01/27

Os recursos disponíveis para a criação musical electroacústica, 1906-1958

do Telharmonium de Cahill às instalações de Eindhoven

The Avalability of Electroacoustic Resources for Musical Creation, 1906-1958

From Cahill's Telharmonium to the Eindhoven Facilities

Pedro Bento
(Alumnus, The University of Edinburgh)

Colóquio: Incursão pelos recursos da Electroacústica

Festival Aveiro_Síntese 2018
Teatro Aveirense, 24.02.2018
The need for new resources
– Traditional notation depends
on individual items
– «note»
– «note value»
– Both are discrete variables
(only specific values
are possible)
– Pitches and durations
are continuous variables
(quarter tones would not
overcome this limitation)
02/26
– Notação tradicional depende de
items individuais
– «nota»
– «figura rítmica»
– ambas são variáveis discretas
(apenas podem assumir
determinados valores)
– Alturas e durações
são variáveis contínuas
(nem os quartos de tom
superavam essa limitação)
 New technologies
– Musique Concrète and
Elektronische Musik:
– able to work with a
continuous range of sounds
Made possible by two technologies: Tornadas possíveis por duas tecnologias:
– Transduction (telephone)
– representing sounds
by electrical signals
– Recording/reproducing
– sounds can be collected
and assembled (no need to
produce them in real time)
– a couple of transformations
became possible
03/25
– Musique Concrète e
Elektronische Musik:
– capazes de utilizar uma
gama contínua de sons
– Transdução (telefone)
– representa sons por
sinais eléctricos
– Gravação/reprodução
– permitiu a recolha e montagem
de sons (não têm de ser produzidos
em tempo real)
– possíveis algumas transformações
The Audion 04/24
The Audion
– 1906: Lee de Forest's patent
– First three-electrode valve
(anode, grid, cathode)
– Capable of amplifying
(small voltage variations
between grid and cathode
=> large current variations
between anode and cathode)
– Amplification allowed telephone
receivers to sound loud
=>«loud-speaking
telephone receiver»
(later simply «loudspeaker»)
05/23
– 1906: patente de Lee de Forest's
– Primeira válvula de 3 eléctrodos
(ânodo, grelha, cátodo)
– Capaz de amplificar
(pequenas variações de tensão
entre a grelha e o cátodo
=> grandes variações de corrente
entre o ânodo e o cátodo)
– Amplificação permitiu que os
receptores telefónicos
falassem «alto»
=>«alto-falante» => «altifalante»
Early use of loudspeakers 06/22

May 1919, Victory Way, New York – Victory Liberty Loan

«112 loud-speaking telephone receivers»
Armature vs. Moving coil 07/21
Moving coil loudspeaker (Rice-Kellog, 1925)
Altifalante de bobine móvel
Western Electric 540 Armature Loudspeaker (1924)
Altifalante de Armadura (íman móvel) WE 54 (1924)
Quality improvement in the 1920s
– Purely mechanical recording
equipment
– S/N ratio: ca. 30 dB
– from 250 to 2,500 Hz
– Electronically assisted recordings
(from 1925)
– from 50 to 6,000 Hz
AT&T Labs (later Bell Labs)
from 1915, research programme:
(1) valve amplifiers
(2) microphones
(3) loudspeakers
1928: Harvey Fletcher director of
Acoustic Research
– Collaboration with Stokowski
– Not able to give access to
Edgard Varèse
08/20
– Equipamento de gravação
puramente mecânico
– Relação sinal/ruído: ca. 30 dB
– de 250 a 2.500 Hz
– Gravações electronicamente
assistidas (desde 1925)
– de 50 a 6,000 Hz
AT&T Labs (mais tarde Bell Labs)
desde 1915, programa de investigação:
(1) amplificadores a válvulas
(2) microfones
(3) altifalantes
1928: Harvey Fletcher director de
Investigação em Acústica
– Colaboração com Stokowski
– Não conseguiu obter acesso
para Edgard Varèse
Thaddeus Cahill’s Telharmonium 09/19
Alternators on the
System of 12 shafts third telharmonium
with dynamos (1911-1918?)
(originally rheotomes)
US Patent no. 580.035 (1897)

Original belt distribution

US Patent no. 580.035 (1897)

Later gear distribution – US Patent no. 1.213.804 (1917)

 Busoni and the Telharmonium 10/18

«[Cahill’s idea was] to construct a machine which would give the player
absolute control of the tones produced . . . a perfect instrument, giving as he
says “a sustained tone controlled by the touch” . . . suppose we could mold
that tone under his hands as a potter molds clay . . . the player has unlimited
volume at his instant command.»

