Subharchord II/III

The discovery of electricity also drove early musical breakthroughs. There is not much traditional about the legendary Denis d'Or by Prokop Diviš (around 1748). The Clavecin Électrique (1759) by Jean-Baptiste Thillaie Delaborde pictured here used electrically charged pendulums to strike bells.

Research facilities for radio communication systems played a major role in the development of electronic instruments. A laboratory for radio communication at the Staatliche Akademische Hochschule für Musik (national academy for music) in Berlin-Charlottenburg was founded in 1927. It focused on the interrelation between music and radio technology.

In 1951, the Studio for Electronic Music was founded in Cologne. This studio at Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, NWDR, later WDR, one of the major broadcasting networks in Germany is said to be the first of its kind specializing in electronic music. Later, similar studios emerged worldwide.

East Germany developed a corresponding studio for the Studios für Rundfunk und Fernsehen der DDR (studios for radio and television) in 1956. The laboratory manager Gerhard Steinke wrote that "the cooperation between radio stations in east and west was - despite the war in the ether - wholeheartedly good as far as it concerned music editors and engineers".

In the new studios, people from the fields of arts, science and engineering came together and worked hand in hand. This photography from the Labor für Musikalisch-Akustische Grenzprobleme (Laboratory for Acoustic and Musical Boundaries) shows the chief engineer of the Subharchord Ernst Schreiber (center), composer Addy Kurth (left) and technical assistant Evelyne Garten (right).

At the time developments in electronic instruments were highly anticipated. One of the most important projects of the East German laboratory was therefore to develop the Versuchsmuster und Experimentalgerät Mixturinstrument (experimental prototype of an instrument for mixtures). As the core of the new studio its purpose was to enhance the musical work of several artistic disciplines.

From 1960 on, during work on the first prototype, countless pieces for film, radio, television, records and concerts were published both in Germany and internationally. To this day, the few remaining Subharchords are still being used. Though repairs and maintenance are quite laborious.

In traditional organs a mixture consists of several tones which can be heard simultaneously when activating a single keyboard key. Instead of traditional organ mixtures, the Subharchord created new types of subharmonic mixtures that had previously been heard from Oskar Sala's electric Mixtur-Trautonium, an enhanced version of the Trautonium by Friedrich Trautwein.

In 1952, when Sala introduced the Mixtur-Trautonium, international competitor offerings were limited to the imitation of regular organ mixtures using fundamentals and their harmonic overtones. Sala's sound machine, on the other hand, created mixtures that combined fundamentals only with their respective harmonic undertones.

Harmonic overtones in acoustic timbres and traditional organ mixtures can be mathematically described as integer multiples of the fundamental frequency. In contrast, frequencies of harmonic undertones are calculated using integer divisions of the fundamental frequency.

The 1960 prototype did not just stand out due to its new type of timbres, however. State of the art technologies such as printed circuit boards, card slots and semiconductors proved to be an ideal starting point for further musical and technological developments.

In addition to using the latest technologies, the Subharchord I provided even more and also novel means of expression. A new solution for a pressure sensitive keyboard was added to the organ housing which allowed for expressive variations of the mixture volume. It also debuted a solution for playing glissandi and the division ratio for the frequency dividers was increased to 1/29.

Furthermore, the new version also had formant, high pass, low pass and MEL filters. A rhythm generator was added as well as a decay generator, a ring modulator and a chorus effect. The back panel offered dedicated connections for noise and sine wave generators.

Efforts were made to get the device ready for batch production, with the hope that it could draw public attention. In 1965 and 1966, the Subharchord was presented at the Leipzig Trade Fair.

The Subharchord was presented in national and international specialist press. In 1965, the device was showcased on the Acoustical Conference in Budapest. The same year, laboratory manager Gerhard Steinke presented the Subharchord alongside international developments in a dedicated radio series for the East German broadcasting network Deutschlandsender. The series was titled Auf dem Wege zu einer neuen Klangkunst (The Rise of a New Sound Art).

The Subharchord II, which was produced from 1966, was again redesigned. In contrast to its prototype it had an additional keyboard which could be used to play the MEL filters expressively.

Of the six Subharchord II devices produced, two were sold to Bratislava. One was sold to Prague and one to Oslo. One device was used in the DEFA Trickfilm-Studio (East German studio for animated film) in Dresden, and another was used in the Hörspielproduktion im Funkhaus Nalepastrasse (studio for radio plays) in East Berlin. The retail price was 30,000 East German mark.

In addition to Oskar Sala's Mixtur-Trautonium, the Subharchord was the only instrument that could create subharmonic mixtures. Back then, the artificially generated harmonic undertones marked uncharted territories in music. t the time, the theory and practice of subharmonic mixture instruments were considered exciting extensions of musical tradition.

The Subharchord is a sign of the courage and inspiration of the musicians and developers involved. In the early 1960's they labeled their works Experimental Music. The VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin (national record company of East Germany) published a corresponding album with the title Experimentelle Musik (1963/1964). The album was expected to receive harsh critiques.

As a result of these developments, use of the Subharchord was increasingly restricted to mere noise generation for film, television and radio productions. Development on the Subharchord and the electronic studio was suddenly stopped. The unique qualities of the instrument which were rightfully stressed before were pushed to the background.

In terms of subharmonies, only so-called suboctaves gained widespread attention. Suboctaves are able to enrich a given recording by making them more punchy, without sounding unfamiliar. Many electronic instruments have therefore suboctave generators. Since the 1970's, the pop industry made extensive use of effect processors which mix a given recording with its copy that has been lowered in pitch by at least one octave.

In 1968, the Subharchord with the serial number 0 101 2-04/68 was brought to the national radio station Funkhaus Nalepastrasse. Klaus Bechstein customized the circuitry to fit into the studio environment, and for this reason, the device later received the type designation Subharchord II/III. Numerous radio plays have been produced with traditional as well as experimental sounds from this Subharchord. If any, experimental pieces of music were produced secretly.