In the lexicon * I already have mentioned here, I found an article about Harald GENZMER (Ger., Eng.) (1909-2007), German composer and disciple of Paul HINDEMITH (Ger., Eng.) (1895-1963). Among GENZMER’s works a Konzert für Trautonium is listed, and KLEE explains it as “an electronic instrument sponsored by GOEBBELS for the Thingspiele“. The German wikipedia article about GENZMER mentions a “number of compositions for this instrument” that are seemingly lost. The first pieces for Trautonium were created by HINDEMITH in 1930.
The Trautonium (Ger., Eng.) is the invention of Friedrich TRAUTWEIN (Ger.) (1888-1956), a kind of early synthesizer. According to this short notice published on the occasion of his surprising death, TRAUTWEIN had the basic idea for his instrument while he performed Hausmusik with his family. Young Friedrich as a child learned to play the organ and throughout his life was a music lover; in the small family orchestra he often had to play parts for instruments that were not available and so had to imitate for example the voice of a violin or a woodwind instrument on the piano: He had the idea of an instrument that would allow to change the Klangfarbe, the acoustic colour, while playing on one board.
This is the basic idea of the Trautonium: Over a metal rail a thin resistor wire is lead and where it is pressed down the number of impulses per time unit is varied, this way the pitch of the sound is modulated; throw in a lot of filters and you have a device that allows to modulate and emulate an awful lot of sounds: It’s not a string vibrating, but the sound itself is modulated. Here you find a way better explanation.
TRAUTWEIN joined the Reichspost in 1920 and worked for the Rundfunk, the radio broadcasting, helping to build the very first broadcasting station Vox-Haus (Ger.) in Tiergarten. He says in a rare documented speech that he found the transmissions to be of poor quality in those early days. To better the situation it was necessary to develop better equipment, especially microphones. The other possibility was to better the transmission, for example by avoiding additional equipment at all and modulating the sound signal itself. Here lies his idea of the Volkstrautonium: He had the vision of an easy to assemble and playable instrument for everybody, fully electric – he speaks of Elektromusik. The Reichspost was not what he liked and 1929 TRAUTWEIN became a teacher at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin: Here he met HINDEMITH, GENZMER, and SALA.
TRAUTWEIN built the machine, HINDEMITH and his composer students explored the musical possibilities and SALA actually played it. Telefunken (Ger., Eng.) even produced around 100 of the early instruments for the market, but it was naturally too expensive and too exotic. The situation changed after 1933 when Telefunken gave back to TRAUTWEIN the patents they had used and so he lost this source of income. HINDEMITH finally left Germany for Switzerland and later America. TRAUTWEIN took up working for the Luftwaffe and was somehow connected with the development of the German Richtfunk, a kind of early radar. GENZMER stayed in Germany and kept on composing, and Oskar SALA (Ger., Eng.) (1910-2002) kept on working and developing the Trautonium. They are said to have traveled together and performed, but I have not found any further information on this.
After the war TRAUTWEIN was for some years in Paris working in the development of aeroplanes and from 1949 onwards until his death was head of the training of recording engineers (Tonmeister) at the Konservatorium in Düsseldorf, today Robert-Schuhmann-Hochschule (Ger., Eng.). His estate is kept in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. SALA professionalized the use of the Trautonium and worked for film and tv, his estate is also in Munich.
The Trautonium had something of a renaissance some years ago and various projects grew around this music machine, especially this year in rememberance of SALA‘s hundredth birthday. There is a rebuilding project under way, new music is composed. On YouTube one can find a tv-feature about the Trautonium (part one, part two), German only, but check the links there are some sound bits. This is all very nice and interesting, but I found no clue that the instrument would have been used for any Thingspiel.
* KLEE, Ernst: Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945, Frankfurt a.M. 2007, article “Genzmer” 177.
63 mago 
Interesting thingy this Trautonium. Herr Trautwein had an immense talent in lots of fields. Boy, this lexicon of yours surely has interesting stuff.
(Posting now from the Dumbass Industries, where my Adobe Flash version Player is not updated and unfortunately I can’t listen to the Youtube trautonium links you have posted. Grrrr… I’ll give you my views when I get home. Leaving right now!).
Bis später!
That is very interesting.
Back.
I found in Youtube that some well known movie soundtracks had some trautonium collaborations, like Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’.
I’m surprised that Telefunken agreed to market 100 trautoniums. I ask myself whether a big corporation would support Trautwein or not nowadays!
I love your piccie of the leaves at the top of your blog…
whimp
xx
Hello Wanda – strange sounds from Franconia …
Yeah, The Birds – Sala made the soundtrack in a Berlin backyard, Leni. I do not believe that Trautwein would find people who invest real money in his crazy ideas today. See that it was top-notch-spearhead-of-the-avantguarde in those days, the whole broadcasting thing! Nowadays … I like to listen to the radio when driving. Especially to a classic station here. But generally in the last years the customer is his own program director. A bit … boring, possibly. We tend to listen to the “good” things again and again, at least I find myself doing this. Radio is a good thing, and it is not all about music. Well done features, Hörspiele, soundscapes – there’s a lot to be discovered. Trautwein really stands at the begining of this, the Vox-Haus was the very first installation. As his (youngest) son says at the end of the (YouTube)feature: Sala was positive for the development of the Trautonium – as a studio sound machine -, but was negative for what Trautwein imagined it to be, a general sound-machine using radio technique and giving everybody the possibility to “make own sounds” … we have the web nowadays … Kraftwerk bows in Trautwein-Sala’s direction.
*blush*
Ich mag ein Katzentrautonium!
When you go to Europe, will your furry masters have this?
He was born in the same town I was born.
Nessa – where have you been? You were silent for some weeks I think.
We still have no Trautwein-Strasse and no Nessa- K-Strasse! :)
I would like to turn my house into a Katzenhotel.
Header photo : NIce. :) Which plant or tree is it?
Hope by now u are in good health and all the reports are normal. :)
This article is interesting and informative. :)
You shelter old Katers too, MJ?
I am glad, Chandrika Shubham to learn that you liked the text and the header picture – I will have to ask a friend about the plant, simply because I can not tell one fom another: I took that photo only because of the colours. My health is in no way alarming, all is checked and balanced, thank you for your concern.