The ‘Emiriton’ A. Ivanov, V.A. Kreytser & Andrey Rimsky-Korsakov, Russia, 1943

Late 1950's version of the Emiriton
Late 1950’s version of the Emiriton

The Emiriton was an example of a series of finger-board electronic instruments developed in the Soviet Union in the 1930’s, inspired perhaps by Leon Termen’s avoidance of a standard keyboard with his Theremin. Other instruments included V.A.Gurov’s (a former colleague of Leon Termen) “Neo-Violena“(1927) the “Sonar“(1930) and the Volodin’s “Ekvodin” (1931). Designed by A. Ivanov and A.Rimsky-Korsakov, The Emiriton was a originally a fingerboard instrument allowing the use of glissando effects, with later models incorporating a standard keyboard. The Emiriton generated sound from neon-tube oscillators and was able to replicate sounds such  as  the bassoon, violin, cello and clarinet.

Rimsky Korsakov
Andrey Vladimirovich Rimsky-Korsakov

Biographical Information: Andrey Vladimirovich Rimsky-Korsakov

Andrey Vladimirovich Rimsky-Korsakov, grandson of the famous Russian composer,studied at the Leningrad Conservatory and the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute. His combination of musical and technical knowledge allowed Andrey Vladimirovich to work successfully at the Research Institute of Musical Industry organized by Academician N.N.Andreyev. From 1932 he collaborated with the engineer A.A.Ivanov to construct one of the earliest Russian electric musical instruments: the Emiriton. In early 1941, Rimsky-Korsakov moved to the Leningrad Physicotechnical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, where he began his investigations in hydroacoustics. In 1942, he joined the Navy and, during the war was involved in designing and testing acoustic mines. After the war, Rimsky-Korsakov returned to his studies in musical acoustics at the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute of Communication, and later at the Acoustics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. In 1960, Rimsky-Korsakov established the Department of Electroacoustics and Ultrasonics at the Moscow Mining Institute focussing on acoustical measurements, and noise and vibration control and technological processes of low-frequency acoustic vibrations.


Sources:

Time, Volume 44. 1944

Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-garde, 1900-1929 By Larry Sitsky

Soviet Physics: Acoustics, Volume 36

The ‘Gnome’ Ivan Ivanovitch Eremeeff, Russia/USA, 1932

The as yet un-named Gnome: Ivan Emreeff (L) and co-designer Eda Kassell (R) playing the Gnome in 1932. Image: The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,Sun, 18 Sept 1932, 37.

The Gnome was an electro-magnetic tone-wheel based instrument created in Philadelphia, USA in 1932 by the Russian mathematician, physicist, co creator of the helicopter and prolific inventor Ivan Eremeeff and his wife, the phycisist Eda Emilie Kassel (1910 – 1994). 1 A Pipeless Organ,  The Empress Express, 1933-04-06 and Southwest Times, Volume 33, Number 63, 5 May 1938 . However, Eremeeff, challenging the claim of the Theremin to be the original electronic instrument, argued that he had been developing his instrument before Lev Termen’s Theremin patent of 1926. 2 Glinsky, Albert,(2005) Theremin; Ether Music and Espionage, University of Illinois Press, 83. The Gnome was a smaller version of a larger, unnamed tone wheel organ that Eremeeff built around the same time in 1932 and patented in the US in 1933 (Synthetic electronic musical instrument US1990024A). This smaller instrument was designed to be a portable – hence the name Gnome – easy to use, affordable electronic instrument aimed at the US domestic market  and, like other similar designs of the period, could be attached to and amplifier of a home radio receiver:

“Rotating electromagnetic tone wheels generated the sounds. The keyboard (three and a half octaves) and the bench on which the player sat formed part of an electrical circuit; when one of the stationary, touch-plate keys was fingered, an electrical contact was made through the performer’s body with the metal top of the bench. In addition to pedals governing volume and tremolo there was also a decay control. The Gnome was designed for home use and could be connected to the amplifier and loudspeaker of a domestic radio set” 3Davies, Hugh. (1984) Gnome, The New Grove dictionary of musical instruments, Oxford University press, 55.

