths and each never waivers in pronouncing it their way in a lengthy unintentional batle of wills. Most British stick to the Mooog pronunciation though the man himself will verify it's "Mogue" for anyone who askes. There go all of Momus' rhymeing lyrics about Clockwork Orange Droogs and being in the nude.
Though there is still some debate because it's a Dutch name. Surely in school he and his family heard a lot of cow sound jokes so surely the "rogue" pronounciation avoids laffs.
I'd guess DJ Spooky has a lot of credibility in young learned circles because he's a music commentator in addition to creating music with all sorts of theories to go behind it. I kind of think the filmmakers were sort of struggling for current significance.
As for Japanese people, wouldn't they also tend to do a sort "gu" sound or something similar with an added vowel sound at the end unless they were careful?
oh- here goes a sound check pic from my silent movie music show with Pamelia Kurstin (who's in the moog movie)
http://www.artskool.biz/jem/ndkent/playing.jpg
Posted by ndkent on March 26, 2005 at 15:18
Very cool picture! :) I wish I could have seen that!
About the Japanese pronounciation, that's right about the "gu", though it may sometimes be short enough that you don't notice it. At least, in the Japanese context, this is correct, unlike the "mu" vs "mo". :)
Posted by Patrick on March 26, 2005 at 19:23
i'm dying to see this(as well as the bruce haack doc). i've heard some people say if they are talking about the man they pronounce it mowg, but if they are talking about the instrument, they'll say moog. i mean, are you really going to call the record "the cow goes mooog" "the cow goes mooowg"? :)
i've read criticism that there was too much emphasis on current acts, but not enough info on the earlier acts in regard to the moog. aside from dj spooky did you feel that way?
Posted by william on March 27, 2005 at 12:29
Well it depends, in Japanese the cow really goes "mo-". :)
Look at this page with goods from the movie, at the very bottom, the cow holds a sign saying"not mu- but mo-!" :)
http://www.nowonmedia.com/MOOG/tee.html
I actually wanted to get this bag but when we got out there were no more on display, and there were about 10 people lined up at the merch stand so I gave up waiting just to ask.
I felt that most of the artists and guests featured were ones from the early days or at least a few decades, so aside from DJ Spooky I didn't feel the new vs old. You should definitely check it out!
Posted by Patrick on March 27, 2005 at 13:01
There's really no question his name rhymes with "Rogue" and the instrument is called by the same name he has.
It's just one of those cases where the most commonly used pronounciation is just a wrong assumption. I guess on his part Moog didn't want correcting people to distract them as long as the synths sold. You know who cares what you call it so long as you buy one.
ummm... now on to the gender issues of Wendy Carlos.
I guess its ironic that he stressed how the name and brand is pronounced more during the years when sales had decreased rather than the more modern p.r. approach of premptively reminding people early on. Also he never did a lot of personal promotion overseas until recently. For instance he seems to have left England, Europe and Japan to the distributers if there was even a distributer, at times he wasn't represented, so there you are hearing about his stuff by word or mouth or from local pundits. certainly things are different especially around the east coast in the U.S. because more long time industry people and writers have been in closer touch with him. (Hey I've hung out with him).
Actually another isolation issue is people in Europe tend to downplay just how imortant Carlos was to synths being commercial. It's because it was a long time ago and that album didn't spawn as much as it did in the U.S.. Japan is a little more curious as I'd say the second generation of synth artists (1970s) was very influenced (unlike say England) but not the public at large.
Then as a footnote you have a Japanese non-phenomena where Isao Tomita had more influence in the U.S. and to a slightly lesser extent Europe than in Japan. (Isao Tomita was certainly a major influence on myself in the U.S. and I'm not alone)
Posted by ndkent on March 27, 2005 at 14:12