Ray Stannard Baker, «New Music for an Old World», McClure, vol. 27, no. 3 (July 1906)

«[A ideia de Cahill era] construir uma máquina que desse ao executante
controlo absoluto dos sons produzidos . . . um instrumento perfeito, dando
como ele diz “um som sustentado controlado pelo toque” . . . imagine-se que
podíamos moldar o som sob a sua mão como um oleiro mola o barro . . . o
executante tem um volume ilimitado à sua disposição imediata.»
Telharmonium: Dynamics Keyboard 11/17

Edgard Varèse, Octandre (1924)

US Patent no. 1,213,804, 1917

The three Telharmoniums 12/16

1st A small working model (1898)

2nd A much larger instrument

– 26‑09‑1906 to 16‑02‑1908: commercial use
– financial difficulties let to its dismissal

3rd A downsized instrument

– built in Holyoke (NJ), first demonstrated in 09‑04‑1910
– 1911: moved to new York
– premises built on wet soil (technical problems)
– 1914: Cahill’s company bankrupt
– premises kept as office to 1918
– end of 1915/early 1916: demonstrated to Varèse
 2nd vs 3rd Telharmonium 13/15

2nd Telharmonium, keyboard: 3rd Telharmonium, keyboard:

– Alternating black+white keys – Standard 3+2 pattern
– Each manual: 4 rows: – ca. 5 octaves (11~12 alterntators/note)
– very flat (7th harmonic) The younger players whom I taught . . . at
– slightly sharp
first followed out my instructions in regard to
– standard
– slightly flat intonation, but as time went on they . . .
– ca. 7 octaves relapsed more and more into the modern
(18 alternators/note) tempered scale.

Pierce, «A Colossal Experiment in “Just Intonation”»,

The Musical Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 3, July 1923
 Busoni and the Telharmonium 14/14

«. . . a “perfect” musical instrument, which sounds are produced

by electrical currents regulated according to the number of
vibrations . . . for each sound there is a device that provides the
fundamental note, another the first overtone, a third the second—and
so on —; then you may ‘regulate’, as you like, the number—the
volume of the overtones and the relations among themselves, such
combinations being apparently unlimited.»
Busoni, [Letter to Vianna da Motta], 16th July 1906

«. . . einem umfangreichen Apparat . . . welcher es ermöglicht,

einen elektrischen Strom in eine genau berechnete, unalterable
Anzahl Schwingungen zu verwandeln. Da die Tonhöhe von der Zahl
der Schwingungen abhängt und der Apparat auf jede gewünschte
Zahl zu ‘stellen’ ist, so ist durch diesen die unendliche Abstufung
der Oktave einfach das Werk eines Hebels, der mit dem Zeiger
eines Quadranten korrespondiert.»
Busoni, Entwurf einer neuen Ästhetik der Tonkunst, 2nd ed., 1916
(1st German edition, 1907; English Translation as Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music, 1911)
 Sirens 15/13
Autograph score of Ionisation Type-H hand operated siren
(1931; autograph possibly ca. 1934) (Sterling Siren and Fire Alarm Co.)

«In order to be really effective, a code siren

must have rapid acceleration and must stop
the sound abruptly . . . it is a further object of
the patent to provide a siren that goes up
quickly and then stops abruptly.»
US Patent 1,991,718, 1928
 Glissandi and Higher Frequencies 16/12

[Sonogram based on Kees Tazelaar’s remix from the 3xMono + 1xStereo original tapes]
 The Quest for New Resources 17/11
«I’m looking into the question of getting new electrical instruments made of my
own invention.»
Varèse, [Letter to his former mother-in-law, Mrs Kaufmann], 26 March 1916

«New instruments must be able to lend [themselves to] varied combinations and must
not simply remind us of things heard time and time again. Instruments, after all, must
only be temporary means of expression. Musicians must take up this question in deep
earnest with the help of machinery specialists . . . What I am looking for is new
mechanical mediums which will lend themselves to every expression of thought
and keep up with thought.»
Varèse, Interview to The Morning Telegraph, March 1916

«Je rève les instruments obéissants à la pensée — et qui avec l’apport d’une
floraison de timbres insoupçonnés se prétent aux combinations qu’il me plaira de
leur imposer et se plient a l’éxigence de mon rythme intérieur.»
Varèse, «Verbe», 391, no. 5, 5th June 1917

«Au sujet du pouvoir d’enregistement de hautes fréquences par les oreilles moyennes
. . . je croix qu’on pourrait se baser sur une moyenne de 18 000 en toute sûreté,
et ajouter aux limites des instruments d’aujourd’hui au moins 2 octaves»
Varèse et al., «La Mécanisation de la Musique», Bifur, no. 5, 31st June 1930
 The Guggenheim Letter 18/10
The acoustical work which I have undertaken and which I hope to continue in
collaboration with René Bertrand consists of experiments which I have
suggested on his invention, the Dynaphone . . . the technical results I look for
are as follows:

1 To obtain absolutely pure fundamentals.

2 By means of loading the fundamentals with certain series of harmonics to
obtain timbres which will produce new sounds.
3 To speculate on the new sounds that the combination of two or more
interfering Dynaphones would give if combined in a single instrument.
4 To increase the range of the instrument so as to obtain high frequencies
which no other instrument can give, together with adequate intensity.

The practical result of our work will be a new instrument which will be
adequate to the needs of the creative musician and musicologist. I have
conceived a system by which the instrument may be used not only for the
tempered and natural scales, but one which also allows for the accurate
production of any number of frequencies and consequently is able to produce
any interval or any subdivision required by the ancient or exotic modes.