A unique feature of the Gnome was the flat metal tough-plate keyboard which, as well as being cheap to manufacture, allowed the player to alter the various note qualities – volume, timbre etc – through finger pressure via the player’s body capacitance:

“Mr. Eremeeff said yesterday. The unnamed instrument has a keyboard which looks like a piano board, but there is a vast difference. The “keys” arranged as on a piano in sharps and flats are solid metal and do not move. Each connects with a tiny electrical coil and the minutest difference in finger pressure on the “key” will change the tone, but not the pitch of that particular note “struck.” Likewise, by covering a larger surface of the “key” with the finger tip, a difference in tone is produced which ranged from an almost inaudible whisper to a roar which will carry ten miles, dependent, of course, upon sufficient amplification.”4Musical Baby, by Radio out of Algebra, is Like Piano, but not Like Piano, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sun, 18 Sept 1932, Page 29

Eremeef claimed that his instrument was superior to other similar tone-wheel instruments of the day in that it used a combination of additive and subtractive synthesis techniques to achieve a more natural sound across the whole register:

Fig.1 “The Gnome” from the accompanying article (below) in Electromagnetic Music, Radio Craft, November, 1932.

“The smaller instrument has been called a “Gnome” […] the “Gnome” produces tone quality with the aid of a dial wave- alteration control, in which wave forms are modified by the selective connection of the output circuit to different taps of a transformer, or by a system of condensers which are adjusted by a dial. […], the performer is seated upon a bench which has a metal top to which the circuit of the instrument is connected, the body of the performer acting as a conductor to the metal of the keys, the sensitivity of the touch of the fingers determining the effect of tones, as previously described. A rather novel feature introduced by these instruments is the new method of music writing, including the accurate scientific delineation of curves representing wave forms, in place of ordinary notes and symbols as used in ordinary music writing today. These new methods correctly indicate pitch, by frequency numbers; volume, by numbers requiring units such as decibels; duration, also by numbers representing time units; and quality, by the curves which represent the tunes.

The Gnome illustrated in Fig.1 is not an ordinary synthetic type, but obtains Its various tone qualities by means of a device operated by the pedal L. This instrument works entirely on the Eremeeff synthesis method of producing musical tones. This method is an advance of the method based on what is generally known as the “theory of Helmholtz,” which combines a fundamental frequency of, for example, 32 cycles, with its first harmonic of frequency 64, its second multiple frequency of 96, its second har monic frequency of 128, its fourth multiple fre quency of 160, etc., into a complex pulsating electric current, which, when converted into sound energy, has a predetermined tone quality, if these frequencies are combined at the correct intensities.

Disadvantages are found in this method. For example, if the fundamental is high in frequency, let us say 4,090 cycles, its harmonics and multiples, if higher than about 12,000 cycles, are not within the range of audibility. This leaves the higher tones comparatively poor in quality, while the lower tones are rich. Low frequency fundamentals may always carry many harmonics, but this does not hold for high frequency fundamentals. The Eremeeff system adds to the fundamental, fractions of the first harmonic whose frequencies are in accordance with the tones of one octave of a musical scale.

For example, a fundamental frequency of 32 cycles has a first harmonic frequency of 64; a first fraction of 34: a second fraction of 36; it third fraction of 38; a fourth fraction of 40; a fifth of 43; a sixth of 45; a seventh, of 48; an eighth, of 51 ; a ninth, of 54; a tenth, of 57; an eleventh, of 61, etc. As important as the frequency of these currents, Is the intensity at which each is released for combination with the fundamental, which also has a definite Intensity.

In the case of high-frequency fundamentals. in which the combination with partials of still higher frequencies, as harmonics, multiples, etc., is inconvenient, sub-harmonies and exact divisional frequencies are added, For example. if the fundamental has it frequency of 4.096 cycles. Its partials such as the first harmonic, the fractions of the first harmonic, and possibly a second multiple, are within the limits of audibility, but higher frequencies are worthless.

