300px|thumbnail|right|Telharmonium console by [[Thaddeus Cahill, 1897]]

The Telharmonium (also known as the Dynamophone) was an early electrical organ, developed by Thaddeus Cahill 1896 and patented in 1897. The electrical signal from the Telharmonium was transmitted over wires; it was heard on the receiving end by means of "horn" speakers.

Like the later Hammond organ, the Telharmonium used tonewheels to generate musical sounds as electrical signals by additive synthesis.

  • In 1893 Hungarian Tivadar Puskás created the ‘Telefonhírmondó’ or ‘Telephone Herald’ He was working as a Congressional aide when he conceived the idea of the telharmonium, which would broadcast music over telephone wires for "the continuous entertainment of all present".

Although some experimentation with electrically produce sound had been carried out previously, Cahill's insight was not to turn these into sound directly. Earlier systems used a variety of mechanical systems attached to electrical motors or actuators to produce sound within the instrument. Cahill's concept did not do this, it sent the resulting electrical signals directly into telephone lines. At the receiver end, a metal cone attached to the telephone handset produced a primitive loudspeaker that turned the signals into an audible sound.

To produce different notes, a series of twelve separate alternating-current generators were used to produce different frequency outputs. Each generator produced a particular note, and eight separate taps off the output shifted the frequency to different octaves. The system also included controls that allowed the signals to be mixed together in certain ways, producing effects like vibrato. As the first six harmonics on and equal temperament scale are also correct notes, this allowed for mixing to produce different timbres. Volume was controlled by a movable core with the generators that changed the inductance. The performer played it using a keyboard very similar to contemporary pipe organs, with the stops being used to control various effects. The final version was patented in 1897.

Cahill built three versions of the system, all differing from the original primarily in being cut-down to the high cost of the generators.

The 1906 model, had 145 separate electric generators. The Mark II weighed almost 200 tons, was 60 feet long, had multiple keyboards and controls, and required at least two players. Lee DeForest used the system from its site in Telharmonic Hall at 39th and Broadway to broadcast music "clearly audible to hearers miles away without wires".

A small number of performances were given for live audiences, in addition to the telephone transmissions. Performances in New York City In these presentations, the performer sat at a console to control the instrument.

The 1911, last Telharmonium, the Mark III, weighed almost 200 tons, was 60 feet long, had multiple keyboards and controls, and required at least two players, was installed in a special performance room in New York City.

The Telharmonium was retailed by Cahill for $200,000.

The Telharmonium's demise came for a number of reasons. The instrument was immense in size and weight. This being an age before vacuum tubes had been invented, it required large electric dynamos which consumed great amounts of power in order to generate sufficiently strong audio signals. In addition, problems began to arise when telephone broadcasts of Telharmonium music were subject to crosstalk and unsuspecting telephone users would be interrupted by strange electronic music. By 1912, interest in this revolutionary instrument had changed, and Cahill's company was declared not successful in 1914.

Telharmonium tones were described as "clear and pure" of power

The same system is the basis for the Hammond organ. The main difference is that the signals generated by what are now called "tone wheels" are read using a conventional pickup. This produces microwatts of output, which is then sent into an electronic amplifier and then to a speaker on the organ. The smaller size and power levels allowed Hammond to add another harmonic disk, the eighth harmonic (skipping the seventh, to further improve the sound. Ironically, one common use of the Hammond was to produce Muzak that was initially distributed over telephone lines.

Legacy

:"Ferruccio Busoni was inspired by the machine at the height of its popularity and moved to write his ‘Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music’ (1907) which in turn became the clarion call and inspiration for the new generation of electronic composers such as Edgard Varèse and Luigi Russolo."

See also

  • Trautonium

Further reading

  • Holmes, Thomas B. Electronic and Experimental Music. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1985. pp. 32-41
  • Scientific American vol 96 #10 9th March 1907
  • New Music for an Old World McClure's. v.27 1906 May-Oct.
  • The Telharmonium: A History of the First Music Synthesizer, review by Thomas L Rhea. Computer Music Journal, vol. 12 #3, 1988
  • Gunter’s Magazine (v5 #5, June 1907) The Home Publishing Company, 503-622pp
  • Telharmonic Hall Program

References

Bibliography

  • https://www.britannica.com/art/telharmonium
  • Official U.S. Patent
  • https://magneticmusic.ws/mmvideo.htm

:*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV34h-YCMbE

:*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf6OQvhChKg

  • https://daelectronicmusic.wordpress.com/history/telharmonium/ Douglas Anderson School of the Arts
  • https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a17086/first-synth-muzak-telharmonium/
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20121114225402/https://blogs.courant.com/bill_weir/2010/04/mark-twain-electronic-music-pi.html
  • https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal/telharmonium-history
  • Telharmonium, Audion Piano, Luigi Russolo et les bruitistes sonhors.free.fr, French
  • https://www.makenoisemusic.com/content/manuals/telharmonicManual.pdf
  • Telharmonic, an Eurorack synthesizer module