Multimedia Review

Moog. Hans Fjellestad, director. 2005. Plexifilm 018DVD (70 mins.; Picture format 1.78:1; Sound Dolby Digital 2.0; Region: All).

Moog, directed by Hans Fjellestad, is a seventy-minute documentary addressing the life and work of Bob Moog, one of the twentieth century’s most influential inventors and builders of electronic musical instruments. Born in 1934, Moog began making theremins as a teenager, but he is best known for a series of modular, analog synthesizers that bore his name. The Moog synthesizer, first built in 1964 while Moog was a Ph.D. student in engineering at Cornell University, became a media sensation after the release of Switched on Bach in 1968. In contrast to earlier synthesizers such as the RCA Mark II, which relied upon a large number of vacuum tubes, the Moog used transistors and other technical innovations for a dramatically more compact and functional design. Its cousin, the Minimoog, introduced in 1970, was even smaller and more performance-oriented; one of the most popular synthesizers of all time, it served as a model for subsequent keyboard-based synths in a number of ways.