Its the story of how Disney embraced synthesizers and electronic music technology throughout its history. Topics covered include the early days of electronic sound with the Teleharmonium and magnetic tape, how Disney used tape to control the original audio-animatronics, the evolution of synthesizers from Bob Moog’s invention and the theremin, and the music of early electronic artists like Perry & Kingsley and Wendy Carlos. Eric explores the Disney connection to classic synthesizer tracks like "Baroque Hoedown" in the Main Street Electrical Parade and the Electrical Water Pageant, as well as Wendy Carlos’s score for Tron. The episode also covers the rise of synthesizer use in 1980s pop and park entertainment, Michael Iceberg’s live synth shows at Tomorrowland, Don Dorsey’s innovations in parade sound and show control with systems like Mickey Track and DECS, the use of MIDI in park productions, and the continuation of synthesizer soundtracks in newer parades and international parks like Tokyo DisneySea. If you want a full look at how electronic music and technology shaped the Disney sound—from nighttime spectaculars to iconic scores—this episode has you covered.
For More Disney and Synthesizers Check out the Thirty20Eight’s episode on Michael Iceberg: https://thirty20eight.libsyn.com/thirtytwentyeight-208-disneys-iceberg-machine-aka-the-weirdest-show-weve-ever-recorded
Check out Shaun Jex’s Baroque Hoedown Article on Make Mine Music: https://makeminemusiccom.wordpress.com/2022/06/21/magic-and-imagination-the-music-of-the-main-street-electrical-parade/ Thanks for Enjoying Synergy Loves Company!
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00:10 --> 00:53 We have this coterie of rich franchises, the company now that people want to engage with. I came here to try and continue what Walt Disney and his associates set in motion 50 years ago, which is to experiment with every new and innovative kind of entertainment possible. It's what they hope to do here, to really develop something that, well, just more than an entertainment enterprise, it's something that contributes many other ways.
01:00 --> 34:35 Throughout Walt Disney's lifetime, he strived for perfection. Disney animation needed to be a step above the rest. It wasn't enough to just draw characters that moved. They had to feel like they were alive. Animators studied real human gestures, animal behavior and emotional expression to breathe life into their creations. Frame by frame, every bounce, blink and breath was carefully timed to make an audience forget that they were watching ink on paper. At the Disney studio, this illusion became a philosophy, a belief that with the right tools, timing and imagination, even the inanimate could be made to move hearts. The illusion of life. In the same time, in labs, garages and workshops, electrical engineers and musicians were chasing a different kind of magic. They were working not with painting visuals to life, but generating and shaping sound with electricity. By transforming voltage into waveforms, they discovered that they could create entirely new sounds. Tones that didn't exist in nature, yet could stir emotions just as powerfully. These weren't traditional instruments. They were machines that needed to be tamed, tuned and performed synthesizers. But just like the Disney animators, these engineers and musicians were animating something lifeless, giving soul to circuits, turning raw electricity into music that felt alive. Hey, this is Synergy Loves Company, where we explore how Disney connects to everything so you could feel connected to Disney even when you can't be at the parks. I'm Eric, and today we explore how Disney embraced synthesizers and electronic music technology to create emotional resonance in theme parks, films and live shows. It's a story of invention, imagination, and how electronic instruments are used to create something that moves us. But before we had an actual synthesizer would be. Electronic musicians attempted different ways to create sound with electricity, producing music electronically. Developed alongside electronic based communication like telephones, telegraphs and radio waves. All of these could be used to spread a message, but they could also be used to express yourself artistically through sound as well. In the early 1900s, the Teleharmonium, a precursor to the synthesizer, was a machine that was used to generate music that could be shared via phone lines. It was probably more trouble than it was worth, but it paved the way for making music with electricity. At this time, electronic music, musical instruments were Experimental and often seen as scientific curiosities, like that teleharmonium. They used early electrical technology to generate sound without a traditional acoustic method. They paved the way for future innovations in electronic music. These instruments introduced new possibilities for tone, pitch and performance. Even though they were