So I'm sitting at work, listening as I usually do to all sorts of music in
the background. I found myself listening to the excellent soundtrack written for
A Clockwork
Orange (which also happens to be one of the best movies I've ever
seen). Some of the classical pieces there have a distinct ring to them,
as if they've been performed in a very peculiar and distinct (somewhat
synth-y, for lack of a better word) style. It kept bugging me that I've
heard this someplace before, and after some 40 minutes it finally struck me: it
sounds highly similar to the soundtrack written for the movie Tron (also highly
recommended).
I took a better look at the tracks to see who wrote them - a Walter Carlos.
This was even more surprising for me, because I recall the Tron soundtrack
credited to a Wendy Carlos. What's up?
Some digging in
wikipedia proved once again extremely fruitful:
Her first six recordings were released under the name Walter Carlos,
although, being a transsexual woman, she had already changed her name from
Walter to Wendy. In 1972, Carlos underwent gender reassignment therapy. The
last release to be credited to Walter Carlos was By Request (1975). The first
release as Wendy was Switched-On Brandenburgs (1979). Carlos's first public
appearance after her gender transition was in an interview in the May 1979
issue of Playboy magazine, a decision she would come to regret as it brought
unwelcome publicity to her personal life. On her official site, her transition is
discussed in an essay stating that she values her privacy on the
subject.
The universe never ceases to surprise me.