LudoWic - Mixtur Trautonium (excercise #11)

video upload by LudoWic music

https://www.ludowic.com

Vintage synth featured in 1957 film "Different from You and Me."

video upload by Robotussin Vintage Synths

"The dangers of electronic music, according to a film about the menace of homosexuality from 1957 called 'Different From You and Me'. It features the Trautonium, a synthesizer from the 1930s that was created by Friedrich Trautwein and used by Oskar Sala. The film, which was called 'The Third Sex' or 'Bewildered Youth'(!) when released in the US, is about a prosperous German family whose son is lured into a seedy world of gay men, nude wrestling and avant garde electronic music by an effete friend and a licentious antique dealer.

Terrified that their son is not into women, the teen's parents induce their cleaning lady to seduce him and awaken his more 'natural' desires. This ends in the month's arrest for arranging prostitution!

While the film is based on homophobic ideas, the original version has some nuance and depicts some of its gay characters in a relatively balanced light for the time. Being gay was still a crime in Germany and elsewhere in the 1950s. However, before it could be released in West Germany censors insisted on changes, weaving in more anti-gay rhetoric, making the gay characters more criminal and removing scenes that showed gay men in positions of authority and respectability.

For me, it's remarkable only for the scenes featuring the synthesizer, but it is interesting that even then electronic music was associated with same-sex relationships, given that 20 years later the gay communities would be such a driving force behind the foundation of the electronic music scene.

I have uploaded all the scenes from this film that feature the Trautonium to my YouTube channel, which is also called Robotussin Vintage Synths."

Electronic Music Experimentation in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock

video by Reverb

"From the start, Alfred Hitchcock took a keen interest in the music in his films—and, indeed, musical motifs featured in the plotlines of some of his biggest '30s successes (Read more on Reverb). Watch along as Joe discusses the music in his films and how electronic experimentation was explored to be the sound of some iconic characters and bizarre situations."

Samuel Hoffman on Johnny Carson:


Johnny Carson Plays THEREMIN video by Peter Pringle

Trautonium:


Nieuwe elektronische piano: Het Trautonium (1941) video by Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid

Mixtur Trautonium:


Oskar Sala - Live-Konzert 1991 - Mixtur-Trautonium video by Trautonist

And a playlist of Oskar Sala performances from 1997 uploaded by Trautonist:

Oskar Sala „Gesprächskonzert" 1997 - Teil 01-10


See the labels below for additional posts on each.

Peter Pichler - Mixturtrautonium - lecture & concert @SUPERBOOTH19

Published on May 17, 2019 Superbooth Official

"A voyage to the moon"

Peter Pichler is at present the only musician worldwide who is playing the Mixturtrautonium live. The instrument is Oskar Sala´s further development of Friedrich Trautwein’s Trautonium. First presented in 1930, the Trautonium is the predecessor of the synthesizer. A wider public became aware of the Mixturtrautonium through Oskar Sala´s soundtrack-work for Hitchcocks „The Birds“.

At Superbooth19 Peter Pichler played a live-score of the documentary „ A Voyage To The Moon“ from director Manfred Durniok and Oskar Sala.

In 1974 Durniok was provided with raw film material from different NASA-Moonshots and created a unique documentary with almost unknown space-filmsequences together with Oskar Sala. Sala was scoring solely with his Mixturtrautonium.

www.peterpichler-trautonium.com

Mixturtrautonium at SUPERBOOTH

via @realqwave (aka Till Kopper)

"My highlight of the #superbooth #Superbooth19 concerts: A real Mixturtrautonium on stage played by Peter Pichler (the one everyone looks at on the picture)"

Mixturtrautonium

A Demonstration Of Oskar Sala's Mixtur-Trautonium

Published on Nov 4, 2015 Ghost Money

Playlist [descriptions below]:
A Demonstration Of Oskar Sala's Mixtur-Trautonium Formant Filters
Improvisation for modular mixtur-trautonium.
Contrary Motion Studies for Modular Mixtur-Trautonium

