Sound Unbound Ch18: Raymond Scott

Socially awkward and preferring to work with machines, Raymond Scott sure had the personality of a genius. I think its almost sad though how much of his life he spent creating machines that would have been insignificant to construct with even an early computer. Scott spent time building various contraptions to vary voltage and keep time - both are functions easily provided by computers.

I do think its interesting that Scott, in the early 1900's, was working toward a goal of melding the human mind with a machine. Obviously this is a goal that receives a lot of work today - especially to help subjects who have lost limbs, eyesight, hearing, etc.

I also got the impression that Scott was a bit of an egotist. It seems like every idea he had he ran down to the patent office. Then when he actually built something significant he worked his name in there. Then, at the beginning of the chapter Scott mentions feeling bad about keeping his work on the first "synthesizer" so private....yeah now that its far too late to capitalize commercially and all he can hope for is public recognition, he wishes he had gone public at the onset.

Raymond Scott

I enjoyed this reading a lot. Once again, just like others like Glass, Xenakis, and Reich, I am so impressed by what Scott was able to accomplish so long ago. It almost feel that he was able to predict the future; especially in terms of technology and music. I really liked how the author used correspondence Scott kept with friends. It gives a nice insight to the things he was experiencing and his relationship with Bob Moog. I Googled his Circle Machine invention and found this website where someone else recreated it. Watch the video, it's pretty cool stuff. Also, I was a little disappointed to see that Scott was such a perfectionist and disliked improvisation; however, I see him more of a pioneer and inventor rather than a musician. I believe we owe Mr. Scott a lot of the electronic equipment we have today. After more than 60 years we still reference him for patents on new equipment, that's impressive.