In this case, the first sub-harmonic, it frequency 2.048, the second sub-harmonic, a frequency 1,024, and exact divisions of the fundamental, etc., are available for combining with the fundamental at predetermined intensities to produce complex pulsating electric currents which, when converted into sound energy, have predetermined pitch, quality, and volume.

Contradictory to what is generally accepted as correct, and resulting from years of experimenting, it is the tenet of Mr. Eremeeff that the fundamental tone is not that which has the lowest frequency but the tone which has a pre-determined intensity in precisely measured units of loudness. The partials having fractional intensities comparative to that of the fundamental, for the purpose of maintaining the pitch of the combined tone while the quality may be altered as desired during the uninterrupted operation of the entire instrument, by the addition and deduction of other frequencies. Experiments have proven that if a certain fundamental is mixed with a number of partials, and if in some way, one of partials is released at an intensity which is greater than that of the fundamental, the combined tone will take the pitch of the loud partial, and the fundamental will become a partial when thus subdued.

This instrument permits of combining with each individual key tone (which represents a predetermined fundamental, sixteen, and more by other menus) partials which are harmonics, sub-harmonics, fractions of the first harmonic, and multiples, and divisions of the fundamental.”5Kassel,E.E. (1932) Electromagnetic Music, Radiocraft, November 1932,270,297.

Eda Kassel playing the “Gnome” in Popular Science magazine, October 1932, p16.
The “Gnome” with a mechanical keyboard and amplifier and speaker cabinet: Popular Science magazine, October 1932 p16

It is unknown if the Gnome was ever commercially manufactured as intended. 6Rhea, Thom, (1972) Evolution Of Electronic Music Instruments In The US, Masters Dissertation, Peabody, 143. but shortly after the Gnome, Eremeef went on to design the optical-synthesis based Syntronic Organ and the Photona in partnership with Leopold Stokowski at the WCAU broadcasting station in Philadelphia which achieved some commercial success in the USA.

Biography: Ivan Ivanovich Eremeef

Ivan Eremeeff (later Americanised to Ivan Jerome) was a Russian-American physicist, prolific inventor and designer of electronic instruments. Born in Chelyabinsk, Russia in 1893 , he probably emigrated to the USA about 1918, and began experimenting with the construction of electronic instruments about 1923 in Dayton, Ohio, where he also developed a four rotor H-1 helicopter for the US army (1922) a barograph (1928) and a mobile aircraft hangar (1922).

Eremeeff and Bothezat’s design for a four rotor military helicopter the ‘Flying Octopus’: December 18, 1922, The first helicopter actually to fly, designated the Engineering Division H-1, was designed by Dr. George de Bothezat and Mr. Ivan (Eremeeff) Jerome.

In 1930 he moved to Philadelphia, where he founded and chaired the Society of Electronic music and took out eight patents for electronic instruments between 1932 and 1936 including the including the Gnome (1933 patent), a larger variant of the Gnome (1933), the Syntronic Organ (1934) and the Photona (1935). In the early 1930s he worked at the electronic music laboratory of the radio station WCAU in Philadelphia.

Eremeeff’s electronic instruments were based on two different sound-generating systems: electromagnetic tone-wheels, a principle he used in the Gnome, and photoelectric devices – Photona (or WCAU organ; 1935) and Syntronic organ (1934). The last instrument was enthusiastically endorsed by Leopold Stokowski, and inspired him to plan with Eremeeff an electronic orchestra, but this project was never realized. In spite of their names, Eremeeff did not attempt to recreate the tone qualities of a pipe organ in either of his two photoelectric instruments. An unusual feature of all his electronic instruments was the addition of a vibrato pedal to the normal volume pedal, and in two of them there was also a control for the decay of the notes. Eremeeff claims to have experimented with  prototypes of a Theremin like instrument intended to produce not only tones but light and odours. In the 1953 he filed a suit against Hammond Organ Co. for patent infringement of his ‘photoelectrical musical system’ which was ultimately dismissed for lack of prosecution in January 1957. 7Davies, Hugh (2014) Electronic Instruments, The Grove dictionary of musical instruments, New York : Oxford University Press, 167. 8Patent Suits. Notices under 35 U.S.C . 290 Patents act of 1952, 529.

