The Last of the New (1985–1997)

This chapter focuses on the last period in which Carlos created new music. She began restricting the number and type of interviews she gave following Allan Kozinn’s negative review of her album ciDigital Moonscapes and an article in People magazine that focused disproportionately on her gender. In 1986, she released Beauty in the Beast. Although she called it her “most important album,” Beauty in the Beast barely registered critically or commercially. She also teamed up with “Weird Al” Yankovic, known for his parodies of pop songs and his accordion playing, to record Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. Struggling financially, Carlos returned to the repertoire of Switched-On Bach and created Switched-On Bach 2000 using digital synthesis.

Transformations (1979–1984)

This chapter addresses the first few years after Carlos returned to the public eye, which included high-profile projects such as the soundtracks to the films The Shining and TRON. She also gave interviews to the New York Times and Keyboard magazine, the latter of which also installed her on its advisory board. This was a period of several changes in Carlos’s life. She and Rachel Elkind ended their personal and professional relationship, she began what would be a lifelong relationship with Annemarie Franklin, she began using digital synthesis instead of analog, and she worked with symphony orchestras for the first time.

Foundations (1962–1967)

This chapter follows Carlos from her time as a graduate student in the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center to her early professional career as a recording engineer with Gotham Studios. At Columbia, she studied with electronic music pioneers Vladimir Ussachevsky and Milton Babbitt, learning to compose music with magnetic tape and the RCA Mark II Synthesizer. Carlos met Robert Moog for the first time in 1964 at the Audio Engineering Society convention. They worked together as Moog developed modules for 900-series analog synthesizer. Carlos also began seeing Dr. Harry Benjamin, author of The Transsexual Phenomenon, in his office in New York.

“Welcome Back, Wendy!” The Playboy Interview (1979)

This chapter focuses on Carlos’s decision to disclose her transition and the series of interviews she gave to Arthur Bell in 1978 and 1979 that were eventually published in Playboy magazine. She decided to do so because staying in isolation was hurting her career and her relationship with friends such as Rachel Elkind, who kept covering for her. She also felt that attitudes toward transgender people were changing, in part because of Renee Richards’s story. Following the interview’s publication, Carlos was humiliated that Bell chose to focus the vast majority of the printed interview on her gender identity and transition instead of on her music and what she called her “soul.”

Something Went Wrong (1970–1978)

This chapter details the decade of the 1970s, during which Carlos remained in hiding but continued to release albums and written statements under her birth name. Most notably, she collaborated with Stanley Kubrick and created music on the Moog synthesizer for the 1971 film A Clockwork Orange. She and Rachel Elkind also released several additional albums in the mold of Switched-On Bach, as well as the proto-ambient album Sonic Seasonings. By the late 1970s, Carlos felt it was time to disclose her identity. She had missed a number of potential collaborations in the past decade, including several film projects and a meeting with Stevie Wonder.

Switched-On Bach and Undesired Fame (1968–1969)

This chapter traces the development and release of Carlos’s first album, Switched-On Bach. Her friendship with producer Rachel Elkind was crucial for the album’s inception. Elkind took the album to Columbia Records and secured the contract. Switched-On Bach was an overnight smash, and everyone from Leonard Bernstein to Hugh Downs wanted to interview Carlos about the Moog synthesizer. Because she had transitioned to female by the time Switched-On Bach was topping the charts, Carlos rarely appeared in public to promote the album. Fearful that she and her music would be ridiculed, she stayed in hiding to protect her safety and her career.

Origins (1939–1962)

This chapter focuses on Wendy Carlos’s life from her 1939 birth in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, to her graduation from Brown University in 1962. From her earliest days, Carlos was innovative and resourceful. She built equipment out of spare parts, hammered her piano into different tuning systems, and taught herself harmony and counterpoint from library books. Carlos knew from childhood that her gender identity made her a target for ridicule and violence, so she retreated into a solitary world of electronic music. Under the guidance of Wesley Nyborg at Brown University, Carlos created a major that blended physics and music.

Introduction

This chapter provides a brief overview of Wendy Carlos’s career, placing her and her album Switched-On Bach at the center of the Moog synthesizer’s popularity in the late 1960s. Carlos, who had been assigned the male sex at birth, had transitioned to female by the time Switched-On Bach reached the zenith of its popularity. Carlos remained in hiding for nearly a decade out of fear for her personal safety and professional reputation. Once she disclosed her transition in a Playboy interview in 1979, she was able to talk publicly about her music. At the same time, her gender—not her music—became a focal point for many scholars and journalists.

Reissuing the Past (1998–2005)

This chapter follows Carlos as she remastered and reissued her entire catalogue on the label East Side Digital, began using her website to express her opinions, and created her final albums of original material. In the late 1990s, Carlos began fighting back against those whom she felt had injured her. She sued the pop musician Momus for his representation of her in a song, and she wrote an extensive “Short List of the Cruel” on her website to call out people and organizations by name that had hurt or misrepresented her. She also became increasingly selective about the interviews she gave and how she was represented in those interviews.

Preserving, Protecting, and Defending Her Legacy (2006–Present)

This chapter looks at Wendy Carlos’s legacy in the twenty-first century, focusing on how she tries to stop the digital distribution of her music online and how journalists, scholars, and others choose to represent Carlos. When her music returned to her ownership from East Side Digital, she did not distribute it through any online sources. Through Serendip LLC, Carlos and Annemarie Franklin worked tirelessly to stop people from posting Carlos’s music online without permission. From online forums to newspaper articles to peer-reviewed scholarly works, Carlos’s gender is still the most-discussed aspect of her life, garnering far more attention than her music.