Hellmuth Kolbe

In Memoriam veil a little, and I gained a small insight into Dan the person as opposed to Dan the standards manager. I discovered he was a man of prin- ciple and integrity. “As I got to know Dan over the years I never ceased being amazed at the depth and breadth of his knowl- edge which embraced history, litera- ture, music, politics, and law. After moving to Greece he even took up the challenge of learning to speak Greek. “Dan’s dedication to the work of the Standards Committee was limit- less. I will always be grateful for the support he gave me. Hellmuth Kolbe “At the convention in New York 1926-2002 three years ago, in the midst of a heavy schedule of standards meet- ings, he would disappear occasionally ski instructor. His fluency in English, and 1975. He routinely worked for to undergo radiation therapy. The French, and German was appreciated other record companies too, but since thought of letting the AES down, as by his employer (later on he also he was often an independent engineer, he saw it, never crossed his mind. I learned Spanish and Italian). By the even for Columbia, most of his know that Dan was proud of the Dis- fall of 1946 he made his way to Vien- recordings are either uncredited or tinguished Service Medal he was na and began extensive studies in credited to a passive “supervising” awarded in recognition of his dedica- music and musicology at the Acade- engineer. He also loved jazz, especial- tion, although he didn’t enjoy making my of Music there. He said that he ly the music of Lenny Tristano. He the acceptance speech.” didn’t complete the degree because recorded the classic “Ellington Nunn concluded: “Functional, not the authorities would not accept his Uptown,” and projects led by Stan pretentious was always Dan’s philos- chosen topic for a dissertation: “The Getz, Dexter Gordon, and Sonny Stitt. ophy. He will be greatly missed.” influence of Johann Sebastian Bach Kolbe opened his first recording Mark Yonge on Jazz.” studio, Mastertone, in 1949 in Vien- Standards Manager At about this time he approached na. In 1957, he founded the Phonag the American Armed Forces Radio, record company in Switzerland, looking for employment. Soon after which was sold in 1988. That compa- ellmuth Kolbe, AES mem- they sent him to the Musikverein to ny is still quite active, and an internet ber, died July 15, 2002 in record the many orchestras that per- search finds Hellmuth listed as a side- HZurich, Switzerland, at the formed there, and a recording career man on one electronic music session age of 75. Kolbe was born in 1926 in that produced more than 1000 albums where he plays “potentiometers, gen- Berlin, Germany, where his Viennese had begun. Among them were erators, and sound effects.” He had father, Walter Karl Kolbe, a lawyer, Leonard Bernstein conducting perfect pitch, arranged music for jazz was then employed. His mother, the Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Lon- combos, and played bass. Sam former Edith Berta Ehrbar, was from don Symphony Orchestra (nominated Berkow tells of an informal excursion a Viennese family of renowned piano for a Grammy), a live performance of where Hellmuth picked out the indi- builders. Edith and Walter separated Bernstein, and Isaac Stern in Israel vidual frequencies of multinote train when Hellmuth was five. Hellmuth just after the Six-Day War, nearly all horns, and many of his colleagues tell and his mother moved to Zug, of E. Power Biggs’ recordings of finding it difficult to listen to some Switzerland where she remarried, and (including one in Bach’s own recordings, systems, or halls after where Hellmuth spent the remainder Thomaskirche in Leipzig and a lovely Hellmuth pointed out their subtle of his childhood. Gabrielli in San Marcos), Aaron faults. During a recording session, he Kolbe completed 12 years of Copeland conducting his own music would make extensive notes on the schooling in Switzerland, then with the London Symphony, multiple musical performance, including the worked as a pianist for a season at a recordings by Philippe Entremont, mistakes; this speeded up the editing. hotel in the Alps. He also sang, Hans Vollenweider, and Pierre Once, an orchestra performing the played accordion, bass, guitar, and Boulez, and most of Columbia’s first of a “vanity” series of recordings drums and worked during the day as a recordings in Europe between 1955 of Mozart piano concerti rebelled ➥ J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 50, No. 12, 2002 December 1121 In Memoriam at the poor conducting skills of a (1960); and did research on quadra- emphasized his graciousness when he wealthy patron who had commis- phonic recording with Ben Bauer visited their homes. sioned the sessions and had hired (mid-60s). Remote recording wasn’t