Silver Apples of the Moon (Morton Subotnick album)

Silver Apples of the Moon
Studio album by Morton Subotnick
Released	July 1967
Recorded	1966–67, New York City
Genre	Electronic experimental classical electronic dance music
Length	31:25
Label	Nonesuch, Elektra
Producer	Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick chronology
Silver Apples of the Moon (1967) The Wild Bull (1968)

Silver Apples of the Moon is the debut album by American composer and musician Morton Subotnick, released by Nonesuch Records in July 1967. It contains the titular composition which is divided into two parts. A showcase for the Buchla 100 synthesizer, an early analogue synthesizer that the composer helped develop, it was the first piece of electronic music commissioned by a record company.^[1]

Recorded over a 13-month deadline, Subotnick spent up to ten hours a day working on the composition, hoping to create sounds that other musicians would find hard to recreate. Subotnick took the name of the album from Yeats's poem "The Song of Wandering Aengus".^[2] The composition is experimental in style, with "Part I" featuring slow, calm passages and experimentation in tone and "Part II" featuring pulse and sequenced rhythms, the latter an innovation for the time. Subotnick premiered the piece at the opening night of the Electric Circus.

Upon release, Silver Apples of the Moon became a surprise success, selling well in the classical music category, and received critical acclaim. The record has since gone on to be considered a milestone in electronic music; it was the first album to feature a voltage-based synthesizer and the first piece of both classical and electronic music written specifically for the album format. The album's sequenced rhythms are credited with anticipating electronic dance music, and today the record is considered to be Subotnick's signature work. In a 1992 list, The Wire considered the album to be among the 100 most important albums ever, and in 2009, the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.^[3]