David Novak is Associate Professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of
Matt Sakakeeny is Associate Professor of Music at Tulane University, and the author of
David Novak is Associate Professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of
Matt Sakakeeny is Associate Professor of Music at Tulane University, and the author of
“Synthesis” is a term that refers to the composition of a new whole from discrete parts. This entry follows that term across cultural fields to examine the coemergence of sound synthesis techniques with nineteenth-century waveform representations of lively bodies in motion, and with an industrial history of synthetic substitutes. It also provides a lineage of ideas and instruments that preceded commercially available analog synthesizers, along with examples of the ways inventors, musicians, and listeners have negotiated cultural understandings of synthesis and synthetics in their designs and uses of synthesized sounds.
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