In 1938 Eremeeff returned to aviation and created a design for a supersonic aircraft.9 Plane with the Speed of Sound Is Proposed by Designer, Popular Mechanics Magazine 1938-12: Vol 70 Iss 6, 833. After World War II, Eremeef/Jerome set up a lucrative business designing optical instruments and precision aerial cameras for the US army and moved to Southampton New York. In 1955, aged 62, Eremeev/Jerome hit the headlines when he was charged with creating obscene and pornographic films and corrupting minors at his Southampton mansion. Eremeev/Jerome jumped a $100,000 bail bond and fled the country. 101956, OBSCENE AND PORNOGRAPHIC LITERATURE AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY INTERIM REPORT OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY PURSUANT TO S. Res. 62, and S. Res. 173 (84th Congress),7


References:

  • 1
    A Pipeless Organ,  The Empress Express, 1933-04-06 and Southwest Times, Volume 33, Number 63, 5 May 1938
  • 2
    Glinsky, Albert,(2005) Theremin; Ether Music and Espionage, University of Illinois Press, 83.
  • 3
    Davies, Hugh. (1984) Gnome, The New Grove dictionary of musical instruments, Oxford University press, 55.
  • 4
    Musical Baby, by Radio out of Algebra, is Like Piano, but not Like Piano, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sun, 18 Sept 1932, Page 29
  • 5
    Kassel,E.E. (1932) Electromagnetic Music, Radiocraft, November 1932,270,297.
  • 6
    Rhea, Thom, (1972) Evolution Of Electronic Music Instruments In The US, Masters Dissertation, Peabody, 143.
  • 7
    Davies, Hugh (2014) Electronic Instruments, The Grove dictionary of musical instruments, New York : Oxford University Press, 167.
  • 8
    Patent Suits. Notices under 35 U.S.C . 290 Patents act of 1952, 529.
  • 9
    Plane with the Speed of Sound Is Proposed by Designer, Popular Mechanics Magazine 1938-12: Vol 70 Iss 6, 833.
  • 10
    1956, OBSCENE AND PORNOGRAPHIC LITERATURE AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY INTERIM REPORT OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY PURSUANT TO S. Res. 62, and S. Res. 173 (84th Congress),7

The ‘Radio Harmonium’, Sergeĭ Nikolaevich Rzhevkin, Russia, 1925.

One of the earliest electronic instruments of the Soviet period, the Radio (or ‘Cathodic’) Harmonium was a three (or four) voice polyphonic cathode vacuum tube instrument controlled by a manual keyboard, designed for playing atonal music. The Radio Harmonium , capable of producing polyphonic chords of four tones in any temperament, was designed by the audio physicist and acoustician Sergeĭ Nikolaevich Rzhevkin (1891-1981) shortly after the invention of the Theremin. 1 Smirnov, Andrei, (2013) SOUND in Z: Experiments in Sound
and Electronic Music in Early 20th Century Russia, Verlag de Buchhandlung Walther Konig, Cologne, 84.
.

“S. N. Rzhevkin is engaged in the construction of a cathode harmonium of his own invention. this harmonium at present has four separate sound generators, affording the possibility of obtaining chords of four tones, as well as the entire chromatic scale within the limits of one and a half octaves.. In addition S. N. Rzhevkin is working on the construction of a keyboard instead of a time-stop device, and also on the question of  obtaining dynamic shading in playing.” 2Cultural life in the Soviet Union, National Institute for Musical Science, Russian Review, Volumes 3-4, march 15, 1925,123.