bulky, rare and unwieldy, definitely not ready for use in popular music yet. And the first synthesizers as we know them were still a while off. Throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s, people kept experimenting with ways to electronically produce sounds. And the first big development came from magnetic tape. Sound waves could be recorded on magnetic tape and then played back. Think like those cassette tapes that we listened to in the 1980s. That was kind of an evolved version of the early magnetic tape we're talking about would be electronic. Musicians found that they could record sounds on magnetic tape and then play them back. But you could also manipulate the playback by speeding it up or slowing it down. You could cut and splice the tape, and then you could loop it. You could even play it backwards. And this manipulation of tape started an early electronic music genre called music concrete, pioneered by Pierre Schaefer in France. But magnetic tape also had some other applications for Disney. Sure, magnetic tape started to be added to film strips to make it easier to synchronize sound. But you know, that application made sense. Disney took a play from the Music Concrete playbook and thought outside the box. When Disney was looking for a way to manipulate their new audio animatronics, like tiki birds and Abrams Abraham Lincoln, they turned to that same magnetic tape. They recorded frequencies and signals on the tape that wouldn't be heard by the audience. The frequencies on the magnetic tape would trigger the movements of the animatronics. That's how they got the name audio animatronics. All right, enough with the tape. Let's get to the synthesis. From Music Concrete in France in the 40s, to electronica music in French Germany in the 1950s, electronic music was making strides in the mid century. Electronische music was the idea that we could use a machine to make a purely synthetic sound generated electronically. And the machines made to generate and manipulate these synthetic sounds were called synthesizers. These synthesizers were electronic instruments that could generate and shape sound using analog circuits and voltage controlled components like tone generating oscillators, filters and amplifiers. Known for their warm, rich tones. They create sound by manipulating continuous electrical signals. But it's one thing to make an electronic sound wave, and then it's a total other thing to control them. The early synthesizers were gigantic. Just like early computers. A synthesizer could Take up a whole room then to operate it. There were tons of switches and cables and dials to control analog oscillators to try to tame the sounds that you were patching and generating. That is until electronic music pioneer Bob Moog found a way to add a piano keyboard to the synthesizer. It still had a bunch of knobs and switches and some patch cables, but pitches could easily be played just like a piano or an organ. Electrical engineer Bob Moog or Moog. I've always said Moog, but I've heard some people say Moog. He got his start in electronic instruments by making and selling theremin kits in the early 50s under his own company, which he named after himself. Moog. Moog. Whichever it is, the theremin, which I didn't mention earlier, is one of those other early electronic musical instruments. It was invented in the 1920s by Russian physicist Leon Theremin. And it's unique in that it is played without physical contact. The performer moves their hands near two metal antennas. One controls the pitch and the other controls the volume. When you move your hands, you're manipulating electromagnetic fields to create eerie wavering tones. It was originally developed as a government funded science project. It quickly gained fame for its otherworldly sound. But it was also used in classical performance performances and sci fi film scores. Of course, though it never became a mainstream instrument, the theremin holds a special place in the history of electronic music and synthesizers. As a true pioneer of gesture based sound control. Disney actually used the theremin sound in their score of Space Mountain back when they added sound to the ride in Disneyland in the 1990s. Anyway, when Bob Moog switched from theremins to synthesizers, his goal was to make them more accessible for musicians, which meant adding that playable keyboard and also making them smaller. In 1964, Bob Moog made the first Moog synthesizer, now known as the Modular Moog. It made the instrument much more accessible than it was before, but it it still needed some work if it were going to be a common instrument that almost anyone could own. Because of the size and the cost, most of the early Moogs were owned by universities and recording studios. Though some artists started to own their own Moog synthesizers and make their own Synthesizer Music. In 1967, electronic music duo Perry & Kingsley recorded their second studio album with the Moog