Lumiere: talk about four unusual electronic instruments with photocells
The first half of the 20th century was a turbulent time for music. Creative avant-garde was looking for a new artistic language. Composer's tools radically changed with the spread of sound recording and sound synthesis.
Unusual musical instruments were born at this intersection, such as the Hardy-Goldthwaite organ, the vibrator, the Rhythmicon, and the Saraga-Generator. Today we will tell about the appearance, device and the fate of these tools.
Photo 120years.net / Boris Yankovsky in 1939
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Arthur Hardy and Sherwood Brown of MIT were renowned experts in the field of optics. The engineer DuVal R. Goldthwaite (DuVal R. Goldthwaite) turned to them for help in the beginning of the 30s with the idea of ​​creating a musical instrument based on an optical sensor. In 1931, the work of the team was completed, and the world saw the Organ Hardy-Goldtuate.
Despite the name, the instrument was not a real organ — rather, a sampler , whose timbre was determined by the contents of a removable photodisk. A visual representation of sounds of different pitch was applied to the disc in concentric circles. This disk was placed between the light source and the photosensitive element. The way in which the light was distorted influenced the characteristics of the reproduced sound and allowed the product to imitate the timbre of various acoustic instruments (depending on the selected hard disk on the Hardy-Goldtwaite Organ, the sound of a real organ, piano, strings could be reproduced). It was controlled using the usual three-octave keyboard.
Despite the relative commercial attractiveness, the device has not gained widespread popularity.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Soviet acoustic engineer Boris Yankovsky became fascinated with the idea of ​​systematizing sound. He wanted to create a sound alphabet - a library of basic sound elements. He called his method "synthetic acoustics . " Jankowski wanted to give composers access to the full range of "synthetic" sounds, including those that could not be extracted using classical acoustic instruments, and to create a "table of sounds" similar to the periodic table. As the author himself wrote in his work Acoustic Synthesis of Musical Paints:
Stalin's persecution of the avant-garde slowed down the development of the project, and during the Great Patriotic War, all known photographs and drawings of the instrument were lost. Only verbal descriptions have come down to us: in an excerpt from the 1936 book “The Animated Film” it is stated that the tool looked like a “flat box with a bottom of frosted glass”.
But all is not in vain - at the end of the fifties, the experience gained in the process of creating a vibroexhibitor was the basis of the legendary synthesizer "ANS" .
The world's first rhythm machine was also a product of the avant-garde. American composer Henry Cowell (Henry Cowell) was convinced of the need to create automatic instruments to overcome human limitations in working with rhythm (the new instrument, according to Cowell, was supposed to allow performing several complex rhythmic patterns at the same time). Having become acquainted with Lev Termen in 1930 (in the 30s, Theremin lived and worked in the USA), he voiced his idea, which the inventor liked.
The result of their collaboration was a synthesizer with a built-in sequencer, known as “rhythmicon” ( device photo ). The sound of the instrument was controlled by two rotating disks - the first one determined the height of the signal, the second - the rhythmic pattern.
Rhythmicon was equipped with a 17-key keyboard and allowed to create complex polyrhythms, but did not give the musician complete control over the rhythmic structures, as modern drum machines do. Having written two compositions for the instrument, Cowell lost interest in him and turned to ethnic music.
In total, two copies of the instrument were created in the United States, one of which, according to legend, was thrown out as unnecessary. It would seem that the experiment failed, but the rhythmic history did not end there. In the 50s, music producer Joe Meek (Joe Meek), who became famous for his innovative approach to recording, accidentally discovered an instrument in one of the New York pawnshops. Thanks to this find, the rhythmicon found recognition among experimental musicians and film composers. It can be heard on the soundtrack of Dr. Strangelove, as well as on Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream albums.
Returning to Moscow, Lev Theremen created the latest, most compact version of the rhythmikon , which is still working and stored in the inventor's museum in Moscow.
In 1931, German engineer of Jewish origin, Wolja Saraga, created an unusual synthesizer for musical accompaniment of theatrical performances. A low-power neon lamp was placed on one side of the stage. Moving around, the actors interfered with the photocell located on the other side. The nature of the interference determined the timbre and pitch of the instrument.
Late variations of the apparatus, called the Saraga-Generator, were controlled more conventionally. The timbre was controlled by a separate module, the volume was controlled by a foot pedal, and only the pitch of the sound was determined by the movement of a hand in a beam of light.
In the late 1930s, Saraga forcedly emigrated to the UK, where he tried to find new uses for his instrument. But the Second World War made his search very difficult, and with the advent of transistor synthesizers, its product finally lost its relevance.
“Audiomania” in microformat - Telegram channel about sound, music and audio equipment:
Cinema on the plates
Unusual portable
Why are we afraid of sounds
Unusual musical instruments were born at this intersection, such as the Hardy-Goldthwaite organ, the vibrator, the Rhythmicon, and the Saraga-Generator. Today we will tell about the appearance, device and the fate of these tools.
