The Mellotron and Chamberlin were keyboard based instruments that used tape loops as the source of their audio. each key had a corresponding 8 second tape loop that when the key was depressed would start playing. The Chamberlin loop would reset every time the key was released so that each note would have an attack and sustain, where as the Mellotron was a continuous loop. The sound from these instruments came out of a built in speaker, the Chamberlin using a standard speaker, while the Mellotron had a custom built speaker. The Harry Chamberlin started building the first Chamberlins in 1949. This was the first keyed instrument to mimic other instruments. Each chamberlin tape had 8 sounds on it, but were not replaceable, while the Mellotron had only three per tape, but different replacement tape cartridges where available.
The instruments for these keyboards were recorded specifically for them. Harry Chamberlin was meticulous in the hiring of musicians, quality of performance and the quaility of the recording for his tapes. Lawrence Welk was brought in along with members of his band to be the performers on the tapes. The great quality of these tapes greatly added to the specific sound of the chamberlin and made these tapes very highly prized items, and very sought after. The Mellatron on the other hand had much lower standards in terms of the quality of their tapes. The Mellotron tapes were recorded in the backroom of a studio, and sounds from the busy street running behind the studio were picked up on the tapes.
The Chamberlin was invented by Harry Chamberlin in the late 1940s. In the late 50s Harry hired Bill Franson as a salesman, and in 1962 he stole two Chamberlins and took them to England, where he showed them to the Bradly brothers and asked them to upgrade the design. The Bradly brothers had no idea the instruments were stolen, and immediately began working on the first Mellotrons. Some of these improvements included a metal frame, so that it would stay in tune better as well as a better speaker. Early users of these instruments include Mark Pindler from the Moody Blues, Brian wilson of the Beach Boys, Rod Argent of the Zombies, and Rick Nielsen of Cheaptrick. The Beatles used the Mellotron on Strawberry fields forever. Al Kooper used them on sessions he produced with Lynyrd Skynyrd as well.
Despite their widespread use in the 60s and 70s the Chamberlin and Mellotron remained cult instruments. The first reason for this is the lack of reliability. Both the Chamberlin and Mellotron were notorious for going out of tune. Depending on the weather the frame of the Chamberlin would warp, or if it was too cold the motors would slow down on both models. The tapes had a tendency to stick and any condensation would cause problems. These machines were very delicate and had to be transported very carefully, and as such were only economical for bands that had already become successful, and even then bands like Genesis would have to cancel shows if their Mellotron stopped working. Much like Leo Theremin, Harry Chamberlin never realized that he was focusing on the wrong market. While Theremin focused on using his instrument to perform violin concertos, Chamberlin focused his instrument solely on home use, and never saw the potential for use in the genre of rock n' roll. He limited the success of his own instrument by not thinking big enough. At his companies peak he only had 18 employees, and thus never pushed to make his instrument a great success, despite how much the people who did use it loved it. As the 1980s approached synthesizers became popular, and given how exponentially more reliable they were than the Chamberlin and Mellotron, they basically killed both companies off. The Mellotron Corp. was about $50.000 in debt when they finally shut down. Both companies also had trouble with the musicians union. The Musicians union was worried that these instruments would put professional musicians out of work, since they could mimic the sounds or real instruments and orchestras. They ended up having to pay the musicians union for every model they made.
All in all both of these instruments were incredible technological advancements and changed music history. From their inventive use of tape to the incredible sounds that these machines are capable of making, these instruments are a true and beautiful marriage of technology and music.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
No, not the guy from Mortal Combat, the musician.