The instrument was used by the philosopher Ivan Orlov in his investigations of aural phenomena and human perception. 3OrlovI. E. (1926) “Experiments with Rzhevkin’s cathode harmonium.” A Collection of Articles in Musical Acoustics (Russian), State Institute of Musical Science19251. “We must say a few words about Orlov’s hobby, music theory. He asked himself the question, “Why do our auditory organs recognize . . . simple numerical ratios [such as 8:11, 8:13, 10:13 and the like] and perceive them as harmony?” (Orlov 1926b, 193). He invoked Helmholtz’ theory to show that the intermittent sensation of beats characterizes the phenomenon of dissonance, while consonance results from the absence of beats. Orlov attempted to experiment in music and carried out an experiment with Rzhevkin’s cathode harmonium. He analyzed the musical works of Prokof ’yev, Skryabin, and Schönberg from the point of view of the presence and status of the “beats” they contained.” Rzhevkin, later chair of the Department of Acoustics of Moscow State University, described his acoustic theories in approach in ‘A course of lectures on the theory of sound’ published in 1963 4Rzhevkin, Sergeĭ Nikolaevich, (1963) A course of lectures on the theory of sound, Pergamon Press, 1963

Sergeĭ Nikolaevich Rzhevkin investigating the influence of sound on plant growth. Image: Popular Science Monthly Mar 1937.

References:

  • 1
    Smirnov, Andrei, (2013) SOUND in Z: Experiments in Sound
    and Electronic Music in Early 20th Century Russia, Verlag de Buchhandlung Walther Konig, Cologne, 84.
  • 2
    Cultural life in the Soviet Union, National Institute for Musical Science, Russian Review, Volumes 3-4, march 15, 1925,123.
  • 3
    OrlovI. E. (1926) “Experiments with Rzhevkin’s cathode harmonium.” A Collection of Articles in Musical Acoustics (Russian), State Institute of Musical Science19251. “We must say a few words about Orlov’s hobby, music theory. He asked himself the question, “Why do our auditory organs recognize . . . simple numerical ratios [such as 8:11, 8:13, 10:13 and the like] and perceive them as harmony?” (Orlov 1926b, 193). He invoked Helmholtz’ theory to show that the intermittent sensation of beats characterizes the phenomenon of dissonance, while consonance results from the absence of beats. Orlov attempted to experiment in music and carried out an experiment with Rzhevkin’s cathode harmonium. He analyzed the musical works of Prokof ’yev, Skryabin, and Schönberg from the point of view of the presence and status of the “beats” they contained.”
  • 4
    Rzhevkin, Sergeĭ Nikolaevich, (1963) A course of lectures on the theory of sound, Pergamon Press, 1963

 

The ‘Neo Violena’ Vladimir A Gurov, V.I. Volynkin & Lucien M. Varvich. Russia 1927.

Designed by the engineer, musician and violin player Vladimir A Gurov with V.I. Volynkin and with musical input from the composer Lucien M. Varvich, the Neo Violena was created in Russia in 1927. The Neo Violena, as it’s name suggests, was a monophonic finger-board controlled instrument. Rather than using a conventional manual keyboard, the instrument was played by pressing or sliding a finger on a metal string to contact a metal conductive fingerboard; the position of the finger on the string determining the pitch and finger pressure varying the volume  – a similar technique to the Hellertion and Trautonium developed a few years later in Germany. 1 Smirnov, Andrei, (2013), Sound in Z: Experiments in Sound and Electronic Music in Early 20th Century Russia, Koenig,  97Sound was produced from a heterodyning vacuum tube – a technique pioneered by Lev Termen and his Theremin earlier in the USSR in the 1920s.2Gurov had previously worked with Termen at the Detskoye Selo radio station near Leningrad and would have been aware of Termen’s well publicised research. Anflilov, Gleb, (1966), Physics and Music, MIR Publishers, Moscow, 150. The instrument was said to be capable of “producing a pleasant and ‘juicy’ sound that resembled different symphony orchestra instruments and possessed a wide range of sounding shades and timbres.”

