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Early Electronic Instruments

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Early Electronic Instruments EARLY ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTS To present the musical soul of the masses, of the great factories, of the railways, transatlantic liners, of the battleships, automobiles and airplanes. To add to the great central theme of the musical poem the domain of the machine and the victorious kingdom of electricity. Art of Noises, Luigi Russolo (1913) Audio Excerpt from Russolo’s “Esempi Sonori” (Sound Examples) The Art of Noise The period from 1820 to 1900 saw the widespread industrialization of cities. The Italian Futurists, especially Luigi Russolo with his manifesto “The Art of Noise” (1913) set the stage for art that was noisy and confrontational. “In antiquity, life was nothing but silence. Noise was really not born before the 19th century, with the advent of machinery. Today noise reigns supreme over human sensibility.” “we are approaching noise-sound. This revolution of music is paralleled by the increasing proliferation of machinery sharing in human labor.” Electricity Recording systems Electronic Instruments TELHARMONIUM (~1897) 5 Telharmonium Thaddeus Cahill weighed 200 Tons and cost $200,000 to make in 1897 rheotomes (later tone-wheels) 6 Telharmonium 7 Telharmonium Thaddeus Cahill Additive Synthesis Music transmitted over wires Rudimentary Loudspeakers First use of the term “Synthesizing” 670 KW of power (a lot!) 8 Telharmonious Timeline 1898 First prototype built from 1898-1901 1901 Demonstrated in Baltimore at the Maryland Club, with sounds generated in Washington D.C. 1903 Moved Telharmonium to New York City on 30 railroad cars 1905 New York Electric Music Company established - Telharmonic Hall at 39th St and Broadway, NYC 1906 NYC premier: 26 September, later up to four public performances a day 1908 New York Electric Music Company collapsed - Problems with volume, power consumption, and crosstalk 1909 Third Telharmonium completed 1910 The New York Cahill Telharmonic Company 1911 installed new Telharmonium at 535 West 56th Street, NYC 1912 demonstrated at Carnegie hall 1914 Company bankrupt 1916 Operation Ceased :( 9 Polyphonic vs. Monophonic 10 The Vacuum Tube Lee De Forrest’s developments of Ambrose Fleming’s vacuum tube (1906), allowed for amplification of electronic signals. The device, called an Audion, enabled a new generation of electronic instruments. 11 Theremin (1919) 12 Léon Theremin 1896 - born 1922 - theremin demonstrated in Russia for Lenin 1927 - moved to NY 1928 - played theremin at Carnegie Hall 1929 - RCA manufactures 500 theremins 1938 - returned to the Russia, mysterious circumstances. 1947 - worked on espionage technologies 1954 - Bob Moog begins making theremin kits 1966 - taught Theremin at Moscow Conservatory. 1991 - Travelled to the US at age 95. 13 14 Theremin’s Other Inventions: Burglar alarm, or "Signaling Apparatus" (1920s) Electromechanical television, invented interlaced video (1926) Theremin cello – an electronic cello with no strings and no bow (1930) Theremin keyboard (1930) Rhythmicon – frst drum machine (1931) Terpsitone – platform that converts dance movements into tones (1932) The “Thing” - the frst bug (1945) 15 Theremin (2012) 16 Clara Rockmore 17 18 ONDES MARTENOT (1928) Maurice Martenot 19 20 Fêtes des belles eaux (1937) by Olivier Messiaen 21 Polytone (1920) Arthur Fickenscher • First Chair of UVA Music Department. • featured a 60-note equal tempered microtonal keyboard. • He left UVA in 1940 to create a startup company in Palo Alto 22 Trautonium (1929) Friedrich Trautwein Oskar Sala 23 24 2012 Trautonium 25 Hammond Organ (1935) Jimmy Smith 26 Hammond Organ Laurens Hammond Originally sold as an alternative to expensive pipe organs, the Hammond B3 became a standard in the 60’s and 70’s for rock, blues and jazz. 27 Tonewheels 28 Drawbars Drawbars control amplitude of harmonics 29 Ethel Smith Her Tico Tico EP sold millions of copies worldwide and helped popularize the Hammond Organ She was also featured in musical numbers within flms. Clip from Easy to Wed (1946) 30 31 Jimmy Smith came to prominence in the late 50s infuenced both rock and jazz organists. often sampled and quoted (Beastie Boys) called the father of acid jazz 1972 album Root Down, big infuence on funk and hip-hop 32 33 Manhattan Research Raymond Scott 34 Raymond Scott in his New York Studio (1955) 35 Audio Excerpt from Baltimore Gas and Electric Commercial http://www.indiana.edu/%7eemusic/etext/toc.shtml http://www.indiana.edu/%7eemusic/etext/toc.shtml Over 6 feet high and covering 30 feet of wall space, the sequencer consisted of hundreds of switches controlling stepping relays, timing solenoids, tone circuits and 16 individual oscillators. 36 Clavivox and the Circle Machine 37 ELECTRONIUM (1958-1972) Beginning in the 1950s, Raymond Scott designed and built the frst of many versions of The Electronium, a keyboard- Mark Mothersbaugh less, automatic composition and performance machine. This invention caught the attention of Berry Gordy, who hired Scott as Motown's Director of Electronic Research and Development, 1971-77. 38 Lightworks (1950s) J Dilla - Lightworks (2006) 39.
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