Sylvia Pengilly facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sylvia Pengilly
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| Born | March 23, 1935 London, England
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| Nationality | British, American |
| Occupation | Composer and professor |
| Known for | Electronic music |
Sylvia Pengilly (born March 23, 1935) is an amazing British-American musician and a professor of music. She's famous for creating music in a super unique way: she turns brain waves into electrical signals! This lets her mix music with cool graphics. Even after partly retiring in 1995, Sylvia kept teaching and making music.
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Sylvia Pengilly's Music Career
Teaching and Electronic Music
After finishing her studies, Sylvia taught music theory and composition at Western Illinois University for four years. There, she discovered something cool: a physics professor named Richard Peterson had built a system using lasers and mirrors. This system could create special patterns called Lissajous curves. Sylvia used this system to make percussion and electronic music.
From 1980 to 1995, Sylvia taught at Loyola University New Orleans. She was hired to teach students about electronic music. She even built a music studio for them! This studio had a Moog 55 synthesizer, speakers, a mixing board, a TASCAM tape deck, and a Zenith computer.
In 1984, Sylvia added Macintosh computers to the studio. These computers ran special software for composing music and had keyboards. She also worked on mixing graphics with music and even herself dancing! She used an Amiga computer with software called Mandala. This software let her create a "virtual world." Then, her own image could enter this world and trigger sounds or events by touching virtual icons.
Composing with Brain Waves
In 1983, Sylvia Pengilly started working on a super interesting project: using brain waves to create music! She used a device called an Interactive Brainwave Visual Analyzer. This device has a headband with electrodes that can turn brain waves into electrical data.
This data is then sent wirelessly to a computer. The computer changes the brain wave data into MIDI information. MIDI is like a language that musical instruments and computers use to talk to each other. This allows Sylvia to control her music compositions. The music is combined with graphics that change based on a performer's brain waves. Imagine making music just by thinking!
Sylvia Pengilly's Early Life
Growing Up in London
Sylvia Pengilly was born in London, England, on March 23, 1935. When she was a child, London was experiencing war. She remembers sounds of gunfire, rockets, and bombings. When the bombings were very bad, her family would travel to the countryside in Sussex. Her father, however, stayed in the army.
While in Sussex, Sylvia went to music class every week. She learned about English folk music, and her teacher would play the piano along with the songs. After the war ended, her whole family moved back to London. Her parents taught her how to play the piano. She loved playing so much that sometimes her parents had to make her stop!
Discovering Composition
In high school music class, Sylvia first heard a fugue by Bach. A fugue is a type of musical piece where different parts play the same melody at different times, creating a layered sound. This inspired her to write her very first composition. It was a fugue based on a piece from Bach's famous work, The Well-Tempered Clavier.
In the 1950s, Sylvia attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She earned a degree in music education, which means she learned how to teach music.
Sylvia Pengilly's Adult Life
Moving to America and Further Studies
In 1956, Sylvia married Brian Pengilly, who was a research chemist. In 1957, they moved to Stow, Ohio, in the United States. Brian had received a job offer from Goodyear Research.
For a few years, Sylvia worked as an elementary school music teacher. But she wanted to learn more about composing music. So, in 1968, she started studying for a composition degree at Kent State University. While at the university, she discovered electronic music. She saw the chairman's Moog 55, which is a type of electronic musical instrument. She used it to change how a simple sound wave could be heard.
Sylvia graduated in 1971 with a Master of Arts degree in composition. She then joined the faculty at Kent State University as a theory instructor. In 1973, she started studying for a doctoral degree at the University of Cincinnati. The Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati had an electronic music studio. It included instruments like the ARP 2600 and an ElectroComp. Here, she learned how to compose both acoustic (traditional) and electronic music.
Semi-Retirement and Collaborations
In 1995, Sylvia Pengilly partly retired and moved to California. Even though she was semi-retired, she continued to perform her music and give lectures at many universities. She also attended conferences about electronic music.
Sylvia worked with another composer named Michael Rhoades. Together, they created music video works. Sylvia would create the video parts, and Michael would compose the music.