“ On Thursday evening at the School House, A. R. Hamilton, president of the Hamilton College of Commerce at Mason City will give an address on “How the “Violena” Is Played” . The “Violena” a musical instrument that is a whole orchestra in one, has been perfected at Leningrad, Russia, by the inventor, Vladimir A. Gurov and the young composer, Lucien M. Varvich. The player twirls a dial and the violena turns into a bass viol, another twirl and it becomes a guitar, still another and it is a flute, and so on. Besides its ability to reproduce faithfully almost- any musical instrument.”3The Bode Bugle, 28 May 1937, USA, 5.
The Bode Bugle. 28 May 1937.


References:

  • 1
    Smirnov, Andrei, (2013), Sound in Z: Experiments in Sound and Electronic Music in Early 20th Century Russia, Koenig,  97
  • 2
    Gurov had previously worked with Termen at the Detskoye Selo radio station near Leningrad and would have been aware of Termen’s well publicised research. Anflilov, Gleb, (1966), Physics and Music, MIR Publishers, Moscow, 150.
  • 3
    The Bode Bugle, 28 May 1937, USA, 5.

The ‘Companola’ (‘Kompanola’) and ‘Noisephone’ Igor Simonov, Russia, 1936

The engineer and physicist Igor Simonov was a colleague of Lev Termen at the ‘USSR Sound Recording Institute’, a sound studio laboratory that supplied real-time synthesised sounds for Moscow Radio in the 1930’s. Simonov collaborated with Termen on a number of projects including designs and instructions for home built Theremins but also built several of his own musical devices including a monophonic vacuum tube electronic keyboard instrument called the ‘Companola’ (1936) and the ‘Noisephone’, an electronic device for generating percussive and everyday sound effects – notably, the Noisephone was used to imitate the howling of the wind in the movie “The Forty First” (1957).


Sources:

THE HISTORY OF ELECTRO-MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS IN RUSSIA IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. Irina Aldoshina, Ekaterina Davidenkova. Saint-Petersburg University of Humanities and Social Sciences, Russia

‘Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage’. Albert Glinsky

The ‘Vibroexponator’ Boris Yankovsky, Russia 1932

Boris yankovsky in 1939
Boris Yankovsky in 1939

Boris Yankovsky (1904-1973) worked with the Multzvuk group as a pupil of Arseney Araamov at Mosfilm, Moscow from 1931-32. However he grew disenchanted with what he considered to be an over simplified way of approaching acoustics. Yankovsky realised that pure uniform  waveforms do not represent timbre and that a more complex spectral approach needed to be developed. In 1932 Yankovsky left Multzvuk to pursue his ideas of spectral analysis, decomposition and re-synthesis . His project was based on his belief that it is possible to develop a universal language of sounds using combinations of hand drawn spectral ‘sound objects’ (similar to the much later cross-synthesis and phase-synthesis techniques).

“I found the idea of synthesis while I was laboriously working on ‘drawn sound’. And this is the chain of my consideration:
The colour of the sound depends on the shape of the sound wave;
Graphical colour of the sound wave could be analysed and represented as the Fourier series of periodic functions (sine waves);

Consequently the sound wave could be re-synthesised back with the same set of sine waves. Nobody did this before the invention of graphical (drawn) sound just because there was not a technical means and  methodology for sound reproduction from such graphical representations of sound. As with electrons (the neutrons and protons) the number of which defines the quality of the atom, so do the sine waves define the quality of the sound – it’s timbre.