1. A Demonstration Of Oskar Sala's Mixtur-Trautonium Formant Filters

A demonstration of the mixtur-trautonium's formant filters. The filter was originally designed by Freidrich Trautwein as vacuum tube (or rohrentechnik) technology in 1930, at the very beginnings of subtractive synthesis.( I mistakenly referred to subharmonic synthesis in my closing remarks) The filters here are version of the design from the halbeiter, or semiconductor mixtur trautonium dating from around 1989 and were made by Trautoniks. For further information, interviews with Oskar Sala, explanations of the instrument and musical examples visit Trautonist at:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Trautonist

Also:

http://www.trautoniks.de/

http://trautonium.de/

© James Worthington 3 Nov 2015

2. Improvisation for modular mixtur-trautonium.

Published on Oct 15, 2014
An improvisation for mixtur trautonium. Timbral variations effected by voltage control of the assigned footpedals. The manuals, subharmonic generators and formant filters supplied by Trautoniks.
Other modules in the system by Doepfer, Analogue Systems and MOTM-Syntheisis technology.

3. Contrary Motion Studies for Modular Mixtur-Trautonium

Published on Oct 15, 2014
Two short improvisations for mixtur-trautonium, demonstrating possibilities for contrary motion portamento performance. Manuals, subharmonic generators and formant filters supplied by Trautoniks. Other modules in this system by Analogue Systems Doepfer and MOTM-Synthesis technology.

4. Meadow Clary

Published on Feb 11, 2016
A piece in development.

Synthesiser von Gestern Volumes 1 - 3

Synthesiser von Gestern Volume 1
Published on Feb 22, 2015 baward

"From the 1990 CD, ‘Synthesiser von Gestern' ('Synthesisers of Yesterday’) or 'Vintage Synths Volume 1’"

Playlist:
SVG1 1/22 Arp Odyssey
SVG1 2/22 Yamaha CS-60 part 1
SVG1 3/22 Oberheim SEM
SVG1 4/22 Korg Mono/Poly
SVG1 5/22 Minimoog
SVG1 6/22 Memorymoog
SVG1 7/22 Roland Jupiter 8
SVG1 8/22 Yamaha CS-60 part 2
SVG1 09/22 Sequential Circuits Pro One
SVG1 10/22 Korg PS-3100
SVG1 11/22 Roland SH-5
SVG1 12/22 Rhodes Chroma part 1
SVG1 13/22 Korg Poly 800
SVG1 14/22 Roland System 100
SVG1 15/22 Roland Juno 60
SVG1 16/22 Mellotron
SVG1 17/22 EMS Synthi A
SVG1 18/22 Rhodes Chroma part 2
SVG1 19/22 PPG Wave 2 2
SVG1 20/22 Yamaha CS 15
SVG1 21/22 Korg MS-20
SVG1 22/22 Moog System 55

CLICK FOR MORE »

Oskar Sala's Mixtur-Trautonium at the Musikinstrumenten-Museum

More pics and the full write-up at the Nervous Squirrel

"During a visit to Berlin for the Worldtronics 2013 festival, I popped in to the Museum of Musical Instruments for a look around. They have an awesome collection of acoustic instruments, musical machines, musical walking sticks, microtonal pianos, Hammond organs, a "serpent", a VCS3 with sequencer and a violin in the shape of amoeba. I'd previously read about the Trautonium, and was aware of it being "something like an Ondes Martenot", but the one at the museum invited a much closer investigation..."

An Interview with Bruno Spoerri on Astronauta Pinguim

Update: in case you read this post when it first went up, be sure to give it another look for a few updates.  It's a bit convoluted with quite a few tangents, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Read the full interview on Astronauta Pinguim here.

The following are some excerpts and tie-ins to other bits of synth history.

-----

Initially a saxophone player, Bruno Spoerri explored electronic music in the 1960s on.

