Harald Bode

Harald Bode ( * October 19, 1909 in Hamburg, † January 15, 1987 in New York City ) was a German engineer and pioneer in the development of electronic music instruments.

Life

He worked at the Heinrich -Hertz- Institute of Vibration Research at the Technical University in Berlin as a researcher in signal processing and as a result of the development of electronic music instruments. He emigrated in 1954 to the United States. There he continued his further developments at several companies and also private. It also persisted professional contacts to Germany. In collaboration with the Studio for Electronic Music of the WDR he modified his Melochord.

1961 Bode wrote an article in which he examined the benefits of the newly arisen transistor technique over the traditional electron tubes. His ideas were taken up by Robert Moog, Donald Buchla and others. In the early 1970s, it was Bode chief engineer at Moog synthesizer company.

With his equipment, he was also an artist. After his retirement (1974 ) he composed in the United States, for example, for TV commercials and gave live concerts.

Working

Theory, circuits and devices for sound generation and shaping. Development and construction of monophonic and polyphonic electronic organ sound and Former: The Warbo Formant Organ ( 1937), the Melodium (1938 ), the Melochord (1947 - 1949). For the apparatus of Bavaria and the Estey Organ Co, USA, the Polychord (1950 ), the Bode organ emerged as a basis for Polychord III (1951 ), the Cembaphon (1951 ), the Tuttivox ( 1953) ( was licensed by Jörgensen -Elektronic Dusseldorf built ), the Koncert - Clavioline (1953 ), a new model of the Wurlitzer Electric Piano (1954 ), voltage controlled oscillator ( VCO) (1960) and the vocoder as part of the Moog synthesizer (1971).