Drawn scale with angles to create pitch shift
Drawn scale with angles to create pitch shift

The conclusion: why not initiate a  new science – synthetic acoustics?
It would make sense if we could define (at least in draft) a sort of periodic table of Sound Elements, like Mendeleev’s Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. The system of orchestral tone colours has gaps between the rows that could be filled by a means of synthesis, like the gaps between Mendeleev’s Periodic Table of Chemical Elements have been filled with the latest developments in chemistry […] It is obvious that the method of selection and crossing of sound and instruments, which is similar to the method of Michurin (Ivan Michurin Russian Biochemist and Horticulturist), will give us unprecedented, novel ‘fruit hybrids’ that are technically unobtainable for a usual orchestra […]
(Yankovsky 1932-1940; 15,45)

“It is important now to conquer and increase the smoothness of tone colours, flowing rainbows of spectral colours in sound, instead of monotonous colouring of stationary sounding fixed geometric figures [wave shapes], although the nature of these phenomena is not yet clear. The premises leading to the expansion of these phenomena – life inside the sound spectrum – give us the nature of the musical instruments themselves, but “nature is the best mentor” (Leonardo da Vinci) […] The new technology is moving towards the trends of musical renovation, helping us to define new ways for the Art of Music. This new technology is able to help liberate us from the cacophony of the well-tempered scale and related noises. Its name is Electro-Acoustics and it is the basis for Electro-Music and Graphical Sound”.
Yankovsky 1934

To implement these theories yankovsky invented the Vibroexponator; No images or diagrams have survived but the Vibroexponator appears to be a process using a modified rostrum animation stand that allowed the photographed ‘spectral templates’ to be translated into audible sound and then combined into complex sound.

“The Vibroexponator is a complex, bulky tool for optical recording of synthetic sounds to the soundtrack of ordinary 35mm film by means of a specially produced intensive negatives. the instrument is partly mechanised and provides various motions to the original negative. The automation of the direction control is partially broken and requires extra repairs and maintenance, […] The slide copying tool is intended for production of intensive negatives from films with transversal soundtracks. it too is a massive construction. The gearbox at least a 100-fold safety factor and a great power”

Nikolai Zimmin from the MINI institute describes the Vibroexponator in 1939

Yankovsky spent the next decade working on his spectral theories and building a ‘Syntone Database’ of his spectral templates by recording and analysing hundreds of samples of instruments from Bolshoi Theatre as well as samples of vowels and speech.

Slide copying machine tool diagram
Slide copying machine tool diagram

Political repression in the USSR stopped the funding of Yankovsky’s work until 1939 when he met the young inventor Evgeny Murzin who shared Yankovsky’s vision of a universal synthesis tool (which later emerged as the ANS Synthesiser) . Yankovsky together with Murzin and Yevgeny Sholpo formed the ‘Laboratory for Graphical Sound at the Institute of the Theatre and Film’ where he completed the final version of Vibroexponator. Further development of the instrument and of Yankovsky’s theories of spectral sound was halted by the outbreak of World War Two, Yankovsky never returned to graphical sound.

The Multzvuk group

Multzvuk group was formed in 1930 by Arseney Araazamov to conduct research into graphical sound techniques. The group was based at the Mosfilm Productions Company in Moscow (one of the leading film production companies in Moscow, renamed Gorki Film Studio in 1948) and consisted of composer and theoretician, Arseney Araamov, cameraman and draughtsmen  Nikolai Zhelynsky, animator Nikolai Voinov, painter and amateur acoustician Boris Yankovsky. In 1931 the group moved to ‘NIKFI’,  the ‘cientific Research Institute for Graphic Sound’. Leningrad, and and was renamed the ‘Syntonfilm laboratory’. In 1932 NIKFI stopped funding the group who then moved to Mezhrabpomfilm and finally closed in 1934.

From 1930-34 more than 2000 meters of sound track were produced by the Multzvuk group, including the experimental films ‘Ornamental Animation’, ‘Marusia Otravilas’, ‘Chinese Tune’, ‘Organ Chords’, ‘Untertonikum, Prelude’, ‘Piruet’, ‘Staccato Studies’, ‘Dancing Etude’ and ‘Flute Study’. The Multzvuk archive was kept for many years at Avraamov’s apartment, but destroyed in 1937.


