Source: https://pixabay.com/de/schlauchkupplung-stromkabel-kurios-206004/

Hello my friends.

Nice to see you here! Hope you'll enjoy reading my Post.

As i said in my introduction: i love music. For me it is one of the most powerful ways to expresse my emotional world and communicate with people. When I was 18 years old i visited the festival Rocco del Schlacko. It is a small festival in Germany. I wanted to see bands like Dropkick Murphys, Irie Revoltes orFrittenbude. Currently I felt like a little rock rebel. =D Coincidentally I saw the concert of Pendulum. My Love for electronic music was born.

Til today i am still in love and always looking for some new inspirations in this genre. The history of electrified music is one of the most exciting ever. It describes the combination of the latest technology and its direct artistic application. The discovery: electricity + musical instruments = electronic music instruments led to a wealth of new instruments and new music.

Let us start a journey and discover this music universe!

Music and electricity - from the Clavessin électrique to the Telharmonium

In my opinion, there are two areas of human action: artistically- aesthetic and natural sciences. In electronic music these two meet, thanks to music and physics, strightly electrical engineering. Therefore, I would like to look at the development of electronic music from both an ideological and a technical perspective. Let us start with concepts that already required the possibilities of electronic music, long before they were technically available.

1759 - The Clavessin électrique

Jean-Baptiste Delaborde was a priest and inventor. Unfortunately, you do not know exactly how he has developed his instrument. The "electric harpsichord" and all the documents obtained are in the French National Library, so one could reconstruct how the Clavessin électrique worked. The Clavessin électrique (or Clavecin électrique) is the first instrument to use electricity in any form. Electric current was generated by friction, which set small hammers in motion. The hammers beat small bells. The instrument is a carillon operated by electricity. The bells produced the sound in a conventional, acoustic way. So, if you're quite strict, he has not invented the electric sound. Rather, it is the first electrical interface. Say: An interface between man and machine, which worked by electrical means. Well, it was in baroque and rococo - game and fun with electricity! =D

Here you can see the concept:

Source: Wikimedia Commons

1876 - The Musical Telegraph (Oscillator)

Elisha Gray should go into the music history. He accidentally (!!!) discovered how he could control the sound of a self-oscillating electronic circuit. Actually, Gray was looking for a way to send more messages via a wire than with the previous Morse monograph. So he developed an eight-tone telegraph. Finally, he built the whole thing on 24 notes, completed it with a piano keyboard and a suitable speaker. Then he called the whole thing "Musical Telegraph", went on tour and played the first concert quite possible with electronic music in 1877.

Elisha Gray's Music Telegraph

Source: https://emhistory.wikispaces.com/1876+Musical+Telegraph

1897 - The Telharmonium

The Telharmonium worked with rotors and gears. You can also call it a dynamophone. The number of teeth and the rotational speed determined the pitch. Because of the electric amplifier was not yet invented, the instrument had to produce the entire power itself - each of the tone generators was a complete current generator. There were many problems. Thus 'Telharmony' should be transmitted via the telephone in hotels, restaurants, theaters and private houses. The telephone lines were not yet shielded enough and there were complaints, that one always had to listen to music when one telephoned. In addition, the radio and the electric amplifier were invented and disputed the Telharmonium's rank. Also it was very difficult to play, because the rotors could only produce "pure" tones without overtones. Sounds without overtones are called sinuses. They sound matte and can not change in sound. This can only be achieved by stacking it by additive synthesis. Most of the pianists weren't able to do this. However, other technical problems also made life difficult for the Telharmonium: the electrical voltage of the generators fell more frequently. After all, i think it was a big step into the future. The technology was further developed and later better instruments emerged. For example, the same principle was found in the Hammond organ at the beginning of the 1930s.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telharmonium

Sources:

http://www.firstsounds.org/research/scott.php http://120years.net http://120years.net/the-telharmonium-thaddeus-cahill-usa-1897 https://www.lernhelfer.de/schuelerlexikon/musik/kapitel/4-musikgeschichte https://www.lernhelfer.de/schuelerlexikon/musik/kapitel/43-musik-im-zeitalter-des-absolutismus-und-barock-15801760

I made any mistakes? Please let me know in the comments!

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The history of electronic music #1: 1800-1900