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WD_435/ 2008
(  Satoshi Kinoshita )
| Series: | Works on paper: Drawings 5 | | Medium: | oilstick on paper | | Size (inches): | 40.2 x 25.2 | | Size (mm): | 1020 x 640 | | Catalog #: | WD_0435 | | Description: | Signed, date and copyright in pencil on the reverse.
Oskar Sala -
Oskar Sala (June 18, 1910 - February 26, 2002) was a 20th century German composer and a pioneer of electronic music. He played an instrument called the trautonium, a predecessor to the synthesizer.
Sala was a pupil of Friedrich Trautwein, the inventor of the trautonium, and studied with Paul Hindemith in 1930 at the Berlin conservatory.
Oskar Sala further developed the trautonium into the Mixtur-Trautonium. The Mixtur-Trautonium allowed for the first time in music history the execution of sounds which had only been known in theory since the Middle Ages, but were never actually playable. Sala's invention opened the field of subharmonics, the symmetric counterpart to overtones, so that a thoroughly distinct tuning evolved. Sala presented his new instrument to the public in 1952 and would soon receive international licenses for its circuits. That same year, composer Harald Genzmer delivered the score to the first Concert For Mixtur-Trautonium And Grand Orchestra.
In the 1940s and 1950s he worked on many film scores. He created the non-musical soundtrack for Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds. He received many awards for his film scores, but never an Oscar. He also did much work on German commercials, most notably one referred to as HB's little man.
He was an honorary Senator of Berlin.
Discography:
* Trautonium-Konzerte
(Wergo WER 286 266-2)
Harald Genzmer's Konzert für Trautonium und Orchester (Concerto for Trautonium and Orchestra) (1938/39) and Konzert für Mixtur-Trautonium und großes Orchester (Concerto for Mixtur-Trautonium and Large Orchestra) (1952)
* My Fascinating Instrument
Contains his own compositions, dating from 1955 to 1989
* Subharmonische Mixturen
Contains Paul Hindemith's Langsames Stueck für Orchester und Rondo für Trautonium (Slow Piece for Orchestra And Rondo for Trautonium), Sala's own compositions, dating from 1992 to 1995, and his soundtrack to Der Wuerger von Schloss Dartmore (The Strangler of Castle Dartmore)
* Elektronische Impressionen
Hindemith's 7 Triostuecke für drei Trautonien (7 Triopieces for three Trautonien), Konzertstueck fuer Trautonium und Streicher (Concertpiece for Trautonium And Strings) written in 1931 and recorded in 1977. Also contains Sala's Elektronische Impressionen (Electronic Impressions), 1978.
Literature:
* Peter Donhauser: Elektrische Klangmaschinen, Boehlau Vienna 2007 (in German).
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Sala
Oskar Sala
Biography by Nathan Bush
German inventor/composer Oskar Sala is best known for his role in developing the Trautonium: one of the earliest electronic instruments and a contemporary of the French Ondes Martenot and Russian theremin. While the Trautonium would eventually be viewed as a relic of electronic music's past, the instrument's tonal quality and expressive capabilities remain sadly unparalleled in the technology that followed. Nearly 70 years after its creation, its legacy seemed highly uncertain, as Sala was the only one capable of playing it.
Born in Berlin in 1910, Oskar Sala was introduced to the Trautonium in 1929. That year, while studying under composer Paul Hindemith, Sala attended a demonstration of the instrument given by its inventor, Friedrich Trautwein. The student soon began working alongside Trautwein, undergoing a crash course in electronics to develop the prototype into an acceptable model. The new instrument was unveiled at a christening performance of Hindemith's "Trio Pieces for Three Trautonia" at the music academy in Berlin. Resembling a simultaneously archaic/futuristic version of the piano, the Trautonium replaces keys with two wires that run the length of the keyboard. These wires, hovering above metal rails, are what the musician plays, altering the subsequent tones via a multitude of dials and switches. The initial, overwhelming success of the instrument is rather surprising given the political environment of the time. Nazi Germany had begun the ethnic and cultural cleansing that would drive many artists (including Hindemith) out of the country. Not only did Sala's Trautonium escape being squelched, the government actually provided funding for additional models including the Radio Trautonium (showcased across German airwaves on a weekly program), the Volks-Trautonium (a failed attempt at a household model), and the portable Concert-Trautonium, which Sala took on tour.
