Electrische piano: Trautonium (1941) 

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Hindemith had to escape from the Nazis as they banned his work. He was one of Oscar Salas mentors. I met Sala 1997 in Berlin (staggering 56 years after this video). During the war a soviet grenade almost killed him. He carried a bag of beer bottles and the scrapnel hit the bottles, so he survived. In Berlin there was one large Trautonium for concerts in the radiostation, but the soviets unwillingly blew it up, as they didnt knew the instruction of how to turn it on. So the Thyratron tubes blew up. I think he said they needed to heat up in a certain way for the large version of the trautonium. Another Konzerttrautonium was bombed out during the airraids. So the war and the Nazis did not do the instrument great favour, though they seemed to have understood its value and used it in some movies and also in radio. KRAFTWERK was also in Berlin 1997 and through a tip they found one of the original smaller Volkstrautoniums earlier on, forgotten on an attic. They had gotten it and renovated it. So likely they have the only operating Trautonium from that time in the world. The Volkstrautonium operated the level/volume/attack/aftertouch of the Manual through a wire that was put into glycerin, the deeper the wire the more conductivity. Yet Kraftwerks glycerin was to pure to conduct, so they had to get it running by unpurifying with water. Later versions used another wire i think. Sala claimed/insisted that his original glycerin resistor was the best sounding though. Sala had a patent on that. Dieter Doepfer who was also there thought that came because he was used to it.

a small company called "trautoniks" are actually building them again. But they are very expensive and there's a waitingtime of 10 months if you order one.

This is among the greatest clips on all of RU-vid.

Simply amazing.

Wonderful video. The man on the Trautonium moves his hands like a dj. The man on the acoustic piano sounds like "forever alone" meme

this man is like a time traveler from the future with his amazing creations...

Das m.E. einzig vorhandene Bewegtbild von Oskar Sala aus dieser Zeit (1941), das ihn beim Spielen des Konzert-Trautoniums zeigt. Ein äußerst rares Zeitdokument der elektronischen Musikgeschichte. Sala bringt hier zusammen mit Harald Genzmer (Piano) in einem kurzen Ausschnitt das Violinenstück "La capricciosa" von Franz Ries zur Aufführung.

haha he's playing liszt's la chase etude at the beginning well that was originaly for violin in the 18th century then for piano in the 19th century and for trautonium in the 20th century in the end :-) what a fun

This sounds monophonic - bring back the Telharmonium!!!!!

he says the europe will be a federal nation with germany as its centre of power by the 21st century regardless of the out come to the war - lets celebrate with some funky music hans ...

I thought that this was like a revolutionary new instrument prototype when I heard for the first time on instagram only minutes ago

Lamont Lewis 1 second ago I listened to a NPR radio show about the Trautonium. Just before the start of WWII, Blaupunkt had a short manufacturing run producing them. At the time, a radio was the only electronic device capable of emitting the sound of the Trautonium. It was the first fully electronic instrument. However, Blaupunkt was not making money and discontinued manufacturing them. The use of the instrument had been on a downswing when some Nazi bigwig complained to Hitler that he didn't hear enough trautonium music. Hitler previewed some of the music the instrument made and said "I like it!" Production was resumed. Concerts featuring the instrument blossomed across Nazi held territories. The end of the war brought much of it to an end. Oskar Sala was one of a select few who continued performing on the instrument. In 1960, he was asked to play for Alfred Hitchcock, to simulate the sounds heard in his movie, 'The Birds'. That's right. The sound of the birds was actually Oskar Sala on a Trautonium. Sala lived into his early 90s and continued to play til his death.

wow ! the beginning of electronic music !

Stumbled upon this while doing research on the telharmonium for an assignment. Super thankful for uploading this piece of history

Fascinating sound and wonderfull instrument ! It was before Moog synthtiser ! Danke :)

bob moog, ray kurzweil, alan pearlman, yamaha, and others all tried to recreate that touch keyboard that allowed ptich and loudness on the key. notice they are capatanance keys, your finger is part of the circuit!! ! all with radio components. amazing.

no deja escuchar

interesting document. Im kind of surprised that this kind of thing was happening during the Nazi occupation considering their repressive attitude toward modern art.

Is this footage public domain?

Actually, the teleharmonium dates back even earlier, to the late 1890's, I believe.

1:13

Clásico.

Didn’t know they could produce sounds like that back then, thought it developed over the 1950s great vid thanks 👍

OLD SKOOL ELECTRO

Wonderful document! What is the name of the first piece played by Sala as solo?

Hang on - I thought it was developed in 1928?

@tatunkha , thank you for the info , i be very interest in history of analog instruments ! greetz : )

@tatunkha , wasn't ? ok, perhaps theremin or telharmonium ?

1:13

To yeah!!! I mean, it actually looks like that!!! ;-)

Ok. My English is not perfect, so sorry for misunderstand.

Hungarian. Do you speak it? :D Schprechen Sie Deutsch? :)

Krautonium XD

awesome just... awesome...

haha, vette shit

i dont think so...

Great

Ongelofelijk mooi, en bijzonder. Wat zou ik daar graag op spelen ^^

excellent !!!!!!

Could anyone provide a translation for this?

Ik had gewoon schijt aan gehad, en een dikke klezmer-swing cross over gespeeld, geïntegreerd met hava nagila en al... schijterige schnitzel likkende toetsenist dit! wel daarom des te meer episch filmpje, dit instrument vertelt nogal een verhaal!

The Nazis were such a musical people.

el primer dj

Nazi synth = no groove.