John Cage is an incredible talent in the world of electronic and experimental music. His variation series, or more specifically Variation VII which was performed in October of 1966. The truly wonderful thing about this piece of music is the lack of control that Cage not only accepts, but encourages in this music. Cage started working on this project with the help of several other engineers and musicians including Francis Breer, Cecil Coker, Walter Gatman, Billy Kluver, David Tudor, and Jim McGee. Each of these people were accomplished engineers or musicians who each brought something to the performance. Bob Moog built capacitance antennas, much like the ones used in the Theremin, which were set up around the stage, and Cecil Coker put photo electric cells around the equipment on stage which would trigger different sounds or alter the noises coming from various machines. Coker had been spending much of his time trying to make computers speak using wired electronics, and he brought alot of that experience with him to this project.
John Cage's roll in this piece of music is very interesting. It can be said he wrote it, but there is no written music, and the piece is largly unplanned and the structure is indeterminate. Most of the performance depends on what is going on outside at any given moment. John Cage did "compose" the setting for this project, as he also composed the instruments used and people involved. In away he is changing the definition of what a composer is. Whereas in classical music the composer imagines the music and writes down exactly what he wants to hear, Cage takes a very different approach. He does not control the music, instead he collected a group of engineers and ways to make noise and set forth the ideas of what he wanted accomplished, and then allowed the other members of the group to utilize these things however they wanted.
Cage used dozens of unconventional instruments in this project. There was a large loudspeaker named George, ten telephones scattered New York, including in popular restaurant kitchens, over busy streets, in an aviary, and in a turtle tank, among other places. These phones were affixed with magnetic pickups and the signal was then sent to the performance at the Armory. There were also kitchen appliances, and radios. All of these "instruments" were fed back to the engineers, and controlled and manipulated using the photoelectric cells and the capacitance antennas.
This piece of music being so experimental means that it redefines normal expectations of music, including the idea of music having a beginning middle and end. The music clearly has a beginning, with the loudspeaker blaring the bomb siren esq tones. And it has an end, when the music stops, but what goes on between the two. There is no bridge or chorus or verse. It certainly challenges the normal notion of what a song is and how they are constructed, much as it challenges the idea of the performer. There is a sense of some form, most dictated by the instruments and the idea that the music is controlled as much by chance and embracing the lack control as it is by the performers. The music was also a multi media experience. Its as important to see the shadows projected on the giant white screens around the stage and the performers scurrying around the stage plugging one thing in and unplugging another as they turn a nob clockwise as it is to hear the sounds that these actions make. ONe of the performers even said that he felt like a bartender while performing. The spectrum of this performance is so outside the normal realm of music that the entire experience feels like something other than music, for both the audience and the performers.
John Cage's roll in this piece of music is very interesting. It can be said he wrote it, but there is no written music, and the piece is largly unplanned and the structure is indeterminate. Most of the performance depends on what is going on outside at any given moment. John Cage did "compose" the setting for this project, as he also composed the instruments used and people involved. In away he is changing the definition of what a composer is. Whereas in classical music the composer imagines the music and writes down exactly what he wants to hear, Cage takes a very different approach. He does not control the music, instead he collected a group of engineers and ways to make noise and set forth the ideas of what he wanted accomplished, and then allowed the other members of the group to utilize these things however they wanted.
Cage used dozens of unconventional instruments in this project. There was a large loudspeaker named George, ten telephones scattered New York, including in popular restaurant kitchens, over busy streets, in an aviary, and in a turtle tank, among other places. These phones were affixed with magnetic pickups and the signal was then sent to the performance at the Armory. There were also kitchen appliances, and radios. All of these "instruments" were fed back to the engineers, and controlled and manipulated using the photoelectric cells and the capacitance antennas.
