Customer Reviews

Beauty in the Beast

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Since J.S.Bach pushed "well-tempered" music on us (and thus spurred the development of music that could flexibly shift from key to key) it's almost impossible for us to hear modern compositions that are not well-tempered. W. Carlos has done that here, giving us a hint of the sort of unusual tunings you might hear in non-western music. I must admit, it takes a bit of getting used to, and at first this album might sound strangely sour -- because we're so used to hearing well-tempered music, which is actually just slightly "off" from the natural tuning. After a while, non-tempered music seems comfortable.

However, Carlos composes music in the different tunings that shifts and adjusts its keys as modern western music does -- thus producing terrible clashes with the un-tempered scales. Traditional non-tempered music just doesn't shift keys this widely, for that very reason. So, it's a great experiment, but there are moments that aren't true to the intrinsic nature of non-tempered music.

FYI here's a quick lesson on tempered music: To move a note up an octave, double the frequency of the sound. To move a note up a fifth, multiply the frequency of the sound by 1.5 (one and a half.) Now, if you move up 12 fifths -- which should be equal to 7 octaves -- the math doesn't work out! You don't end up on quite the same note since (2)**7 = 128 but (1.5)**12 = 129.7!!! A sequence of fifths ends up a tiny, tiny bit sharp compared to a sequence of octaves, about 1% "off"!!! So, to make both these sequences jibe, one flattens the notes evenly such that fifths are just a hair flat. The result doesn't sound as natural, but it makes every scale "well-tempered".

There are actually many, many different cultures that have developed non-tempered music in many different ways, e.g. in arabic lands their scales and music can incorporate quarter-tones that are utterly missing from western music. I've heard synagogue chanting that used a different tuning. Some recordings of gregorian chants are sung with non-tempered tuning.

So this explains how Carlos was playing around when she composed this album. It's somewhat flawed, because she roves from key to key in western style, and goes very far up and down the scale in a way that hilights the flaws of non-tempered music, but it's a marvelous experiment, and something everyone should hear and listen to... and understand!

I have proudly owned a copy of the first release of this CD all these years. It is the best example I know of an utterly brilliant recording being tragically unavailable. As other reviewers note, the tuning does sound strange at first, but then one realizes how quickly one not only adjusts to it, but starts to hear it as natural and normal.

Do yourself a favor and get this CD now. It is indispensable.

Wendy Carlos, electronic musician and composer, has managed to enjoy a reasonable amount of success as an overall unclassifiable artist probably because of her chamelion-like explorations of a wide range of styles: From electro-baroque (Switched-On Bach), to film soundtracks (A Clockwork Orange, Tron), to nature/electro/ambience (Sonic Seasonings), her compositional process/craft has indeed shown flexibility - yet we as listeners and admirers could not help but wonder who the true Wendy was, as a musical identity, under the shifting surface.

I think we got a hint at it in the piece "Timesteps" from the Clockwork Orange soundtrack, and on this 1986 release / 2001 re-release that identity is fully realized. On the surface, at first listening, much of it sounds like world music: Tibetan Incantations, Balinese Gamelan ceremonies, African tribal dances, drifting in and out in a sort of auditory slide show. Yet as she explains in the collection's liner notes, these world images were used as more of a treatment, a way to encapsulate and focus tunings and textures she had just started to work with in her own abstract, intuitive approach to composing. The result is a kaleidoscopic journey, a sumptuous feast for the ears, one which challenges us by clashing dissonant cacophony against sheer melodic beauty - hence the title.

It is ironic that, sometimes, purely electronic music sounds best (is more interesting and exciting) when it is made to sound more primitive and organic. Carlos succeeds at this for the most part, with her use of quarter-tones and percussive sounds, as well as the use of an electrified voice on two of the tracks. She has been criticized for sounding too mechanistic on other works; the pieces contained in this collection should lay those complaints to waste. Here her performances exhibit a flow that could only come from a creative dream state; here we truly are witness to an artist at the peak of her creative powers.

This album came and went so fast back when it was released 15 years ago, I didn't have a chance to score it on CD when I got my first player. Its rerelease is indeed a cause for celebration. Much appreciation is owed to the efforts of East Side Digital on behalf of the Wendy Carlos collection. If there were any one album that best represented this pioneer recording artist, Beauty in the Beast is this listener's choice.

