Telharmonium Explained

The Telharmonium (also known as the Dynamophone[1]) was an early electrical organ, developed by Thaddeus Cahill c. 1896 and patented in 1897.[2] [3] [4] The electrical signal from the Telharmonium was transmitted over wires; it was heard on the receiving end by means of "horn" speakers.[5]

Like the later Hammond organ, the Telharmonium used tonewheels to generate musical sounds as electrical signals by additive synthesis.[5] It is considered to be the first electromechanical musical instrument.

Background

History

In 1890's, Thaddeus Cahill was a lawyer living in Washington DC who invented devices for Pianos and Typewriters.[11]

"Cahill was working as a Congressional aide when he conceived the idea"[12]

The final design, patented in 1897, had twelve separate alternating-current generators, to generate electric waves, to produce the twelve basic tones of the musical scale, that would be controlled by a keyboard and heard through a telephone receiver.[13]

Cahill built three versions.[4] Each was an advancement over the features of its predecessor.

By 1901, Cahill had constructed a working model, to seek financial backing for a finished machine. The Mark I weighed 7 tons.[4] [14]

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.[4]

"As early as 1906, the Cahill Telharmonium Company of New York attempted to sell musical entertainment (produced by Dr. Thaddeus Cahill's "Telharmonium," an early synthesizer) to subscribers through the telephone. The Bell Telephone company, claiming that company equipment might be damaged, refused to give the company permission to use its lines, and the firm switched to radio technology"[15]

"Dr. Lee DeForest, of wireless telegraphy fame, made a series of successful tests with Telharmonic music currents, making the selection of the concert at Telharmonic hall clearly audible to hearers miles away without wires." — Passaic Daily News, Passaic, New Jersey, 16 March 1907, Page 6

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.[4]

A small number of performances were given for live audiences, in addition to the telephone transmissions. Performances in New York City (some at "Telharmonic Hall", 39th and Broadway)[5] were well received by the public in 1906, with Mark Twain among the appreciative audience.[16] In these presentations, the performer sat at a console to control the instrument. The actual mechanism was so large it occupied an entire room; wires from the controlling console were fed discreetly through holes in the auditorium floor, into the instrument room below.The Telharmonium foreshadowed modern electronic musical equipment in a number of ways. For instance, its sound output came in the form of connecting ordinary telephone receivers to large paper cones - a primitive form of loudspeaker. Cahill stated that electromagnetic diaphragms were the most preferable means of outputting its distinctive sound. There are no known recordings of its music.

The Telharmonium was retailed by Cahill for $200,000.[17]

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.[18] By 1912, interest in this revolutionary instrument had changed, and Cahill's company was declared not successful in 1914.[4]

Cahill died in 1934; his younger brother retained the Mark I for decades, but was unable to interest anyone in it. This was the last version to be scrapped, in 1962.[5]

Design

"The telharmonium generated its sounds using a system of alternators called "rheotomes." Each rheotome was actually a cog with a specific number of notched teeth. As the edge of the rheotome rotated against a wire brush (part of a larger circuit), the teeth would contact the brush a certain number of times each second, based on the rheotome's diameter. This resulted in the electrical oscillation of a sonic frequency."[19]

Telharmonium tones were described as "clear and pure" - referring to the electronic sine wave tones it was capable of producing. However, it was not restricted to such simple sounds. Each tonewheel of the instrument corresponded to a single note, and, to broaden its possibilities, Cahill added several extra tonewheels to add harmonics to each note. This, combined with organ-like stops and multiple keyboards (the Telharmonium was polyphonic), as well as a number of foot pedals, meant that every sound could be sculpted and reshaped - the instrument was noted for its ability to reproduce the sounds of common orchestral woodwind instruments such as the flute, bassoon, clarinet, and also the cello. The Telharmonium needed 671 kilowatts[20] [21] of power:233 and had 153 keys that allowed it to work properly.[22] [23]

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."[24] [25] [26]