This piece of music being so experimental means that it redefines normal expectations of music, including the idea of music having a beginning middle and end. The music clearly has a beginning, with the loudspeaker blaring the bomb siren esq tones. And it has an end, when the music stops, but what goes on between the two. There is no bridge or chorus or verse. It certainly challenges the normal notion of what a song is and how they are constructed, much as it challenges the idea of the performer. There is a sense of some form, most dictated by the instruments and the idea that the music is controlled as much by chance and embracing the lack control as it is by the performers. The music was also a multi media experience. Its as important to see the shadows projected on the giant white screens around the stage and the performers scurrying around the stage plugging one thing in and unplugging another as they turn a nob clockwise as it is to hear the sounds that these actions make. ONe of the performers even said that he felt like a bartender while performing. The spectrum of this performance is so outside the normal realm of music that the entire experience feels like something other than music, for both the audience and the performers.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Theremin
1) Professor Leon Theremin, or Lev Termen, was a Russian inventor in the early 1900s. He was born in Western Russian in 1896. When he was just 21 years old Theremin invented what is arguably the single most important device in the development of electronic music, The Theremin. After inventing this device he emigrated to the USA in 1927 and patented his electronic music device the next year, and through a contract with RCA began selling his Theremins. Throughout the 1920s and 30s Theremin continued to develop his motion sensitive music inventions until 1938 when he disappeared under unclear circumstances. There are a variety of stories about his disappearance, and what he spent the next several decades of his life doing, but the most popular seems to be that he was kidnapped by Russian secret service and taken back to the USSR where he may have spent time in soviet work camps as well as time working as an audio analyst for the KGB. Leon died in November of 1993.
2) Theremin's first and most important innovation is his electronic instrument, the Theremin. This device works by having two antennas, which by using an electromagnetic field and the proximity of a conductive membrane( i.e human hands), change the amplitude and frequency of the instrument. Theremin also used this technology to develop motion sensitive alarms, which he used in babies cribs as well as in the New York maximum security prison, Sing Sing.
3)Leon Theremin's life was changed by a multitude of factors, many of which he had no control over. Probably the most important event of his life was the day he was working on radio circuitry and heard a noise coming from the radio which he eventually learned to manipulate, thus leading to his creation of the Theremin. The next important event was his move to the United States in 1927. It was then that his device began to gain popularity and where he met Clara Rockmore, who became the premier performer of his instrument. The third most significant event was his kidnapping and return to Russia. While it is unclear under what circumstances he went back, it is clear that he was a great inventor and the scope of what he may have created had he been able to stay in the United States is astronomical. Theremin had many other significant events in his life, including meeting and reciving a award from Joseph Stalin, and playing the Theremin for Albert Einstein and his wife, but these three events had the most profound impact on his life.
4) When it comes to the impact of Theremins work on the history of electronic music I think Robert Moog said it best when he said "Leon did more than any one other person [to further electronic music]". Theremin created the first electronic music synthesis machine, and while it may not have maintained its popularity as well as the sythesizer or keyboard, without it, it can be argued, those other instruments would not have been created.
5) If I were Leon Theremin I would have spent more time refining the timbre of his instrument as well as developing a more user friendly interface for performing on it. There is a certain amount of novelty associated with the name Theremin, and without this I think he could have been even more successful. The theremin is almost impossible to play accurately given that the only means of controlling it are the proximity of the players hands. I would have spent a significant amount of time trying to develop a more consistent way to perform, which probably would have eventually led me towards the use of a keyboard, much in the same direction as Robert Moog took Theremin's initial designs. Secondly i would have tried to develop a way to change that timbre of the instrument, thus making it more versatile and increasing its usefulness in commercial endeavors.
6) If I could spend 3 months working with Theremin I would choose to work with him right around the time he came to America. I would have spent this time working on the theremin, and trying to develop it into a more versatile instrument, rather than work on a full body version of the machine, a device that was ultimately a complete failure. I think i would have tried to bring in more musicians from the day and get there input on the device, in an attempt to make it more musical. I also would have convinced Leon to get composers to write music specifically for the Theremin, instead of just performing violin music with it.
2) Theremin's first and most important innovation is his electronic instrument, the Theremin. This device works by having two antennas, which by using an electromagnetic field and the proximity of a conductive membrane( i.e human hands), change the amplitude and frequency of the instrument. Theremin also used this technology to develop motion sensitive alarms, which he used in babies cribs as well as in the New York maximum security prison, Sing Sing.