"In 1964 he was invited to a job in an advertising agency and began to work with electronic music using a Ondes Martenot and, after, using lots of synthesizers and also experimenting with electrified/synthesized saxophones..." "As a saxophonist and jazz improviser I always looked for ways to play without a keyboard."

Pictured above is Bruno with his EMS Synthi 100 (videos previously posted here and here).

On the Synthi 100: "I bought the Synthi 100 in 1971. In 1987 I gave it to Felix Visser (Synton) in exchange for a Fairlight CMI; some years he had to sell it at an auction, and I don't know where it is now (I would recognize the instrument, as I did some small changes on it)."  It was listed on Vemia back in 2009 posted here and here. Click though for pics.

In 1974, he recorded the album 'Iischalte (Switched-on Switzerland)'.

Bruno Spoerri - Le Ranz Des Vaches


Uploaded on Jul 25, 2011 Aura Archange Maudit·57 videos

"Bruno Spoerri - Iischalte (Switched-on Switzerland)
1974

Imágenes de la película La lunga notte di Veronique (1966)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183441/

Video made by Aura Archange Maudit"

-----

"On 'Voice Of Taurus' (1978), Bruno Spoerri experiments a lot with electrified wind instruments and also with jazz-rock and rock."

Bruno Spoerri - Hymn Of Taurus (Taurus Is Calling You!)

Uploaded on Nov 19, 2009 MrJJBonanza·29 videos
Re-Published on Sep 30, 2014 Bruno Spoerri - Topic

"First track of Bruno Spoerri's 'Voice Of Taurus'
1978 Gold Records, Switzerland
Cat# 11 061 (Vinyl, LP)

Bruno Spoerri on 'Hymn Of Taurus':
"The rhythm track was created with my very first primitive ring modulator (4 diodes and 2 transformers) that is why it is so dirty The voice went of course through the EMS vocoder, the choir was created through the VAKO Orchestron."

-----

Again, don't miss the full interview with Bruno Spoerri on Astronauta Pinguim here. There's some fascinating history there including Ginette Martenot and the Ondes Martenot, Oskar Sala with his Mixturtrautonium, and Joel Chadabe. Regarding his original gear, "most of my analog gear is sold (most of it to the remarkable Swiss Synthorama of Martin Hollinger), but I still have my first synthi, the EMS VCS-3 (from 1970), the ARP 2600 with sequencer and the Lyricon I and II. I use the lyricon quite often in performances, the other gear mostly for demonstrations to visitors."

I was fortunate enough to visit Synthorama back in 2008. You can find my pics and videos from the visit here. See the Synthorama label for other posts including a one of a kind modular, the Airböurne, created by the curator of the museum, Martin Hollinger.

For more posts featuring Bruno click here and scroll.  Check him out on the Synthophone and Gesture Based Synthesis here.

via Fabricio Carvalho aka Astronauta Pinguim on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

You can find links to additional interviews with synth history's early influentials by Astronauta Pinguim here.

Volkstrautonium SchneidersBuero @ RoughTrade London

Published on Apr 21, 2013 SchneidersBuero·20 videos

NOISECOLLECTIVE Vistis Berlin

More pics at NOISECOLLECTIVE



Top: SchneidersLaden
Middle: ?
Bottom: EMS Synthi Sequencer 256

Update via elgauchoandres in the comments:
"Middle is Mixturtrautonium nach Oskar Sala.
Botton picture also show (partially) a Clavioline.
Pictures from the Musikintrumenten Museum Berlin, I think... 99%"

A few more pics added below for the archives via NOISECOLLECTIVE. Volkstrautonium added as well.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Moogtonium Documentation Discovered in Bob's Archives

via The Bob Moog Foundation

"As you all know by now, one of our three projects is preserving and protecting Bob's extensive archives. The archives are full of various mediums, but today we focus on letters and schematics that have given way to an exciting discovery about a little known instrument that Bob worked on in 1966.

Visit our website to read the full article on this amazing discovery.