Vacations were invariably spent Hellmuth to record them. “Hellmuth,” easy when Hellmuth began doing it. skiing and mountaineering, occasion- said the orchestra, “either you con- He developed techniques for carrying ally by helicopter, and even at age 75. duct the rest of the series or we quit.” the large, vacuum-tube recording Visitors to his home in the 1980s He did, and completed the project. He equipment of the 50s and 60s across were treated to a model train layout is also reputed to have completed borders, for making suitable record- that ran both through his home some parts of the score of Gottfried ing venues of ancient cathedrals, (including tunnels built into walls) von Einem’s opera Dantons Tod in moving historic organs across the and through his garden. In 1985, he time for its premier at the Salzburg continent, and for dealing with brought in earth-moving equipment Festival in 1947. bureaucracy at all levels. When a and excavated a new basement where The introduction of the compact space was too reverberant, he filled he spent the rest of his life construct- disc caused him to change careers. He pews with nuns or choristers. ing 60 locomotives and an extensive believed the format had been rushed Hellmuth studied TDS with layout, most of it hand built. His trips into production with “not enough Richard Heyser, and was the first to to the U.S. were punctuated by visits bits” for his ears. Although he contin- use the technique in Europe; experi- to jazz clubs and restaurants where he ued to do occasional recording pro- mented with pressure zone micro- could enjoy spicy food from places jects, from then on his interests lay phones on orchestral recordings such as Korea, Thailand, and China. elsewhere. He studied acoustics and (Berlioz’s Requiem with Bernstein, Hellmuth met Ursula Delabro in control room design and was soon 1975); studied head-related ear Vienna, where she was working in a designing studios, concert halls, recording for acoustic measurement recording studio. They were married churches, the German parliament in (1986); and pioneered the use of qua- in 1966, and have two children, Bonn (acoustic renovation), and even dratic residue diffusors, designing Christian (born 1966) is a television cinemas, including the highly regard- and building custom units into newsman and Daniel (born 1971) ed IMAX theater in the Swiss Muse- recording studios and concert halls. works in events management. An ear- um of Transport in Lucerne. One innovative design used a low- lier marriage ended in divorce, and Throughout his life Hellmuth was frequency diffusor to control room both his first wife and son from that in the continuous pursuit of excel- modes in a tiny control room in marriage are deceased. lence, borne of a passion for the art of Lucerne, while another built literally Hellmuth was modest to a fault, music. In addition to his extensive tons of QRD’s into the massive mov- rarely speaking of his accomplish- music studies in Vienna, he also stud- ing walls that turned a multipurpose ments unless prodded to do so. His ied the sciences at the Swiss Federal space in Cham into a fine concert hall acoustic design of those two fine halls Technical Institute, ETH, in Zurich. (and provided excellent noise isola- on Lake Zug could each have been That pursuit also included a serious tion in the process). the subject of papers to the AES or program of self-study, learning, as his Around the corner of the lake, in ASA. His only publication of them American friends would say, “in the Zug, transducers coupled to side walls was a brief paragraph in a letter to woodshed” as he took on new chal- of a concert hall reproduced Don Davis, which I learned of later lenges. He formed many long lasting reverberation generated in a chamber when I urged him to show me more friendships at Don and Carolyn beneath the audience. He used scale of his work. Like the composer Davis’s SynAudCon workshops models to test his designs and docu- Thelonious Monk, Hellmuth was a where he heard lecturers such as Ger- mented their performance with TDS. man of few words, but every one of ald Stanley, Ron McKay, Eugene Later, he adopted Ahnert and Feistel’s them was well considered and to the Patronis, Chips Davis, and Richard EASE as a modeling and auralization point. Davis wrote, “We never knew Heyser (all of whom considered him tool. Beginning in 1993, Hellmuth him to ever be less than exact and his their equal), and lectured at several of was listed in Who’s Who in the World word on a matter was gold. Dio- those workshops himself. in Science and Engineering. genes, the man with the lantern At every stage, Hellmuth was an Hellmuth was very supportive of searching the world for an honest innovator.

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