Photo 120years.net / Boris Yankovsky in 1939
')
The Hardy-GoldTuayt Organ: Physics
Arthur Hardy and Sherwood Brown of MIT were renowned experts in the field of optics. The engineer DuVal R. Goldthwaite (DuVal R. Goldthwaite) turned to them for help in the beginning of the 30s with the idea of ​​creating a musical instrument based on an optical sensor. In 1931, the work of the team was completed, and the world saw the Organ Hardy-Goldtuate.
Despite the name, the instrument was not a real organ — rather, a sampler , whose timbre was determined by the contents of a removable photodisk. A visual representation of sounds of different pitch was applied to the disc in concentric circles. This disk was placed between the light source and the photosensitive element. The way in which the light was distorted influenced the characteristics of the reproduced sound and allowed the product to imitate the timbre of various acoustic instruments (depending on the selected hard disk on the Hardy-Goldtwaite Organ, the sound of a real organ, piano, strings could be reproduced). It was controlled using the usual three-octave keyboard.
Despite the relative commercial attractiveness, the device has not gained widespread popularity.
Boris Yankovsky's vibroexponentiary - sound alphabet
In the 1920s and 1930s, Soviet acoustic engineer Boris Yankovsky became fascinated with the idea of ​​systematizing sound. He wanted to create a sound alphabet - a library of basic sound elements. He called his method "synthetic acoustics . " Jankowski wanted to give composers access to the full range of "synthetic" sounds, including those that could not be extracted using classical acoustic instruments, and to create a "table of sounds" similar to the periodic table. As the author himself wrote in his work Acoustic Synthesis of Musical Paints:
"The color of the sound depends on the shape of the sound wave, the graph of which can be decomposed mathematically into a Fourier series, i.e. on separate components - sinusoids, and therefore, and vice versa - can be harmonically combined from sinusoids. It didn’t occur to anyone to do this simply because before the appearance of the graphic (or drawing) sound, the very technique and methodology of reproducing sound from such acoustic graphs was absent. ”For the practical implementation of the conceived and was created vibroexhibitor. This device allowed to produce optical recording of synthesized sounds (so-called "synthons") on a 35-mm film. In total, Yankovsky managed to record 110 spectral patterns of "synths".
Stalin's persecution of the avant-garde slowed down the development of the project, and during the Great Patriotic War, all known photographs and drawings of the instrument were lost. Only verbal descriptions have come down to us: in an excerpt from the 1936 book “The Animated Film” it is stated that the tool looked like a “flat box with a bottom of frosted glass”.
But all is not in vain - at the end of the fifties, the experience gained in the process of creating a vibroexhibitor was the basis of the legendary synthesizer "ANS" .
Rhythmicon - the first rhythm machine
The world's first rhythm machine was also a product of the avant-garde. American composer Henry Cowell (Henry Cowell) was convinced of the need to create automatic instruments to overcome human limitations in working with rhythm (the new instrument, according to Cowell, was supposed to allow performing several complex rhythmic patterns at the same time). Having become acquainted with Lev Termen in 1930 (in the 30s, Theremin lived and worked in the USA), he voiced his idea, which the inventor liked.
The result of their collaboration was a synthesizer with a built-in sequencer, known as “rhythmicon” ( device photo ). The sound of the instrument was controlled by two rotating disks - the first one determined the height of the signal, the second - the rhythmic pattern.
Rhythmicon was equipped with a 17-key keyboard and allowed to create complex polyrhythms, but did not give the musician complete control over the rhythmic structures, as modern drum machines do. Having written two compositions for the instrument, Cowell lost interest in him and turned to ethnic music.
In total, two copies of the instrument were created in the United States, one of which, according to legend, was thrown out as unnecessary. It would seem that the experiment failed, but the rhythmic history did not end there. In the 50s, music producer Joe Meek (Joe Meek), who became famous for his innovative approach to recording, accidentally discovered an instrument in one of the New York pawnshops. Thanks to this find, the rhythmicon found recognition among experimental musicians and film composers. It can be heard on the soundtrack of Dr. Strangelove, as well as on Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream albums.
Returning to Moscow, Lev Theremen created the latest, most compact version of the rhythmikon , which is still working and stored in the inventor's museum in Moscow.
Saraga-Generator - music of gestures
In 1931, German engineer of Jewish origin, Wolja Saraga, created an unusual synthesizer for musical accompaniment of theatrical performances. A low-power neon lamp was placed on one side of the stage. Moving around, the actors interfered with the photocell located on the other side. The nature of the interference determined the timbre and pitch of the instrument.
Late variations of the apparatus, called the Saraga-Generator, were controlled more conventionally. The timbre was controlled by a separate module, the volume was controlled by a foot pedal, and only the pitch of the sound was determined by the movement of a hand in a beam of light.
In the late 1930s, Saraga forcedly emigrated to the UK, where he tried to find new uses for his instrument. But the Second World War made his search very difficult, and with the advent of transistor synthesizers, its product finally lost its relevance.
“Audiomania” in microformat - Telegram channel about sound, music and audio equipment:
Cinema on the plates Unusual portable Why are we afraid of soundsSource: https://habr.com/ru/post/427203/
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