Gershon Kingsley

Gershon Kingsley (born Götz Gustav Ksinski; October 28, 1922 – December 10, 2019) was a contemporary German-American composer, a pioneer of electronic music and the Moog synthesizer, a partner in the electronic music duo Perrey and Kingsley, founder of the First Moog Quartet, and writer of rock-inspired compositions for Jewish religious ceremonies. Kingsley is most famous for his 1969 influential electronic instrumental composition "Popcorn".
Kingsley conducted and arranged many Broadway musicals, and composed for film, television shows and commercials. His compositions were eclectic and vary between avant-garde and pop styles. Kingsley also composed classical chamber works, and his opera "Raoul" was premiered in Bremen, Germany in 2008. His work was recognized with a Tony Award nomination for Best Conductor and Musical Director, two Clio Awards for his work in advertising music, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bob Moog Foundation. Kingsley died on December 10, 2019 at the age of 97 in Manhattan, New York.
Biography.
Early life.
Kingsley was born Götz Gustav Ksinski in 1922 in Bochum, Weimar Republic, the son of Marie Christina, a homemaker, and Max Ksinski, a carpet dealer and pianist. His father was born Jewish and his mother, originally Catholic, converted to Judaism. He grew up in Berlin where his parents ran a large carpet shop. They had originally met in Essen, when his father, returning from Berlin on a business trip, had dropped in to a wine bar managed by two sisters, one of whom soon became Kingsley's mother. The elder Ksinski had spent the evening playing the piano in the bar, after which romance quickly blossomed.
As his father was Jewish, he fled Nazi Germany in 1938 to settle in Palestine-Land of Israel where the 15-year-old, self-taught musician began his career in music., a few days before Kristallnacht and joined kibbutz Ein Harod, Mandatory Palestine, while his parents stayed behind at that time. At the kibbutz he taught himself to play the piano. He joined the Hagana Jewish Settlement Police (Notrim) and also played jazz in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. He studied at the Jerusalem conservatory of music. His parents and brother had escaped to Cuba, from where, eventually, they succeeded in obtaining visas for the United States, where Kingsley met up with them eight years later. After World War II, Kingsley emigrated to America where he became a pit conductor for Broadway musical shows after graduating from the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music.
Musical career.
Kingsley's career as a pop musician took off with the release of "The In Sound from Way Out!" album in 1966, which he recorded with Jean-Jacques Perrey. The Perrey and Kingsley duo went on to record "", released the next year, and subsequently went their separate ways. Kingsley then pursued a solo career recording "Music to Moog By", released in 1969, a classic Moog album consisting mainly of cover songs, originally by The Beatles, Beethoven, and Simon and Garfunkel, but there also was original material, like his best known composition, "Popcorn", which became his "signature song". His next musical effort was with a band called First Moog Quartet in 1970: As the result of a request by famous impresario Sol Hurok to hear the Moog synthesizer's capabilities demonstrated live. Other group members included Howard Salat, Stan Free, Eric W. Knight, and Ken Bichel. On January 30, 1970, the group became the first to ever play electronic music in Carnegie Hall. With Robert Moog present, they were accompanied by several other musicians and four singers. While reactions were mixed, immediate results included a university tour, and some interesting collaborative works with the Boston Pops Orchestra.
They only recorded one 1970 album entitled "First Moog Quartet", on Audio Fidelity Records, which consisted of live recordings from his nationwide tour featuring four Moog synthesizers. Some of these compositions are more experimental, featuring spoken word and beat poetry backed by synthetic noises and tones. Kingsley then moved beyond the Moog, and later pioneered the use of the earliest Fairlight and Synclavier digital synthesizers. And at least one 45 rpm single. Arthur Fiedler asked Kingsley to write a "Concerto for Moog"; the quartet performed the work, scored for synthesizer quartet and symphony orchestra, with the Boston Pops in 1971.
Baroque Hoedown & The Savers.
Gershon Kingsley with Perrey is also credited with composing the song "Baroque Hoedown", released in their 1967 album, used by Walt Disney Productions for the Main Street Electrical Parade at its theme parks; and the song "The Savers", best known as the theme for the game show "The Joker's Wild" from 1972 to 1975 would go on to fame in 1968 as the Clio Award-winning music for a television ad for No-Cal diet drinks. He also wrote the logo sting (animated logo accompanied with music) for WGBH-TV in Boston, that appears throughout the United States on PBS programming produced by the station.
"Popcorn".
Many artists have covered his song "Popcorn", including; Hot Butter, The Popcorn Makers, Anarchic System, La Strana Società, Los Pekenikes (1972), Jiri Korn, Klaus Wunderlich (1973), Vyacheslav Mescherin's Orchestra (1979), Magic Men (1983), M&H Band (1988), Slotmachine & Gemini 7, Aphex Twin (1992), Gigi D'Agostino (1994), The Boomtang Boys (1999), Marsheaux (2003), Crazy Frog, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Messer Chups (2005), Muse, The Muppets (2010), and others.
The song was used in the Soviet animated series "Nu, pogodi!". the Japanese release of Pengo used an 8-bit interpretation of this Gershon Kingsley's track. in early 2019, year of death Gershon Kingsley the experimental composer Blanck Mass chose "Popcorn" as one of the 10 most influential compositions of his career. Also particularly interesting is the cover version of the Italian pop group La Strana Società from 1972, whose ensemble back then included Umberto Tozzi, who was still unknown at the time, but which would later achieve world fame with hits such as "Gloria", "Tu" and "Ti Amo".