The Legacy of Oskar Sala

After his Abitur exams Sala (pictured here sitting at the instrument) traveled to Berlin in 1929 to study composition in a master class led by Paul Hindemith (1895–1963, pictured below in a bow tie). Hindemith was greatly interested in the construction of instruments, especially those suitable for the new radio medium. At the radio testing center established at the university since May 1928 he came into contact with engineer Friedrich Trautwein (1888–1956, standing on the left), who had recently developed one of the earliest electronic musical instruments: the Trautonium.

During a public presentation of the Trautonium on June 30, 1930 as part of the New Berlin Music (Neue Musik Berlin) festival, Sala played the piece Small Pieces for Three Trautoniums. The Little Electromusician's Darling (Die kleinen Stücke für drei Trautonien. Des kleinen Elektromusikers Lieblinge) together with Hindemith and Rudolph Schmidt (1909–2007). Two years later many more new electric musical instruments were presented during the special Electric Music (Elektrische Musik) exhibition. The Trautonium, the Theremin, the Hellertion, the Neo-Bechstein grand piano, the Elektrochord, the electric violin and the electric cello harmoniously gathered together as the orchestra of the future and presented various techniques for tone generation, timbres, and playing.

From 1934 to 1935, Sala was subsequently commissioned by the Reich Broadcasting Association to build the Rundfunktrautonium (Radio Trautonium)—the first Trautonium installed without any assistance from its inventor Friedrich Trautwein. As a step up from its predecessor, it had two manuals, and two pedals which each had independent effects on the manuals. As before, moving the pedals forward and back controlled the volume, while moving them side to side also allowed the user to retune the manuals while playing. Sala developed his own radio broadcast titled Music on the Trautonium (Musik auf dem Trautonium) using the instrument which was based in the Funkhaus Berlin radio station on Masurenallee.

For later public performances, Sala developed another instrument which was again portable: the Konzerttrautonium (Concert Trautonium). Like the radio Trautonium, it had two manuals and two pedals. However, it was somewhat more compact and also had—according to Sala—slightly more daring subharmonic additions.

The instrument was first heard in April 1939 on the radio during a performance of Concert for Trautonium and Orchestra (Konzert für Trautonium und Orchester), composed by Harald Genzmer, by the German Orchestra conducted by Karl List.

This was followed by numerous joint appearances by Sala and Harald Genzmer on the grand piano across Europe, even during the war—like here in April 1942 in the Mozartsaal in Vienna.

Following the Second World War, Sala developed the Mixturtrautonium (Mixture Trautonium). Like the concert Trautonium, it included two manuals and pedals. However, the sound and playing technique possibilities had been significantly expanded upon. The mixture Trautonium was presented to the public at the end of 1952 with the first outing of the concert for mixture Trautonium and large orchestra by Harald Genzmer at the Southwest German Radio station in Baden-Baden.

Sala hardly appeared in public in concerts from 1958. Instead, he mostly worked in his Berlin recording studio, which the Deutsches Museum almost fully took over after his death. Sala added electronic percussion for percussion setups to the mixture Trautonium, and later modified it with additional components, such as noise generators and an electric metronome. Optimization of tape technology also opened up completely new possibilities, such as simulating a fully electronic orchestra.

Sala composed musical pieces for many film and television works on the mixture Trautonium. His best known movie, however, was The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. The opportunity presented itself when a former classmate of Sala who worked at Universal Studios in Hollywood heard that Hitchcock wanted synthetically produced bird sounds for his next movie. This is how Hitchcock came into contact with Sala. Hitchcock, who deliberately wanted to avoid creating traditional movie music, even flew to Sala's recording studio in Berlin where he was impressed by the sounds made by the Trautonium, which ultimately produced all the movie's sound effects.

Sala, who had privately traveled much of the world with his wife Käthe, vacationed in Italy and Greece, Egypt, and the US before his grand return to the public sphere after 1988 when he 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 movies and received several awards.

In 1995, Sala made his mixture Trautonium available to the Deutsches Museum on permanent loan, pictured here together with the Bavarian State Minister for Science and Culture Hans Zehetmair at the ceremonial handover of his mixture Trautonium to the Deutsches Museum in Bonn.

In 2000, he donated his estate to the Deutsches Museum. He remained the only Trautonium player throughout his life. Sala died on February 26, 2002 in Berlin.