See also

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Chapter 6 – Digital Sound & Music . 2024-04-21 . en-US.
  2. , filed 1896-02-04.
  3. Web site: The Dynamophone (a.k.a. Telharmonium-The Great Grandpappy of the Modern Synthesizer) and Thaddeus Cahill. Snyder. Jeff. Lebanon Valley College. https://web.archive.org/web/20090302144328/http://csunix1.lvc.edu/~snyder/em/dyna.html. 2009-03-02.
  4. Web site: Jay . Williston . Thaddeus Cahill's Telharmonium . synthmuseum.com . 2000 . specification...dated April 6, 1897", "application filed February 4, 1896", "weighed about 7 tons in all", "By 1906 the new Telharmonium...weighed almost 200 tons.
  5. Book: Weidenaar, Reynold . 1995 . Magic Music from the Telharmonium . Lanham, MD . Scarecrow Press . 436 . 0-8108-2692-5. An authoritative history of the Telharmonium. Weidenaar produced a 29-minute documentary video, also called Weidenaar . Reynold --> . Magic Music from the Telharmonium . Magnetic Music Publishing Co. . 1998. (See website for extensive additional documentation)
  6. Web site: 2021-01-21 . The Telharmonium . 2024-04-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210121150317/https://www.sothismedias.com/home/the-telharmonium . 2021-01-21 .
  7. Web site: Thaddeus Cahill's "Music Plant" The Telharmonium and the promise of electrical music on tap . 2024-04-21.
  8. Web site: Thaddeus Cahill's Teleharmonium . 2024-04-21.
  9. Web site: The Telharmonium: Electricity's Alliance With Music . Thomas Commerford Martin. 2024-04-21.
  10. Web site: News and Entertainment by Telephone (1876-1930) . 2024-04-21.
  11. Web site: Synthmuseum.com - Magazine . 2024-04-21 . www.synthmuseum.com.
  12. Web site: 2015-05-27 . F.Y.I. - NYTimes.com . . 2024-04-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150527101339/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/12/nyregion/fyi-444057.html . 2015-05-27 .
  13. Web site: 2017-04-12 . Telharmonium . 2024-04-21 . ETHW . en.
  14. https://ethw.org/File:Telharmonium.jpg A duo at the Washington Telharmonium keyboard
  15. Web site: The History of Magnetic Recording in the United States, 1888-1978 . 2024-04-21.
  16. Web site: Stubbs. David . 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181121003132/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/worlds-first-synthesizer-was-200-ton-behemoth-180970828/. 21 November 2018. live. The World's First Synthesizer Was a 200-Ton Behemoth. 2023-02-23. Smithsonian Magazine. en.
  17. Web site: 2021-12-26 . Electronic Music: A Not-So-Brief History . 2024-04-21 . Carl Kruse People + Organizations Doing Good . en-US.
  18. Web site: The 'Telharmonium' or 'Dynamophone' Thaddeus Cahill, USA 1897. 120 Years of Electronic Music. 20 September 2013 . 14 December 2017.
  19. Web site: Telharmonium . 2024-04-21 . HistoryOfRecording.com.
  20. Web site: 2020-09-28 . Musical recordings lost to history (The Stationary Ark, etc.) . 2024-04-21 . Straight Dope Message Board . en.
  21. Web site: 2023-11-03 . 200 tonnes in 1893: The world's first synthesiser . 2024-04-21 . faroutmagazine.co.uk . en-US.
  22. Book: Weidenaar , Reynold . Telharmonium . http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/46183 . Grove Music Online . Oxford Music Online @ Oxford University Press. Web. . 7 February 2013.
  23. Web site: Music, Sound, And The Personal Computer . 2024-04-21.
  24. Web site: 2022-02-04 . Streaming in the Victorian Era: Early Synthesizer Sent Out Tunes by Telephone . 2024-04-21 . 99% Invisible . en-US.
  25. Web site: THE DEAD MEDIA NOTEBOOK . 2024-04-21.
  26. Web site: Dead medium: Cahill's Telharmonium . https://web.archive.org/web/20131004184728/https://www.deadmedia.org/notes/7/072.html. 2024-04-21. 2013-10-04 .