synthesizer, Kaleida Microscopic Vibrations. Well, wait a minute, Eric, you just skipped to the second album. Really? You didn't even mention their 1966 in the Sound from Way out album. It's so psychedelic. Well, yeah, the second one is where they actually started using the Moog synthesizer in a big way. And it was also one of the first records to use Moog synthesizers. And it's the one with the Disney connection. French composer Jean Jacques Perry and German American composer Gershon Kingsley teamed up for a second time on 1967's Kaleidoscopic Vibrations. And they heavily used that Moog synthesizer. It was like the full album was just like all Moog synthesizer with some audio effects added. The track listing was a mix of classical pieces and originals. And it didn't really make a big, big splash like audio files on the cutting edge of music. Technology really appreciated it, but it wasn't a commercial hit. The album sat for a while on rich mahogany shelves in music libraries and also in milk crates on basement floors surrounded by blacklight posters. That is until 1971, when Disney needed music for its Electrical Water Pageant at Walt Disney World and then also for their Main Street Electrical Parade in Disneyland. Jack Wagner, the iconic voicer of Disney announcements, was also a radio DJ and audio file, and he had one of those record collections. I'll let you decide if it was one of those audio library shelves or milk crates in the basement, but I'm guessing the shelves. When Disney was designing a light Up Water Parade to temporarily entertain Seven Seas Lagoon resort guest guests after park hours in Walt Disney World and a similar nighttime parade the next year for Main Street USA in Disneyland, they needed a soundtrack. Disney legend Bob Janney originally was just going to use music from Fantasia because some of the early concept sketches by Disney legend imagineer Mark Davis were based around Fantasia. But the show's concepts had changed since then. So Jack Wagner, that big music fan that he was, decided to insert himself and suggest an electrical soundtrack to go along with an Electrical Light Spectacular. He hit his record collection and came up with a sweet, sweet electronic Moog synthesizer track called Baroque Hoedown. The first track on the second side of Perry and Kingsley's Kaleidoscopic Vibrations. It had the perfect vibe and tempo, but it wasn't long enough for a nighttime spectacle. Disney music director Jim Christensen enlisted composer and synthesizer programmer Paul Beaver to rework the song as a motif that would fit the different sections of the Electrical Water Pageant. The show was the success in 1971 and paved the way for the Main Street Electrical Parade the next year, which also had the Baroque toed down soundtrack. The Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland has become the gold standard of nighttime parades. And even when Disney makes new iterations of nighttime parades, there's often nods to the Main Street Electrical Parade right there in it. And Baroque Hoedown, even though it's been rearranged and remixed over the years, always seems to be poking its head into those nighttime parades. Baroque Hoedown is also still the soundtrack of the Electrical Water Pageant at Walt Disney World today. Even though it was supposed to be a temporary thing, it wasn't temporary at all. And it's the longest running nighttime spectacle in Disney history. Perry and Kingsley's 1967 pioneering Moog compositions fell mostly into obscurity. But it got a second win because of Disney. And in 1968, the year after Kaleidoscopic Vibrations, another Moog synthesizer album came out and took the public by storm. Wendy Carlos's Switched On Bach. It presented classical music by Johann Sebastian Bach performed completely on the Moog synthesizer. Wendy Carlos wanted to prove that synthesizers could be a mainstream, commercially viable instrument instead of just an avant garde noise generator. I also want to mention that not only is Wendy Carlos a synthesizer pioneer, she's a trans woman and pioneer in raising public awareness of transgender issues. By 1979, she was ready to speak out about her transition. And even though she was nervous of some backlash, she received more support than she ever expected and inspired others to follow in her footsteps of embracing their true selves. During this time in her life, Wendy continued recording albums performed on Moog synthesizers, but also caught the attention of director Stanley Kubrick. The Moog's otherworldly sounds were what he was looking for to use in some of his movies. In 1971, Kubrick enlisted Carlos to write a haunting electronic score for A Clockwork Orange, and then again in 1980 for his screen adaptation of Stephen King's the Shining. And it worked. Electronic music performed on Moog synthesizers proved to be very cinematic. And in 1982, when Disney needed a soundtrack for their groundbreaking sci fi film in which a computer