THE CONCORDIA COLLECTION WITHIN ELECTROACOUSTIC HISTORY

1906
USA
Thaddeus Cahill publicly presents a new version of the Telharmonium (in Holyoke), a precursor to the Hammond organ.

1911-1913
USA
Lee De Forest invents and perfects the Audion, a vacuum tube which would later permit amplification.

1913
Italy
Luigi Russolo writes and publishes his Futurist manifesto “The Art of Noises”, and invents the Intonarumori.

1914
Italy
Première of the Intonarumori orchestra.

1919
Russia
Léon Theremin invents the Theremin.

1920
USA
Birth of Muzak.

1921-1928
Germany
Jörg Mager invents a number of monophonic or semi-monophonic electronic instruments in order to explore the possibilities of microtonality, and names the series of instruments the Sphärophon. The Elektrophon, Kurbelsphärophon, Klaviatursphärophon, Partiturophon and finally the Kaleidophon would follow.

Note that the name “elektrophon” fell into disuse but the term was later recuperated for other uses.

1924
Italy
Ottorino Respighi indicates in the score of Pines of Rome (Pini di Roma) that a gramophone is to be used in the performance to reproduce the sound of bird song.

1925
USA
Appearance of electrical recording, whereby instead of using purely acoustic means, the sound is now recorded with a microphone and amplifier.

1927
Soviet Union
Alexander Mosolov’s symphonic work Fonderie d’acier (Iron Foundry) could be considered an early prototype of musique concrète for its use of factory whistles, motor sounds, etc. Around this time there is a strong current of such “industrial music” in the Soviet Union.

1928
Germany
The principles of magnetic tape and the tape recorder (reel-to-reel) as we know it today are put in place. AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph) begin to use these technologies with the goal of putting telephone answering machines on the market.

USA
First official feature-length “talking film”, The Jazz Singer. As early as 1906 experiments to make sound films had been made, but none of the available technical or commercial procedures were viable.

France
Invention of the Ondes Martenot, an instrument with an electric keyboard.

1928-29
France
At the 1929 Paris Expo, Edouard E. Coupleux and Joseph A. Givelet present the first “synthesizer”, named the “‘Automatically Operating Musical Instrument of the Electric Oscillation Type.’ Four voices were controlled by means of perforated paper, similar to the Player Piano, but it was also possible to individually modulate each of the voices by means of filters to create tremolos or change the timbre. The instrument was not commercially successful but did serve as a model for other later developments such as the Kent Music Box (in the early 1950s), or, more importantly, RCA Synthesizer”. [Translation] (Haro, Petite histoire) This instrument was polyphonic!

1930
Germany
Paul Hindemith and Ernst Toch create Grammofonmusik, experiments which used the gramophone as an instrument to alter the sound (via the speed control). Unfortunately all but one of these has been lost.

1930-1935
USA
The large radio corporations (CBS, NBC, etc.) are established, causing some panic in the recording industry, as the radios often employed musicians to play live during broadcasts.

1931
Germany
Jörg Mager receives a commission to create electronic bell sounds for the Bayreuth Festival to be used in a performance of Parsifal. USA
Invention of an instrument that would revolutionize pop music in the 1960s: the Rickenbacker A22 electric guitar.

1933-1935
USA
Laurens Hammond invents the organ that bears his name (he used the principles of Cahill).

1945
Canada
Hugh Le Caine invents the Electronic Sackbut (one of the first real synthesizers).

1947
France
Harald Bode invents the Melochord, a monophonic electronic keyboard instrument that would later be one of the first tools available in the Cologne Electronic Music Studio.