The Development Of Electronic Instruments Music Essay

Today we rely primarily on digital electronic music, yet we would not have the vast expanse of digital electronic music resources if it were not for the analogue predecessors. Many people associate horror movies created in the 1940s and 1950s with the theremin, which was used to create unique background music and sounds in these films. Even today, in films like Hellboy, the theremin is still an essential part of the soundtrack, creating unique themes to accompany the unusual characters and plot.

Programs like Finale or Sibelius would not exist without analogue predecessors. The music industry today, in virtually every form, would not exist if it were not for the evolution and creation of analogue electronic instruments. If you go to a rock or pop concert, the electric guitar is featured prominently as part of the music, and you cannot watch a movie that does not feature some sort of analogue electronic music in it's soundtrack.

The development of analogue electronic instruments began in the mid-nineteenth century in America with the discovery of electromagnetism. From there, countless instruments were invented and expanded upon, and innovative ideas for these instruments spread around the world, where they took their own evolutionary steps.

To understand the early electronic instruments, one must first understand the basics of electromagnetism. An electric force flows into a coil that is wrapped around a magnet. This creates a magnetic field in the wire that can be transmitted over great distances. Through innovations in electromagnetism, the first electrical transformers and motors were created around 1825.

We must also understand the difference between analogue and digital instruments. In analogue synthesis, there are continuous electrical currents that are analogous to its corresponding sound waves. The electrical current is then fed to an amplifier and loudspeakers, which convert the electrical oscillations into air pressure waves that can be detected by the ear; the resulting sound waves vibrate at the same rate at the electrical waves produced by the electrical sound source. Digital refers to any device containing a computer chip; digital instruments are much easier to program and manipulate because a person can simply change the computer program and data within the computer chip.

The history of electronic instruments begins in the early 1870s; before the invention of the telephone, information was telegraphed all around the world. The fundamental operating principle of the telegraph relied on the use of electricity to create a magnetic field around the telegraph wire. However, only one signal could be sent or recieved at a time. As a response, inventors tried to find a way to transmit multiple signals concurrently.

In 1867 Elisha Gray invented a device called the Annunciator, which was a switch that enabled the telegraph to receive two signals at the same time. He was refining the device when his nephew showed him a strange experiment for generating sound: using an electric oscillator to vary voltage, Gray put his hand in water to conduct electricity through the water and into his hand. By doing so, his body became an amplifier that allowed sound to be generated on a bathtub's walls. He referred to this as his 'electric bathroom'3. Gray then refined his invention by using the body of a violin and a metal plate instead of immersing his hand in water. This is the first recorded example of electricity being used explicitly to generate music.

However, experiments with electricity creating simple sounds began in 1937, where Dr. C.G. Page reported that he had discovered a way of generating a 'distinct ringing sound' by toying with the action of horseshoe magnets and a spiral of copper wire with its ends connected to a battery2. Though Page was unable to explain precisely why sound was being generated at the time.

Gray resumed his work on the telegraph but was also interested in how the telegraph could also transmit music. In its most basic form, Morse code was already able to create musical rhythms.

Figure 1

The word 'music', along with its Morse code rhythms, could also be translated into musical notes.

Gray combined his interest in the rhythms and his knowledge of electromagnetic technology to create what he called a 'musical telegraph'. This Musical Telegraph generated sounds through a series of small reeds; the sounds themselves were transmitted by electromagnets over standard telephone lines. The sound was then amplified through a loudspeaker3. The final version of the Musical Telegraph had a range of two octaves and was polyphonic. Any significance that this invention may have had was lost when Gray dropped further research in its design. The remnants of the technology live on today as a multiplexer, or a device that can send several telegraph signals at once2.

Twenty years later, Thaddeus Cahill patented what was to become the Telharmonium, which can be considered the first significant electronic musical instrument. In the 1890s, Cahill was a lawyer and an inventor living in Washington DC. Before inventing the Telharmonium, he mostly invented devices for Pianos and Typewriters. In 1893, after fooling around with his telephone, trying to broadcast music through the phone lines, Cahill had the idea for the Telharmonium. Before the 1920s there was no way to amplify electrical signals. In order to hear sounds through the telephone, a person had to put the receiver up to your ear. Cahill knew that if he could generate a large enough of an electrical signal, and if he stuck a cone on the telephone receiver he could transmit music through the telephone that could be heard by an audience.

The Telharmonium had to create a loud signal; therefore it had to create a large amount of electricity. Cahill had observed that when an electric motor, was used to create an alternating current, the output could be heard through a telephone receiver as a steady pitch. The volume of this signal depended on the size of generator-a larger generator created more electricity and thusly more sound. His idea boiled down to the idea of if he had enough generators of a sufficient size, he could switch on and off-or even combine them- their outputs to create music. Cahill calculated that this would be one motor for each note in the scale5.

Cahill's ideas for the Telharmonium originated around 1884, but it would be in 1896 that he finally filed the patent for the machine. At the time he was enrolled in the Overlin Acadamy in Ohio, the science of musical acoustics was becoming more well known thanks to studies taking place at the time. In the patent, Cahill used the word 'synthesizing' to describe the way the Telharmonium would combine individual tones to create composite sound, so we can attribute Cahill for coining the term for later synthesizers2.