Best heard in the dark, during a rainstorm ......

You've never heard anything quite like Beauty in the Beast, and it *does* take some getting used to. But once you have, it's a must-have record.

There are a variety of musical styles on BitB, ranging from african-sounding percussion to martian jazz. The title cut is just plain haunting.

The supplementary files include an essay on tuning, with audio files as examples. I found these to be very informative, particularly regarding the alpha and beta scales used in the title cut.

It's weird, but it works.

Nonstandard tunings, masterfully used. Gothic, "Bush of Ghosts" feeling. Great instrument modeling, not trying to sound just like acoustic instruments but using attributes of their spectra as part of instrument creation. Uh, it's real pretty. Spooky and balanced.

What you have here is something no other musician is doing to the degree Wendy Carlos is: exploration of alternative tunings in original music using synthesizers, while sounding like an acoustic assemblage of world musicians. This CD was called a soundtrack for a dream by others, and that really describes it for me.

This came out in 1986 on a label that went under shortly after it was released, so very few got to hear it. As a synthesizer player, it changed the way I thought about music and electronic music, as revelatory as _Switched On Bach_ was in its day. At first, I couldn't take it. It sounded so out of tune and strange! But as I kept listening to it, I found a whole new standard of beauty, like falling in love with an ugly child.

For years, I spent many hours driving across the New Jersey pines at night with no interruptions. This album was my soundtrack for those crossings for years (coupled with Ornette Coleman's _Skies of America_, a perfect pairing). It was transporting,mystical, and intriguing, and the ride always was over before I was ready.

At last! I've been waiting for years for this one to become available on CD. Take advantage of it now that it's here!

I bought this for a Christmas gift for my son. He had put it on his wish list and he was very pleased to receive it. The used CD was in very good shape. The Wendy Carlos CD is sought after by people wanting to have the history and the great music.

Among the pantheon of modern "microtonal" music Beauty in the Beast stands out, and is possibly heads and shoulders above. IMHO one of the greatest compostions of the 20th century. Living in San Diego I know and have known a lot of microtonal composers. Ivor Darreg was a good friend of mine. Harry Partch lived with another of my friends. Ivor enlightened me as to what might be possible due to the development of digital music and microtones. Essentially it is now possible to change tunings at will. Unlike many Microtonal pieces which are exercises in math, Wendy Carlos has created a phenomenal piece of sound. This is music rather than math. I think its telling that she's only made this one, her own compositions with radically different tunings. Its quite good, however its NOT easy listening. It DEMANDS attention so if you are looking for background music seek others. But if you are into going on an aural trip to places you've never been seek it out.

Most microtonal is too academic to me. I will recommend this great microtonal music to seek out: Ingliashon Jones/City of the Asleep, Prent Rogers, William Sethares.

Wendy Carlos is both ethnic and inventive. The opener, "Incantation," involves synthetic sounds that resemble the rumbling of Buddhist monks and weird woodwind-like sounds and siren-like sounds. Very strange. The most memorable pieces for me are "Poem for Bali" and "C'est Afrique." In the latter she uses vocoder as well as incredible percussive sounds for a frequency modulation device. This is just subjective, but I think the woman is a downright genius. She travels the world over, listening to the popular or even individual sounds, and _recalls_ them! The last piece, "A Woman's Song," is something she heard an African woman humming or singing to herself... and Carlos recalled it and rendered it in synthesized song. That, to me, is simply incredible. Wendy Carlos deserves five stars plus. PS. Carlos believes in using harmonic structures that don't agree with Bach's 12 tones. Therefore, she takes the license to use tones between the cracks as a natural part of her music. I find it admirable and inventive, while others may go, "Ew!" That's called art. Enjoy.

As a student studying classical voice this recording was a revelation when I purchased it on cassette 22 years ago. I've just now discovered its been reissued on CD (I'm listening to my old cassette as I write this). Upon hearing "Beauty In The Beast" I understood that there was a world of electronic possibilities outside western acoustic tonalities and structures that didn't need to be mutually exclusive of them. Truly thoughtful, well composed, learned music from an equally thoughtful learned composer. Music of the highest order.

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