programmer is digitized into a virtual world and must navigate a gladiator style system to escape, all while battling an oppressive artificial intelligence, they turned to Wendy Carlos. A majority of Tron would take place inside the computer world, and Wendy Carlos's Moog synth music would give it that computer feel. In the same way that the movie took place partially in the real world and partially in the computer world, Wendy's score used electronic instruments along with a traditional orchestra. Okay, okay. Not all the music in Tron was by Wendy Carlos. Sure, there were a couple of songs by Journey, but they were using a lot of synthesizers in their music, too. During the time between Wendy Carlos is Switched On Bach and the Tron soundtrack synthesizers were following the path of Bob Moog's vision. They were becoming more compact and more affordable and more accessible to musicians than ever. By the late 1970s and into the 1980s, synthesizers could be purchased by musicians, not just big organizations and recording studios. Smaller models like the Micro Moog and the Mini Moog can be compact enough to easily set up on stage. Virtually any band could have one in the studio or on stage. This is also when synthesizers started being put into a keytar over your shoulder format. New wave group centered their sound around synthesizers. Rock bands had them in their big setups. Pop producers used them to make the 80s pop hits. And budding hip hop DJs incorporated them to enhance their turntable beats. In fact, here in the 80s is where the synthesizer sees its big boom. I think it's safe to say that 80s music became defined by synthesizers. Speaking of 80s music, I have a whole miniseries of how Disney connects to 80s music royalty. Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince and Whitney Houston. You should check it out. Synthesizers were the sound of the future and the sound of now. And if Disney wanted their Tomorrowland to be an image of the future now, they would would quickly find out they needed a synthesizer showcase. Michael Iceberg and his amazing Iceberg machine. No, not Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Michael Iceberg spelled I S E Berg. And then he later changed it to Iceberg for a cool stage name. Before he was a synthesizer sensation, he started off in Colorado in the 1960s with a chamberlain organ. But he. He quickly got into the DIY instrument modification craze that was happening in the synthesizer world. And he started to tinker with his organ. And he soon found out that synthesizers could be rigged up in tandem and used with his organ. Over time, he added more electronic instruments to his rigs. Synthesizers like the Prophet 5 and the Oberheim SEM sequencers that could control his synthesizers, Drum machines and effects modules that would alter the sounds of his instruments. And he rigged them all up together so that they could communicate and make brand new sounds. He put a spin on the idea of the one man band and he called it his Iceberg machine. And he played it all over Disney property. In 1976, he first graced the Tomorrowland Terrace in Disneyland. And he was a synth success for Disney. He would play originals like his fanfare themed from sci fi movies like Star wars. And synthesizer renditions of pop hits like Imagine by John Lennon. His first run was for six weeks. But of course Disney wanted him back in Disneyland in California, but also over in Orlando at Walt Disney World. He performed in what is now known as Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom, and when the 21st century arrived in 1982 in Epcot, he played Communicore as well. He continued playing at Disney's futuristic venues throughout the rest of the 80s, mostly the Tomorrowlands. He even recorded a live performance from the Tomorrowland Terrace. In 1983, when he retired from performing, he moved back to his hometown of Aspen, and he was rumored to have become neighbors with Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who has of Home and Aspen as well. Tinkering with synthesizers and rigging them up together like Michael Iceberg did is one of the appealing parts of using them and one of the ways new electronic musical instruments have evolved over time. Another synthesizer tinkerer of note is Parade and Nighttime Spectacular designer Don Dorsey. After Baroque Hodown made a synth splash in the early 1970s, Disney went all in on synthesizer based music in their park parades and nighttime spectaculars. For the bicentennial, Disney contracted Don Dorsey to arrange and synthesize some music for America on Parade, their celebratory parade honoring the United States 200th anniversary of independence. Don Dorsey was also an accomplished musician outside the parks. In 1986, his acclaimed Bach Busters album gave the music of Bach the synth treatment, much like Wendy Carlos did two decades prior. But back in the 70s, Disney liked his work and asked him back in 