We recently uncovered a stack of letters, notes and schematics describing Bob's work on a version of a Mixture-Trautonium, which he and the musician-collaborator Max Brand deemed the "Moogtonium". You can read much more about this fascinating instrument in a blog post written by Michelle Moog-Koussa, Brian Kehew and Clemens Hausch.

You can hear the sounds of this instrument on the newly release album "Kabelbrand: Sounds from the Max Brand Synthesizer", with compositions by musicians devoted to Brand's musical legacy and by Max Brand himself. We are offering this CD as a gift with a $30 donation to the Bob Moog Foundation. Get your copy today."

You might remember the Max Brand synthesizer from this post and this event featuring the system back in November of 2009. Also see this performance by Oskar Sala on the original Trautonium. As always, you can find additional posts via the labels below. Do not miss the full Bob Moog Foundation article on the Moogtonium.

Oskar Sala - Zeilgalerie in Frankfurt, 1993

YouTube via djaiyo.

via rustyanalog Don't miss this bit of synth history.

"From christian moeller's website, www.christian-moeller.com

Sala, a pioneer of electronic music played his Trautonium, an early electronic musical instrument invented in Berlin in 1930.
For this live performance, his concert was displayed as a gigantic video projection above the urban flow. The metal façade of the Zeilgalerie was turned into a giant TV screen in the public space."
This one originally posted at 7:19 PM, 3/2. Moving on top for a bit. Don't miss this.
See the Trautonium label directly below for more.

Update via Rick Jelliffe:
"The thing is that Sala extended the Trautonium (a playing device) with his own synthesis system: subharmonic synthesis. It is a Mixturtrautonium!

This allows much more chord-like notes to be created, with four subharmonics. So while he can only play one note at a time on the lower manual, that note goes to four subharmonic generators. He can select different sets of subharmonics (/12, /13, /14 etc) with a knee controller, if necessary. Because these can be written down, it allowed him to set up patches and replay compositions much more quickly than later modular VC systems.

The subharmonic system favours some kinds of chords (dim 7s for example), which explains some aspects of his compositions.

I have made a free VST using subharmonic synthesis that is available on the WWW. Like Sala's it has a frequency shifter, reverb and some resonators, and can switch between sets of subharmonics. The Neumixturtrautonium VST is available from lots of places on the web, and it has a sound of its own.

I believe Doepfer have a subharmonic module too, as may some other people.

Cheers
Rick Jelliffe"

Early Bob Moog - the "Max Brand Synthesizer"

YouTube via klubmoozak.

"bob moog prototype max brand synthsizer"

via Brian Kehew

"The Bob Moog Foundation have recently connected with the people working with Max Brand's early modular synth. Built in the late '60s, Brand had emigrated to America from Germany and asked Bob to design him a synth. Brand's idea was to make a Moog modular that had features of the Mixturtrautonium he had played in Germany. It took some time, but Bob created a unique synth for Brand.

Soon, there will be a CD compilation of modern artists creating music with the old Max Brand Moog. Also included will be a few of Brand's own works on the synth (1970s). I was not familiar with him before this contact, but I really think his music is among the best of the experimental-side composers of the Eletctronic Music era. It's pretty out-there, but full of good sonic ideas and he had good control of the synth, unlike a lot of early musicians."

MAX BRAND synth


"early synth built by BOB MOOG between 1967-1969 for the austrian composer MAX BRAND (1886-1980). Please note that this video is intended to show the machine - the included audio track does NOT demonstrate it's capabilities - most of the audio being heard on this video is not even from this machine! Video by Ulrich Kühn"

Das Subharchord

via Das Subharchord

"The Subharchord is a unique electronic instrument which is somewhat comparable to the Mixturtrautonium from Oskar Sala. This site is dedicated to the Subharmonic Sound Generator, which was developed during the 1960s in East Berlin (GDR) at the Radio and Television Technical-Centre (RFZ) of the German post office."

The Mixturtrautonium.


You can find a VST emulation and more info on Rick Jelliffe's site.

More on 120 Years and wikipedia.

Via this this electro-music thread.