In tune: electronic music's track record

Kempelen's speaking machine
Around 1800 the inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804) developed a device that imitated the parts of human speech organs and was able to generate entire words. It is not a machine with fixed programmed words or sentences, but is played like a musical instrument. It is considered an icon of the Enlightenment, as it represents the growing interest in the study of nature and man and the mechanical imitation of the latter, as well as the beginnings of speech synthesis. This machine was the forerunner of vocoders, which were also used in the Siemens Studio in the mid-20th century.

The theremin
In 1920 the Russian scientist Leon Theremin invented the first portable electronic instrument. He initially called it the "etherophone" but it was later renamed the "theremin," after its inventor. The instrument caused sensation at the time as it produced sound without having to be touched. A theremin player moved their hands around the antenna and influenced the pitch depending on their distance from it. The volume was controlled by a pedal like this model from 1929. In 1921 Theremin was invited to the Kremlin to give Lenin a private performance.

Theremin lived in the USA from 1927 to 1938. After his return to the USSR, he developed espionage devices for the KGB, among other things. Theremin died at the age of 97 in November 1993. His namesake instrument was used in numerous soundtracks, predominantly to accompany supernatural events. For example, it can be heard in Alfred Hitchcock's "Spellbound" (1945) and "The Thing from Another World" (1951). The theremin was then distributed around world following the enhancements made by Bob Moog (photo). Even pop bands and rock groups made use of the theremin, including Captain Beefheart in "Electricity" (1967) and Led Zeppelin in "Whole Lotta Love" (1969).

On June 20, 1930 the audience responded with skepticism and curiosity to a concert premiere of the trautonium. Paul Hindemith, Oskar Sala, and Rudolph Schmidt performed music, including "Short Pieces for Three Trautoniums" by Hindemith on 3 instruments. Two years later, a large collection of "electric" musical instruments was presented at the special show "Electrical Music" in 1932. As you can see in the photo, trautoniums, theremins, Hellertions, Neo-Bechstein grand pianos, electrochords, electric violins, and electric cellos were played in harmony on the stage as the "orchestra of the future" and demonstrated different techniques of tone generation, tone colors, and playing styles.

The electronic pioneer
Oskar Sala (1910–2002) was already writing his own compositions as an adolescent. After passing his high school exams, he studied music in Paul Hindemith's master class in Berlin. It was through Hindemith that Sala also met Friedrich Trautwein. After his concert in the Deutsches Museum on May 6, 1932, what is now the oldest known trautonium was presented to the museum's collection. In the following years, Sala developed more types of the instrument. As well as the Volkstrautonium, he also created the "Rundfunktrautonium" (radio trautonium), as seen in this photo, and the portable concert trautonium.

From 1949 to 1952 Oskar Sala developed the "Mixturtrautonium" (mixture trautonium). A fellow former student from Berlin had been composing for Universal Studios in Hollywood since finishing his studies. He put Sala into contact with Alfred Hitchcock, who wanted synthetic bird sounds for his next film, "The Birds." This is how Hitchcock came to meet Oskar Sala, and he even flew to Sala's recording studio in Berlin where he was impressed by the sounds made by the trautonium. Other films in which Sala's trautonium provided the soundtrack include "The Curse of the Yellow Snake" and "The Secret of Dr. Mabuse."

Oskar Sala's recording studio
From the end of the 1950s, Oskar Sala no longer performed in front of an audience, instead only working in his Berlin recording studio.

But from 1988 onward Oskar Sala (here with a picture of the mixturtrautonium) performed again in public and created new works and sounds for film. He appeared as a guest at festivals and talk shows throughout Europe, appeared in lecture concerts and theaters, met numerous artists, and gave countless interviews. He was honored in radio broadcasts and films and received several awards. In 1995 Sala loaned his mixturtrautonium to the Deutsches Museum Bonn permanently, and in 2000 he donated his estate to the Deutsches Museum. He remained the only trautonium player throughout his life. Oskar Sala died on February 26, 2002 in Berlin.

A major innovation came in the form of the tape reader. The data carriers were punched paper strips with which the various generators could be individually pressed in and out, and sound and volume could be selected. The punched tape was prepared according to the composer's instructions, then inserted into a fast reader—the rest ran automatically and could be recorded in one go. This meant that people no longer had to work with tapes, sticking individual pieces of tape together.

Another feature is the Hohnerola, an electronically controlled reed organ by Hohner, which was modified by Siemens engineers. The electromechanical instrument could be completely controlled by punched tape. The box above is what is known as a sawtooth generator.

The Yamaha CS 80
The Yamaha CS 80 came onto the market in 1976 and was the world's first commercially available synthesizer that also allowed multi-tone playing. However, the sensitive device was only suitable for musicians in the studio, not for tours.

Only 800 of these were produced by 1980. Famous artists who used the CS 80 include Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre. Peter Gabriel's legendary album "So" featured the instrument, and it sounded just as it did on Michael Jackson's classic hit "Billie Jean."

The Casio VL1
Over the years, synthesizers became smaller and smaller. In 1981 the Japanese company Casio brought the VL1 model onto the market. It became an instrument that shaped the music of the 1980s. The Human League and Stevie Wonder used the Casio, as did the New German Wave band "Trio" in their biggest hit "Da, Da, Da."