The complexity of the Telharmonium is surprising for its time. For one octave, there were twelve pitch shafts-which were essentially cogs-mounted on axles. A metal brush should touch each of these cogs when they were rapidly spinning which were part of an electric circuit. The rapid on-and-off movement between the cogs and brushes created an electrical oscillation of a given frequency or tone2. To create a more realistic sound as opposed to a pure sine tone, Cahill employed multiple tone wheels- or cog-wire shafts- for each note; he planned to add five or more tone wheels for each note.

The tone wheel system, as illustrated for use of overtones as illustrated in Cahill's original Telharmonium patent. 5

The Telharmonium used a specially designed keyboard that was pressure sensitive. Every tone wheel was connected to an electric circuit that additionally connected to the keyboard. When a key was pressed, it closed the circuit and created a tone. Because the keyboard was pressure sensitive, if a key was pressed harder, the coil that closed the circuit was closer to the tone wheel and thus created a more amplified sound. The sound was transmitted through telephone lines because other amplification devices had not been invented yet.

The first Telharmonium was a small prototype version and only had the range of one chromatic octave and only had two or three tone partials per note. Cahill's first transmissions of electronic music over the telephone wire occurred between 1900 and 1901. These attempts were limited to within several miles within Washington DC. During one of these live demonstrations, Lord Kelvin gave Cahill his blessing. As a result, Cahill was able to secure financing from Oscar T. Crosby, who then enlisted his friend, Frederick C. Todd as a business partner2. Cahill continued to work and improve upon the distances that the Telharmonium's music could be transmitted.

Crosby and Todd set about the task of getting more financial support for the Telharmonium. They demonstrated the Telharmonium at a fundraising dinner at the Maryland Club in Baltimore. The attendees to the event, mostly bankers and businessmen, were quite impressed as they heard Handel's Largo emanate through a large cone attached to the telephone receiver. They were even more impressed that the sound was being broadcasted through the phone lines, from Cahill's factory in Washington, many miles away5.

Due to the growing support of the machine, Cahill was able to begin construction on a second Telharmonium, which would be closer to its original patent. The second Telharmonium was made of 145 tone wheels that generated five chromatic octaves. It also featured two keyboards placed one atop the other, much like a pipe organ. This new Telharmonium was unimaginably huge for a musical instrument. It occupied the better part of the factory building in which it was made and weighed nearly 200 tonnes. Each tone wheel was nearly 30 feet long and was supported with 18-inch thick steel girders that were mounted on brick supports and extended 60 feet back. Additionally, there were nearly 2000 switches to connect the keyboard with the tone wheel2. Because of its size and noise of the machines, the person playing the keyboard would be situated in another room. Later, the musician was placed in an entirely different building. A telephone receiver enabled the musician to hear what they were playing.

(Left) A single tone wheel from the Telharmonium.

(Right)Part of the generator system that powered the Telharmonium.

The first performances of this Telharmonium were made from the Cabot Street Mill workshop in Holyoke and were transmitted to the Hotel Hamilton about a half-mile away. As time passed, the performances were transmitted to New York City. Crosby made a deal with the New York Telephone Company to lay special lines so that he could transmit the signals from the Telharmonium throughout the city. In the summer of 1906 the Telharmonium was dismantled and loaded onto 30 railroad cars, and moved to New York City. It was assembled in the Broadway building at Broadway and 39th Street, in New York's theater district, across the street from the Metropolitan Opera House and the Casino Theatre. The machinery, the tone wheels and switching system were very noisy. They were installed in the basement, while the performance console was installed in the newly built Music Hall at street level. Not only could the music be piped throughout New York, but there were also speakers installed at Music Hall for the public to hear. The New York debut of the Telharmonium was on September 26th, 1906.

The musical repertoire consisted of piano classics by Beethoven, Chopin, Greig, Rossini, and others. It took two people playing consecutively on the two keyboards to produce the music6. Popularity for the instrument continued to grow and music was piped as far as Albany. However, because of the massive amount of power needed to shoot the music through the telephone network, other telephone wires running alongside those used for the Telharmonium began to experience noise and cross talk. The music of the Telharmonium was creeping into the conversation of other telephone uers2.

Technical, regulatory, and business problems soon took their toll. Cahill's additional harmonics on the tone wheels stretched the electrical supply too far; the more notes were played, the less power and volume the Telharmonium had-chords were more quiet than a single note. Problems with the phone lines lead the phone companies to cancel their contracts with Cahill. The novelty of the Telharmonium was simply wearing off, and people cancelled their subscriptions to the piped concerts. In February of 1908, the Telharmonium played its final concert. Cahill attempted to keep the public's interest in the instrument, but was forced to sell the metal for scrap when he did not receive any further funding. Unfortunately, no recordings of the instrument survive today.

By 1915, the vacuum tube was the newest and easiest-to-use technology. Its compact design made electronic instruments more feasible for inventors of electronic instruments.