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Peter Zinovieff

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Peter Zinovieff (1933 to 2021) was a British composer, musician and inventor. He was born into a Russian noble family that had fled to England before the revolution, and took a doctorate in geology at Oxford. His real love was electronic music. With the proceeds of an auctioned tiara he bought a computer, which he connected, at his house in Putney, to oscillators and amplifiers from army surplus. By his own account it was the first computer in a private home anywhere in the world.

Music and breakthrough

In 1966 and 1967, with Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson, he ran the organisation Unit Delta Plus, which aimed to make and promote electronic music. His system MUSYS grew into the company Electronic Music Studios, EMS for short. In 1968 his Partita for Unattended Computer received its premiere in London: the first performance of live computer music without a human performer, read from paper tape.

Influence

His company made the VCS3, a compact synthesizer that was cheaper and more portable than the large Moog system. Early progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd and White Noise used it, as did Krautrock groups and pop musicians such as Todd Rundgren and David Bowie. Zinovieff himself had little interest in pop music and later worked mainly as a composer of electronic music. His importance lies in the equipment: he gave a whole generation of rock musicians access to sounds that had previously been heard only in experimental music studios.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a track from the 1970s on which the VCS3 can be heard, such as an early Pink Floyd, and notice the whooshing, almost alien sounds that no guitar or keyboard would make. Try to hear what is electronic and what is not.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Categories: Artists