Origins (1939–1962)

Abstract This chapter focuses on Wendy Carlos’s life from her 1939 birth in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, to her graduation from Brown University in 1962. From her earliest days, Carlos was innovative and resourceful. She built equipment out of spare parts, hammered her piano into different tuning systems, and taught herself harmony and counterpoint from library books. Carlos knew from childhood that her gender identity made her a target for ridicule and violence, so she retreated into a solitary world of electronic music. Under the guidance of Wesley Nyborg at Brown University, Carlos created a major that blended physics and music.