The first commercial Synthesizer was invented by “Robert Arthur Moog”. The synthesizer is also known as ‘Moog Synthesizer’.
Robert Arthur Moog was the founder of ‘Moog Music’, and was an American Engineer who was a pioneer in Electronic Music. He was born on May 23, 1934, in New York City, United States. At the age of 14, he builds Theremin in the year 1949. Later, he produced his own Theremin Design in 1953. The BBC termed him as a pioneer of synthesized sound. His inventions changed the environment of the pop and classical music world. His name Moog is so much associated with electronic music that many at times it was used a common term for the synthesizer.
He is generally considered as the father of the modern synthesizer. The instrument’s popularity took off in 1968, after the release of the popular album “Switched-On Bach’. The album was completely performed by Walter Carlos on the Moong Synthesizer. After that many competitive rock bands like, Yes, Pink Floyd, and Emerson, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Lake, and Palmer made their music on the synthesizer.
In 1970, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award by the ‘Grammy Trustees Award’. Then in 2001, he received the ‘Polar Music Prize’. In 2002, Moog was honored for the Technical Achievement with a Grammy Award. After that, in 2013, he was included into the honorable list of ‘National Inventors Hall of Fame’.
He was a Ph.D. degree holder in ‘Engineering Physics’ from ‘Cornell University’ in the year 1965. He died at the age of 71 on August 21, 2005, at Asheville, North Carolina, United States of America.