3)Leon Theremin's life was changed by a multitude of factors, many of which he had no control over. Probably the most important event of his life was the day he was working on radio circuitry and heard a noise coming from the radio which he eventually learned to manipulate, thus leading to his creation of the Theremin. The next important event was his move to the United States in 1927. It was then that his device began to gain popularity and where he met Clara Rockmore, who became the premier performer of his instrument. The third most significant event was his kidnapping and return to Russia. While it is unclear under what circumstances he went back, it is clear that he was a great inventor and the scope of what he may have created had he been able to stay in the United States is astronomical. Theremin had many other significant events in his life, including meeting and reciving a award from Joseph Stalin, and playing the Theremin for Albert Einstein and his wife, but these three events had the most profound impact on his life.
4) When it comes to the impact of Theremins work on the history of electronic music I think Robert Moog said it best when he said "Leon did more than any one other person [to further electronic music]". Theremin created the first electronic music synthesis machine, and while it may not have maintained its popularity as well as the sythesizer or keyboard, without it, it can be argued, those other instruments would not have been created.
5) If I were Leon Theremin I would have spent more time refining the timbre of his instrument as well as developing a more user friendly interface for performing on it. There is a certain amount of novelty associated with the name Theremin, and without this I think he could have been even more successful. The theremin is almost impossible to play accurately given that the only means of controlling it are the proximity of the players hands. I would have spent a significant amount of time trying to develop a more consistent way to perform, which probably would have eventually led me towards the use of a keyboard, much in the same direction as Robert Moog took Theremin's initial designs. Secondly i would have tried to develop a way to change that timbre of the instrument, thus making it more versatile and increasing its usefulness in commercial endeavors.
6) If I could spend 3 months working with Theremin I would choose to work with him right around the time he came to America. I would have spent this time working on the theremin, and trying to develop it into a more versatile instrument, rather than work on a full body version of the machine, a device that was ultimately a complete failure. I think i would have tried to bring in more musicians from the day and get there input on the device, in an attempt to make it more musical. I also would have convinced Leon to get composers to write music specifically for the Theremin, instead of just performing violin music with it.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Writings on the early days
People worth knowing:
Edgar Varese(1883-1965)
-Poeme Electronique(1958)
Melvin Kranzberg
-Necesity in the mother of invention
Philip Reis(1834-74)
-Reis Telephone
Elisha Grey(1835-1901)
-Musical telegraph
Herman Von Helmholtz(1821-94)
-Science of perception, chimes, "ON the sensations of tone"
Thaddeus Cahill(1867-1934)
-Dynamophone or telharmonium, first synth
Feruccio Busoni(1866-1924)
-"Sketch of the new aesthetic of music", pushed tech in music comp
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti(1876-1944)
- "The futurist manifesto"
Francesco Balilla Pratella(1880-1955)
-Wrote futurists manifesto on music
Luigi Russolo(1885-1947)
-"The art of noise"(1913)
-low info high redundency sound.
-first live noise concerts
Lee De Forest(1873-1961)
-Audtion vacuum tube/ audition piano
Leon Thermin(1896-1993)
-Invented thermin
Robert Moog(1934-2005)
-Moog
Maurice Martenot(1898- 1980)
-ondes martenot
Jorg Mager(1880-1939)
-spharophon
Laurens Hammond(1895-1973)
-hammond organ, used tone wheel
Dr. Friedrich trautwien(1888-1956)
-Electic string inst.
E. Leon Scott
-early phonograph
T. Edison(1847-1931)
-phonograph, lightbulb...
Emile Berliner(1851-1929)
-Disc recording(gramophone)
Valdmar Poulsen(1869-1942)
-Magnetic tape recorder
Fritz Pfleumer(1881-1945)
-Magnetophone. Invented celluloid tape coated in iron oxide for recording.