Varèse, [Letter to Henry Allen Moe, of The Guggenheim Foundation], 6th February 1933
 Bertrand’s Dynaphone 19/09

René Bertrand with two Dynaphones The dial and quadrant of the Dynaphone
Above: Dermée 1928;
. . . un levier dont les déplacements Below: Brevet no. 664,305, 1929
angulaires règlent la capacité d’un
condensateur ou la valeur de la self-induction
d’une bobine ou l’intensité du courrant du
chauffage de lampe, ce levier étant solidaire
d’un index se déplacant devant un cadran en
indicant ainsi la note émise par l’appareil. [Le
levier doit se déplacer] sans effort appréciable.

Bertrand, French Brevet no. 664,305, 1929

 Seismographic Notation 20/08

«I am sure that the time will come when the composer, after he has
graphically realized his score, will see this score automatically put on a
machine that will faithfully transmit the musical content to the listener . . .
The new notation will probably be seismographic.»
Varèse, [Conference in Santa Fé], 23rd August 1936

«Estou certo que chegará o dia em que o compositor, após ter realizado
graficamente a sua partitura, verá esta partitura automaticamente colocada
numa máquina que transmitirá fielmente o conteúdo musical ao ouvinte . . .
A nova notação será provavelmente sismográfica.»
 Termen’s Instruments 21/07
«J’ai trouvé le laboratoire — et ce Lucie
qu’il me faut pour mes nouveaux Rosen
playing
instruments . . . nous sommes avec the
Thérenin [sic] — qui a un magnifique space
Laboratoire — en plein travail pour mes controlled
nouveaux instruments.» theremin

[Letter from Varèse to Jolivet, 14-10-1933]

Lev Termen
Playing the
Fingerboard theremins for Ecuatorial, fingerboard
Highest frequency according to Varèse: (or cello)
theremin
– 12,544 Hz [20-02-1959, conference at
Sarah Lawrence College]
– 6,000 Hz [09-11-1958, conference at
The Village Gate Café]

Highest note on Ecuatorial (1961 score):

– e''''' (5,274 Hz)

 Ecuatorial: Theremin vs Ondes 22/06

«I have just begun a work

[where] I want to use several of
your instruments—augmenting their
range as in those I used for my
Equatorial—especially in the high
range. Would you be so kind as to
let me know if it is possible to
procure these and where . . .»
[Undelivered letter from Varèse to Lev
Termen, 05-05-1941]

Compass of theremin / ondes parts (1961 score):

– highest note: e''''' (5,274 Hz)

– mostly above g' (396 Hz) when not doubling the voice
– lowest note: B (117 Hz)
 Use of Loudspeakers 23/05
«[The singer] «almost disintegrated when confronted with the sound of the
theremin.»
Nicolas Slonimsky, «Géometrie Sonore: Edgard Varèse», In Writings on Music, vol. 3, 2005
(On the premiere of Ecuatorial, 15th April 1934, where the voice was amplified by a megaphone)

Prenant en masse les éléments sonores, il y a des possibilités de subdivision

par rapport à cette masse: celle-ci se divisant en d’autres masses, en d’autres
volumes, en d’autres plans, ceci de par des diffuseurs disposés en des lieux
différents, donnant un sens de mouvement dans l’espace . . .
Varèse et al., «La Mécanisation de la Musique», Bifur, no. 5, 31 July 1930

«The hour of dawn arrives, and the sun does not appear. Loudspeakers situated on
different parts of the stage, and in the auditorium, announce that “the sun has not
been seen anywhere on the planet”.»
Alejo Carpentier, «Edgard Varèse Escribe para el Teatro», Sócial, vol. 4, no. 4, April 1931
(On the scenario for the unfinished The One All Alone)

«Varèse Envisions “Space” Symphonies: Says Orchestra Music of the Future Will
Be Re-Blended by Scattered Amplifiers»
[Title of an article], The New York Times, 6th December 1936
Varèse's Ampex 401A and Déserts 24/04

– Installed on 22-03-1953
– portable single-track
– Two-speed (7.5 and 15 ips)
– 30 – 15,000 Hz (±2 dB) at 15 ips (38 cm/s)
– Unweighted S/N ratio > 65 dB
– Input for feeding motor from external oscillator (varispeed)
(not certain Varèse had this device)
– Original price: USD 985 (over USD 9.000 / € 8,000 today).
The Poème Electronique 25/03

Exterior of the Philips Pavillion

at the 1958 Brussels World Fair

The control room. Two

pairs of tape recorders
were available.
The Poème Electronique 26/02
Philips 9710M loudspeaker response curve
Routes du son, Loudspeaker Groups 27/01

Xenakis' Sketch
Varèse's Studio in Eindhoven 28/00

Equipment:

– Mixing desk
– Tape recorders
4x one-track, 1", 76.2 cm/s;
1x stereo, 1"
2x three-track, perfo tape
– Microphone
– Generators:
4x sine wave;
1x square + sawtooth;
1x noise gate
– Filters:
1x octave;
3x 3-octave
– Reverberation system
– Ring modulator
– Oscilloscope
– Amplifiers: 1000W + standard
– Monito