Trautonium
Encyclopedia
The trautonium is a monophonic
electronic musical instrument
invented about 1929 by Friedrich Trautwein in Berlin
at the Musikhochschule's music and radio lab, the Rundfunkversuchstelle. Soon Oskar Sala
joined him, continuing development until Sala's death in 2002. Instead of a keyboard
, its manual
is made of a resistor
wire over a metal plate which is pressed to create a sound. Expressive playing was possible with this wire by gliding on it, creating vibrato
with small movements. Volume was controlled by the pressure of the finger on the wire and board. The first Trautoniums were marketed by Telefunken
from 1933-35 (200 were made).
The sounds were at first produced by neon-tube relaxation oscillator
s (later, thyratron
s, then transistors), which produced sawtooth-like waveforms
. The pitch was determined by the amount of resistive wire chosen by the performer (allowing vibrato, quarter-tones, and portamento). The oscillator output was fed into two parallel resonant filter circuits. A footpedal controlled the volume ratio of the output of the two filters, which was sent to an amplifier.
Paul Hindemith
wrote several short trios for three Trautoniums with three different tunings: bass, middle, and high voice. His student, Harald Genzmer
, wrote two concertos with orchestra, one for the monophonic Trautonium and, later, one for Sala's "Mixtur-Trautonium". One of the first additions of Sala was to add a switch for changing the static tuning. Later he added a noise generator and an envelope generator (so called 'Schlagwerk'), formant filter (several bandpass filters) and the subharmonic
oscillators
. These oscillators generate a main pitch and several harmonics, which are not multiples of the fundamental tone, but fractions of it. For any of the now two manuals, four of these waves can be mixed and the player can switch through these predefined settings. Thus, it was called the "Mixtur-Trautonium". Oskar Sala composed music for industrial films, but the most famous was the bird noises for Alfred Hitchcock
's The Birds
. The Trautonium was also used in the Dresden première of Richard Strauss
's Japanese Festival Music
in 1942 for emulating the gongs- and bells-parts and in the 1950s in Bayreuth
for the Monsalvat bells in Wagner's Parsifal
.
The German
manufacturer Doepfer
sells some devices for the commercial market to allow for Trautonium-like synthesizer
control.
Monophony
In music, monophony is the simplest of textures, consisting of melody without accompanying harmony. This may be realized as just one note at a time, or with the same note duplicated at the octave . If the entire melody is sung by two voices or a choir with an interval between the notes or in...
electronic musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
invented about 1929 by Friedrich Trautwein in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
at the Musikhochschule's music and radio lab, the Rundfunkversuchstelle. Soon Oskar Sala
Oskar Sala
Oskar Sala was a 20th century German physicist, composer and a pioneer of electronic music born in Greiz. He played an instrument called the Trautonium, a predecessor to the synthesizer.-Studies:...
joined him, continuing development until Sala's death in 2002. Instead of a keyboard
Musical keyboard
A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...
, its manual
Manual (music)
A manual is a keyboard designed to be played with the hands on a pipe organ, harpsichord, clavichord, electronic organ, or synthesizer. The term "manual" is used with regard to any hand keyboard on these instruments to distinguish it from the pedalboard, which is a keyboard that the organist plays...
is made of a resistor
Resistor
A linear resistor is a linear, passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element.The current through a resistor is in direct proportion to the voltage across the resistor's terminals. Thus, the ratio of the voltage applied across a resistor's...
wire over a metal plate which is pressed to create a sound. Expressive playing was possible with this wire by gliding on it, creating vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
with small movements. Volume was controlled by the pressure of the finger on the wire and board. The first Trautoniums were marketed by Telefunken
Telefunken
Telefunken is a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft...
from 1933-35 (200 were made).
The sounds were at first produced by neon-tube relaxation oscillator
Relaxation oscillator
A relaxation oscillator is an oscillator based upon the behavior of a physical system's return to equilibrium after being disturbed. That is, a dynamical system within the oscillator continuously dissipates its internal energy...
s (later, thyratron
Thyratron
A thyratron is a type of gas filled tube used as a high energy electrical switch and controlled rectifier. Triode, tetrode and pentode variations of the thyratron have been manufactured in the past, though most are of the triode design...
s, then transistors), which produced sawtooth-like waveforms
Sawtooth wave
The sawtooth wave is a kind of non-sinusoidal waveform. It is named a sawtooth based on its resemblance to the teeth on the blade of a saw....
. The pitch was determined by the amount of resistive wire chosen by the performer (allowing vibrato, quarter-tones, and portamento). The oscillator output was fed into two parallel resonant filter circuits. A footpedal controlled the volume ratio of the output of the two filters, which was sent to an amplifier.
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
wrote several short trios for three Trautoniums with three different tunings: bass, middle, and high voice. His student, Harald Genzmer
Harald Genzmer
Harald Genzmer was a German composer of contemporary classical music.-Biography:Born in Blumenthal, near Bremen, Germany, he studied composition with Paul Hindemith at the Berlin Hochschule für Music beginning in 1928.From 1938 he taught at the Volksmusikschule Berlin-Neukölln...
, wrote two concertos with orchestra, one for the monophonic Trautonium and, later, one for Sala's "Mixtur-Trautonium". One of the first additions of Sala was to add a switch for changing the static tuning. Later he added a noise generator and an envelope generator (so called 'Schlagwerk'), formant filter (several bandpass filters) and the subharmonic
Subharmonic
Subharmonic frequencies are frequencies below the fundamental frequency of an oscillator in a ratio of 1/n, with n a positive integer number. For example, if the fundamental frequency of an oscillator is 440 Hz, sub-harmonics include 220 Hz and 110 Hz...
oscillators
Electronic oscillator
An electronic oscillator is an electronic circuit that produces a repetitive electronic signal, often a sine wave or a square wave. They are widely used in innumerable electronic devices...
. These oscillators generate a main pitch and several harmonics, which are not multiples of the fundamental tone, but fractions of it. For any of the now two manuals, four of these waves can be mixed and the player can switch through these predefined settings. Thus, it was called the "Mixtur-Trautonium". Oskar Sala composed music for industrial films, but the most famous was the bird noises for Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's The Birds
The Birds (film)
The Birds is a 1963 horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on the 1952 short story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier. It depicts Bodega Bay, California which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few...
. The Trautonium was also used in the Dresden première of Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Japanese Festival Music
Japanese Festival Music
Japanese Festival Music, Op. 84 , is a composition by Richard Strauss. The full title is Festmusik zur Feier des 2600jährigen Bestehens des Kaiserreichs Japan für großes Orchester ....
in 1942 for emulating the gongs- and bells-parts and in the 1950s in Bayreuth
Bayreuth Festspielhaus
The or Bayreuth Festival Theatre is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, dedicated solely to the performance of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner...
for the Monsalvat bells in Wagner's Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
.
The German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
manufacturer Doepfer
Doepfer
Doepfer Musikelektronik GmbH is a manufacturer of audio hardware based in Gräfelfing, Germany, founded by Dieter Döpfer.The product range covers analog modular systems, MIDI controller, MIDI hardware sequencers, MIDI-to-CV/Gate/Sync Interfaces, MIDI master keyboards and special MIDI...
sells some devices for the commercial market to allow for Trautonium-like synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
control.
External links
- Trautonium resource
- Neumixturtrautonium VST
- Oskar Sala, My Fascinating Instrument. 1990 recording (Erdenklang 90340)
- Perfect Sound Forever, Oskar Sala 1910-2002.
- Website Wolfgang Müller
- Pablo Freire (2003). Oscar Sala biography (in Spanish)