1977 to create a new arrangement of Baroque Hoedown for a refresh of the Main Street Electrical Parade. But his synthesizer tinkering skills were transferable. In 1980, he designed a parade control system that would use a computer to allow the Electrical Parade to be better synced with its tape reel soundtrack. There's that magnetic tape again. The Mickey track System debuted in 1981 and allowed parade music not only to follow the floats in the parade, but fully surround the audience by tapping into the surrounding speakers, making a fully encompassing musical experience. Each time a new parade float passed by, the Mickey track system could control lights and sound. Lights would turn off in succession before the electrical Parade would arrive. Then, opening a musical window, a fanfare would kick off a loop that would play while the first float was in view. As the next float approached, the first musical window would close and the second fanfare would open another window for the next float, where we would then hear the musical loop for the next float and it would go on like that for the rest of the parade. At this point, he became the go to guy to design and choreograph Parades and Nighttime Spectacular. He went on to produce shows like Laser Phonic Fantasy, Sorcery in the sky, and Fantasmic. The Mickey track system became the standard. To sync parades and nighttime spectaculars. To the music at Disney parks around the world. Until it went digital in the early 90s. At this point, it wasn't a tape track system anymore. The music was played over a digital system that also included lighting cues. This digital system was called decs, or Disney Entertainment Control System. DECS became the standard of parade control. It followed the same basic concept as the Mickey track. But it utilized computers and digital music. To open and close those musical windows to a more sophisticated extent. It could now control more intricate lighting cues and animation. While Don Dorsey and Disney were integrating light and sound in computers in their parade control systems. The world of electronic music Was incorporating computers more and more as well. In the early 1980s, digital synthesis also continued the trend. Of making synthesizers. More compact and more accessible. Analog synthesis, like those original Moog synthesizers. Generate sound using continuous electrical signals. Shaped by components like oscillators and filters, Producing a warm, often somewhat unpredictable tone. Digital synthesis, on the other hand, Uses numerical algorithms and computer processing. To create and manipulate sound, Offering more precision, flexibility, and complex textures. And because digital synthesizers had more in common with computers, you could control them with computers. So back in 1983, MIDI came on the scene. MIDI, or musical instrument Digital Interface, Is a technical standard. That allows electronic musical instruments, computers, and other devices. To communicate and synchronize with each other. Rather than transmitting audio. MIDI sends data like notes, velocity, control changes. And it enables complex control. Over many synthesizers, sequencer drum machines, and digital audio workstations. This meant that it was even easier than ever. For musicians. To get multiple instruments from different manufacturers to work together. In the days before midi, you basically had to be a tinkerer like Michael Iceberg. To rig up synth equipment to work together. MIDI technology made it more simple to program synthesizers. And like computer software upgrades, upgrades, it continued to expand. In 1991, Mini even introduced a show control language. That could help control simple lighting and pyrotechnic cues. And Don Dorsey, of course, kept up with the medium. In 1997, with the new millennium approaching. He needed to help Disney refresh the Illuminations show. That he had helped developed for Epcot. For the Illuminations, Reflections of Earth, Nighttime Spectacular. At Epcot, Don Dorsey used his expertise with MIDI synthesizers in a uniquely creative way. To synchronize the show's dramatic flame effects. With composer Gavin Greenaway's sweeping musical score. Dorsey connected a MIDI keyboard to the flame control system, assigning each key to a different flame effect with corresponding intensity. This this setup allowed him to literally play the fire like it was an instrument, performing the choreography live instead of tediously programming it through a switch panel. This hands on approach not only made the process more musical and intuitive, but it also allowed real time experimentation with timing and intensity during development. In addition to its artistic advantages, the method had a practical benefit too. It enabled Dorsey to track and manage propane consumption more efficiently by identifying which effects use the most fuel per second. During testing, this informed the final design of the show's fire barge, which was humorously