tags: mus-407 early-electroacoustic-instruments

Trautonium

The trautonium is an early electronic instrument invented by Friedrich Trautwein, German engineer

• uses monophonic keyboard-like instrument, without familiar keyboard interface
• wired suspended over metal rail
• depressing wire closes circuit with particular resistance, affecting voltage of tube [oscillator]

[sawtooth]-like [waveform] routed through resonant [filters]

• early form of [subtractive synthesis] Paul Hindemith, Concerto for Trautonium (1930)

Oskar Sala (Trautwein student) assumed a development role, created Mixtur-Trautonium (1936)

featured on Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963)

Sources

• MUS 407 History of Electroacoustic Music: Early Instruments