Trautonium
The Trautonium, named after its inventor, Friedrich Trautwein (* 1888, † 1956), is an electronic musical instrument, a forerunner of today's synthesizers. The Trautonium was first publicly demonstrated at the Berlin Festival " New Music" 1930.
Development
1930 developed Trautwein together with Oskar Sala ( 1910-2002 ) the first prototype of Trautonium.
The Trautonium based on the following design: Over a long metal bar, a resistance wire is stretched. At this wire a neon lamp and a tube are connected. The point at which the resistance wire touches the track playing, determines the frequency of the wagging and thus the pitch. It was a small series (200 units) maid Tonien built to house music from Telefunken, known as " Volkstrautonium ". Because of proud for that time price it was not a commercial success and was discontinued. Therefore, only a few historical instruments on the market ( the 10 piece ), and it was so far:
" Who wants a Trautonium to have to build one. "
The Trautonium, the Sala before the outbreak of war ( " Rundfunktrautonium " and " Konzerttrautonium " ) and later as " Mixturtrautonium " further developed, based on the subharmonic tone row. The combination of several sub-harmonic tones is known as mixture. These act as a multi-tone, Sala understood them as sounds. Salas instruments remained prototypes. A similar instrument, the subharchord, which is played as opposed to Trautonium with buttons, was developed in the 1960s ( 1959-1968 ) in East Germany and made a few copies.
Oskar Sala became the most important artist of the Trautonium, which he developed for two-manual Mixturtrautonium after separation from Trautwein. This unit is the undertone, which of course can only be heard in sounding boards or bells, realized. It allows many variations of timbre synthesis - Abklingvorrichtung, noise generator and frequency converters enable the subtlest nuances. The frequency converter which is an external device and a self-construction Oskar Salas on tube base was like his early maid Tonien, is today along with Salas entire estate in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. He used the converter even when " Mixturtrautonium by Oskar Sala on semiconductor basis ", implemented by the University of Applied Sciences of the German Federal Post Office, which he played from 1988 and now stands in the Musical Instrument Museum Berlin. With the use of the soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, the instrument awareness about the music scene gained beyond.
In the 1990s, a project was launched by the company Doepfer republish the Trautonium as a modular system of individual components. Among other things, the analog Manual of Trautonium ajar interface "MIDI Ribbon Controller " was therefore developed. Sala itself but showed thereby disappointed by the reduced possibilities frequently ( using MIDI brings a limitation of the principle unlimited gamut analog to discrete MIDI pitches with it ) and the only slow progress this development. In addition, Sala raised the very nuanced way of playing a "real" band Manuals compared to a ribbon controller out often.
Since 2010, the company employs " Trautoniks " with the construction of maid Tonien, in simple and more complex designs in the historical cases. At the Frankfurt Musikmesse 2012, she exhibited for the first time from their products. It creates with its activities an important contribution to the popularization of the instrument.
Works for Trautonium
The first compositions for Trautonium Paul Hindemith wrote in 1930, with seven pieces Des small electric musician favorites for three maid Tonien, 1931 with the Concertino for String Orchestra and Trautonium and 1935 with the slow piece and Rondo.
Other works:
- Paul Höffer: Little Chamber Music 1932
- Harald Genzmer: Two concerts with orchestra in 1936 ( second version 1939) and 1952, Suite de danses 1964, cantata for soprano and sons ELECTRONIQUES 1964
- Herrmann Ambrose: Rhapsody 1941
- Hanns Eisler: The Council of the Gods 1950
- Klaus Jungk: Music for String Quartet and Trautonium 1951
- Paul Dessau: Lucullus 1951
- Carl Orff: Entrata 1954
- Jürg Baur: Concerto for String Quartet and mixture Trautonium 1956
- Liesl Ujvary, Oliver Stummer: Trautonium Time 2008
- Wolfgang Gerhard Müller; recalibrations 2010
- Jens Marggraf: Devils. 7 portraits for Trautonium Phonola and Orchestra 2012