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Eric Siday

Eric Siday (1 November 1905 – 26 March 1976) was a British-American composer and musician. While most commonly known for his pioneering work in electroacoustic music, his early career was that of a hot-jazz violinist in the London dance bands in the Roaring ’20s, including Ray Starita's Piccadilly Revels. As a young violinist, his improvised soloing style was advanced for the time. He played with a modern chromatic style, verging on atonal, often incorporating multi-stops, playing up to four notes in harmony on the violin simultaneously using multiple fingers. In 1939, he emigrated to the United States. He was the first composer to systematically use electro-acoustic sound potential within the television medium, particularly with his invention of the sound logo and the Musical Rorschach test. His Maxwell House "Percolator" TV commercial was one of these first innovations. He commissioned Robert Moog to create the first percussion synthesizer, which he used extensively in his television work. Among his other contributions to the use of electro-acoustic music in television were numerous station IDs and commercials, including that of the National Educational Television network (the forerunner to PBS), the 1966 CBS "in color" bumper, the news sounder for the ABC Radio Networks, and the 1965–1976 Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures Television logos.…

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Article summary

Eric Siday (1 November 1905 – 26 March 1976) was a British-American composer and musician. While most commonly known for his pioneering work in electroacoustic music, his early career was that of a hot-jazz violinist in the London dance bands in the Roaring ’20s, including Ray Starita's Piccadilly Revels. As a young violinist, his improvised soloing style was advanced for the time. He played with a modern chromatic style, verging on atonal, often incorporating multi-stops, playing up to four notes in harmony on the violin simultaneously using multiple fingers. In 1939, he emigrated to the United States. He was the first composer to systematically use electro-acoustic sound potential within the television medium, particularly with his invention of the sound logo and the Musical Rorschach test. His Maxwell House "Percolator" TV commercial was one of these first innovations. He commissioned Robert Moog to create the first percussion synthesizer, which he used extensively in his television work. Among his other contributions to the use of electro-acoustic music in television were numerous station IDs and commercials, including that of the National Educational Television network (the forerunner to PBS), the 1966 CBS "in color" bumper, the news sounder for the ABC Radio Networks, and the 1965–1976 Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures Television logos.…

Key claims

  1. date of death: 1976 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the date of death is "1976". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  4. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

  1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1369895358

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.