Henry Cowell(1897-1965)
-rhythmicon, early drum machine
John Cage(1912-92)
-Composer
Themes of the chapter:
Marriage of tech and music: Music and technology, while they may not work together perfectly, the combination of the two is inexcapable, and technological advancements often drive new types of music. Invention leads to new mediums.
6 sounds of Russolo:
1.Roars thunderings explotion hissing bangs boom
2. whistleing hising puffing
3. whispers murmers muttering gurgling
4. screaching creaking crackling
5. beating on materials
6. Voices of animals and people.
Summery:
It all started with the telegraph. Elisha Grey realized that the telegraph could be modified to create a music creating machine. After that tone wheels were invented by cahill, and from there it was just a matter of time till we electronic instruments were a viable and widely used medium. De Forest's invention of the vacuum tube made it possible to amplify the sound from these instruments without enormous power supplies, eventually leading to consumer use of electric instruments. In the early days electronic instruments could take up entire buildings, and still have amplitude problems, ie the teleharmonium. Vacuum tubes solved that problem. Between the invention of such exciting instruments such as the thermin and the ondes martenot, to the development of ways to record music, the late 1800s and early 1900s contained some of the most important innovations in all of music history.
Edgar Varese(1883-1965)
-Poeme Electronique(1958)
Melvin Kranzberg
-Necesity in the mother of invention
Philip Reis(1834-74)
-Reis Telephone
Elisha Grey(1835-1901)
-Musical telegraph
Herman Von Helmholtz(1821-94)
-Science of perception, chimes, "ON the sensations of tone"
Thaddeus Cahill(1867-1934)
-Dynamophone or telharmonium, first synth
Feruccio Busoni(1866-1924)
-"Sketch of the new aesthetic of music", pushed tech in music comp
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti(1876-1944)
- "The futurist manifesto"
Francesco Balilla Pratella(1880-1955)
-Wrote futurists manifesto on music
Luigi Russolo(1885-1947)
-"The art of noise"(1913)
-low info high redundency sound.
-first live noise concerts
Lee De Forest(1873-1961)
-Audtion vacuum tube/ audition piano
Leon Thermin(1896-1993)
-Invented thermin
Robert Moog(1934-2005)
-Moog
Maurice Martenot(1898- 1980)
-ondes martenot
Jorg Mager(1880-1939)
-spharophon
Laurens Hammond(1895-1973)
-hammond organ, used tone wheel
Dr. Friedrich trautwien(1888-1956)
-Electic string inst.
E. Leon Scott
-early phonograph
T. Edison(1847-1931)
-phonograph, lightbulb...
Emile Berliner(1851-1929)
-Disc recording(gramophone)
Valdmar Poulsen(1869-1942)
-Magnetic tape recorder
Fritz Pfleumer(1881-1945)
-Magnetophone. Invented celluloid tape coated in iron oxide for recording.
Henry Cowell(1897-1965)
-rhythmicon, early drum machine
John Cage(1912-92)
-Composer
Themes of the chapter:
Marriage of tech and music: Music and technology, while they may not work together perfectly, the combination of the two is inexcapable, and technological advancements often drive new types of music. Invention leads to new mediums.
6 sounds of Russolo:
1.Roars thunderings explotion hissing bangs boom
2. whistleing hising puffing
3. whispers murmers muttering gurgling
4. screaching creaking crackling
5. beating on materials
6. Voices of animals and people.
Summery:
It all started with the telegraph. Elisha Grey realized that the telegraph could be modified to create a music creating machine. After that tone wheels were invented by cahill, and from there it was just a matter of time till we electronic instruments were a viable and widely used medium. De Forest's invention of the vacuum tube made it possible to amplify the sound from these instruments without enormous power supplies, eventually leading to consumer use of electric instruments. In the early days electronic instruments could take up entire buildings, and still have amplitude problems, ie the teleharmonium. Vacuum tubes solved that problem. Between the invention of such exciting instruments such as the thermin and the ondes martenot, to the development of ways to record music, the late 1800s and early 1900s contained some of the most important innovations in all of music history.
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