dubbed Don D's Inferno. Seeing the impressive results of MIDI and Reflections of Earth, Don Dorsey continued to work with Disney and once again started to revitalize the show control system system. Dorsey developed a software called Conductor and debuted it in the 2000 and tens. Disney's conductor is the newest custom show control system used to precisely synchronize audio, lighting, animatronics, video pyrotechnics and special effects in theme park attractions and live shows. It acts as a master clock and ensures that all the elements stay perfectly in sync. Conductor communicates with various subsystems like midi, dmx, lighting control and video time code to manage complex cue based performances in shows like Fantasmic and newer parades like Magic Happens Now. Don Dorsey's work is pretty outside the box, but Disney doesn't just use electronic music tech to control parades and fireworks. Disney still uses synthesizers and electronic music in the parks. With the 2001 opening of Tokyo Disneysea, Disney worked with Japanese synth pioneer Isao Tomita to develop a sound soundtrack to the park's entrance plaza and Aquasphere water planet globe statue. Tomito was a pioneering Japanese composer and synthesizer artists known for bringing classical music into the electronic realm. In the 1970s, he gained international acclaim with albums like Snowflakes Are Dancing, which reimagined Debussy's work using once again Moog synthesizer. Tamita's innovative soundscapes help define early electronic music and influence generations of composers and producers. And the legacy of Disney using synthesizer music in their parks is there in his Aquasphere soundscape that sets the stage for the adventure that guests are about to experience at Tokyo Disneysea. The synth arrangement for Baroque Hoedown is still alive and well in the Electrical Water Pageant at Walt Disney World, and it's even been updated to an EDM style in Disneyland's Paint the Night Nighttime Parade. Speaking of EDM arrangements, the legacy of Wendy Carlos's iconic electronic Tron soundtrack shined through in French synthesizer and EDM duo Daft Punk's score for Tron Legacy in 2010 in the Legacy of Michael Iceberg and his Iceberg Machine entertaining diners in Tomorrowland is still alive and well in Sunny Eclipse and his Astro Organ performing at Cosmic Rays in the Magic Kingdom. Synthesizers and electronic music technology that came from them is still alive in well throughout Disney. And really quick, I want to give a couple of shout outs first off to friends of the show the 3028. They did a whole deep dive into Michael Iceberg's history with Disney in a podcast episode. You should definitely check it out if you want to know more. And also to friend of the show Sean Jacks. He did an article about Baroque Hoedown and the Main Street Electrical Parade for his blog Make Mine Music. There's a link to both of those in the description. Thanks for joining me in this look into synthesizers and Disney. And if you're still listening, you're my kind of person and I've got some exciting news to share with you. I also create a video version of this podcast on YouTube. It's the same show, just with visuals to go along with the audio. And recently my channel hit 1 thousand subscribers, a huge milestone that I am absolutely thrilled about. To celebrate, I'll be hosting a special live stream. It'll have a slightly different format, but it'll have tons of Disney connections and you'll even get to interact with me in real time. And if that sounds fun, make sure you follow me on social media so you don't miss the live stream announcement. On Blue Sky, I'm at Erich Synergy and on Facebook, Instagram, Instagram and threads. Just look for @Synergy LovesCompany. Now, maybe YouTube's not your thing. Maybe you're listening on the go. That's totally fine. Wherever you're listening, Apple, Spotify, wherever. Make sure you click, follow or subscribe. And then if you're not around for the live stream, no worries. I'll drop a recap right here in the audio feed so you won't miss out on it. You just won't be able to able to interact with me. There's something else you can do for me. Could you tell a fellow Disney fan about this show? Bring a friend, bring a family member, a co worker, someone who loves Disney like we do. Share your favorite episode on social media. Tag me in it so I can say hi. Or send them a direct link to synergy lovescompany.com and remember synergy Loves Company is supported by listener like you. If you would like to support the show, check out the show notes for a link to my Ko Fi page. If you appreciate the show and want to give a little something back, your support helps me keep improving and evolving the show to bring you even more Disney magic. Thanks again for spending your time with me on Synergy Loves Company. And remember, Disney Magic isn't just in the parks, it's all around us. So get go out there and keep discovering the magic in everything.