Following the Second World War, with Trautwein having all but relinquished control of the instrument, Sala developed the Mixture-Trautonium, a revised model which gave the musician the ability to produce musical undertones. The 1950s found Sala busy composing, producing works for television ads and feature films, and performing with fellow Hindemith student Harald Genzmer on the new model. Yet Sala's general failure to collaborate with his electronic music contemporaries probably contributed to his relative obscurity. He did, however, receive his 15 minutes of fame. In 1961, unsatisfied with the effects sound technicians turned up for his film The Birds, director Alfred Hitchcock enlisted Sala's help. Pleased with the results, Hitchcock turned over the film's score (a non-musical construction) to the composer. In the electronic boom that followed in the 1970s, the Trautonium attracted attention from Krautrock acts Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk. In 1987 Sala was honored with the Filmband in Gold for his soundtrack work.
As the century drew to a close, Sala (approaching his 90th birthday) spent his days diligently practicing, composing, and experimenting on the Mixture-Trautonium from a studio near his home. A staggering 600-plus reels of tape are said to exist in the composer's personal vault. In the late 1990s, Germany's Fax label issued two collections of Sala performances: My Fascinating Instrument (1995) and Subharmonic Mixtures (1997).
© 2008 Macrovision Corporation.
-http://www.allmusic.com/cg/
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Overtone -
An overtone is a natural resonance or vibration frequency of a system. Systems described by overtones are often sound systems, for example, blown pipes or plucked strings.
If such a system is excited, a number of sound frequencies may be produced. These frequencies, are usually, but not always, a close approximation to an integer multiple of a lowest resonance frequency. Thus, overtones and harmonics should not be confused or interchanged. By definition a harmonic is an exact integer multiple of a fundamental frequency, whereas in most systems, overtones are never exact integer multiples of a root frequency. For example, the first overtone of a circular drum is approximately 2.4 times its fundamental resonance frequency.
Explanation:
Most oscillators, from a guitar string to a bell (or even the hydrogen atom or a periodic variable star) will naturally vibrate at a series of distinct frequencies known as normal modes. The lowest normal mode frequency is known as the fundamental frequency, while the higher frequencies are called overtones. Often, when these oscillators are excited, by, for example, plucking a guitar string, it will oscillate at several of its modal frequencies at the same time. In music, this gives the sensation of hearing other frequencies (overtones) above the lowest frequency (the fundamental). The overall combination of the instrument's specific overtones is what determines the timbre ("flavor of sound") of that instrument. Timbre is what gives the listener the ability to distinguish different instruments that play the same note at the same volume in a band or orchestra.
A driven non-linear oscillator, such as the human voice, a blown wind instrument, or a bowed violin string (but not a struck guitar string or bell) will oscillate in a periodic, non-sinusoidal manner. This generates the impression of sound at integer multiple frequencies of the fundamental known as harmonics. For most string instruments and other long and thin instruments such as a trombone or bassoon, the first few overtones are quite close to integer multiples of the fundamental frequency, producing an approximation to a harmonic series. Thus, in music, overtones are often called harmonics. Depending upon how the string is plucked or bowed, different overtones can be emphasized.
However, some overtones in some instruments may not be of a close integer multiplication of the fundamental frequency, thus causing a small dissonance. "High quality" instruments are usually built in such a manner that their individual notes do not create disharmonious overtones. In fact, the flared end of a brass instrument is not to make the instrument sound louder, but to correct for tube length “end effects” that would otherwise make the overtones significantly different from integer harmonics. This is illustrated by the following:
Consider a guitar string, its idealised 1st overtone would be exactly twice its fundamental if its length was shortened by ½, say by lightly pressing a guitar string at the 12th fret. However, if a vibrating string is examined, it will be seen that the string does not vibrate flush to the bridge and nut, but has a small “dead length” of string at each end. This dead length actually varies from string to string, being more pronounced with thicker and/or stiffer strings. This means that halving the physical string length, does not halve the actual string vibration length, and hence, the overtones will not be exact multiples of a fundamental frequency. The effect is so pronounced that well set up guitars will angle the bridge such that the thinner strings will progressively have a length up to few millimeters shorter than the thicker strings. Not doing so would result in inharmonious chords made up of two or more strings. Similar considerations apply to tube instruments.
The intensity of each of the overtones is rarely constant during the duration of the overall sound. Over time, different overtones may decay at different rates causing the relative intensity of each overtone to rise or fall independent of the overall volume of the sound, and a carefully trained ear can hear these changes even in a single note. This is why the timbre of a note may be perceived differently when played staccato or legato, dampened or lengthened.
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtone
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