 Sources

Electrified Voices: Medial, Socio-Historical and Cultural Aspects of Voice … edited by Dmitri Zakharine, Nils Meise

Graphical Sound Andrey Smirnov, Moscow, 2011

The ‘Ekvodin’, Andrei Volodin, Russia, 1937.

1960s version of the Ekvodin V11 at the Museum of Music, Moscow. Image: (c) Moscow Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation

The Ekvodin was a pioneering electronic synthesiser designed by the Russian engineer and acoustician Andrei Volodin with the Theremin virtuoso Kovalski Konstantin and Yevgeny Murzin (later to invent the ANS synthesiser) and became a well known and successful commercial electronic instrument in the Soviet Union. The first versions of the Ekvodin V1 – built around 1935 at the Moscow Research Institute for Musical Science (NIMI) – were duophonic prototypes controlled by a ribbon controller (a similar design to the Hellertion and Trautonium of the same period) and were used for acoustic and psychoacoustic research at the institute. The V2 Ekvodin included a chromatic fingerboard as well as a ribbon controller. The post WWII V8 Ekvodin augmented the ribbon controller with two conventional 45 note transposable keyboards and a larger range of timbre and envelope controls and won gold medals at the 1958 World Fair in Brussels and the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy in Moscow.1 Zvorykin, A.A.(1970) Soviet Cultural Policy, UNESCO, 43.

1950s Ekvodin V9. Image: Museum of Soviet Synthesisers: http://www.ruskeys.net
Ekvodin Diagram
Ekvodin V9 promotional brochure, Image: Zhurnalko.net

Ekvodin V11 Promotional Brochure

Musicians of the world are now provided with an exiting opportunity to refine their emotional art. EKVODIN is an excellent instrument for any orchestra, ensemble or for solo with piano accompaniment. The singing keyboard of small EKVODIN may fill every home with fascinating melodies. Modern composers will be surprised to find EKVODIN produces unprecedented clarity and variety of tones. Performers, conductors or teachers of music will be satisfied with the great abilities of expression by EKVODIN. EKVODIN opens cosmic horizons in music for everybody.

Technical data (Type «B-ll»):

Keyboard range: 3.33 octaves (41 keys, by “C” to “e”).
Full sound range: 7.33 octaves.
Accuracy of frequency is not worse them 3 cents.
Tuning control for full range and for every key.
Means for finger and automatic frequency vibrato and for glissando in full keyboard range.
Highest quality of sound.
660 combination of sound colour switching.
Sustained and percussion sounds.
Fine expression control.
Music power output: 12 watts.
Net: 110—235 volts 50—60 c.p.s.
Weight: 39 kilograms.
Dimensions: 0,78х0,82х0,38 metre.
Patents: Canada, England, French, German, Italian, USA.

Designed and manufactured in USSR.

Table of the presets

The EKVODIN is a professional musical instrument intended for universal use in various ensembles and orchestras and for solo performances including concerts with the accompaniment of piano and other instruments. The EKVODIN is suitable for different musical genres. The sound is produced in the EKVODIN on purely electrical principle.

The instrument is noted for wide variety and brightness of timbres, broad range and high limit) power of the sound, and also for rational and highly-developed system of reproduction means (vibrating keyboard, loudness pedals, portamento, etc.). This ensures expressiveness and accuracy of performance. The profession of a piano player is closest to that of a man playing the EKVODIN. This similarity, however, does not determine the application of the EKVODIN which is, first of all, an ensemble and orchestra instrument.

The EKVODIN comes in two design versions: one-voice and two-voice versions.
A thoroughly developed system of timbres, varied with the aid of a special switch (and also depending upon the methods of performance), makes it possible to obtain an expressive and pleasant sound.
The EKVODIN imitates quite fully the sound of symphonic orchestra instruments (bow, wood and brass groups, as well as certain percussion and pizzicato instruments) and also folk instruments.
The EKVODIN allows to obtain sound personality in new timbres of modern style. The instrument can be used in mixed ensembles and orchestras for supporting and emphasizing different groups of solo parts performed on the usual (mostly string and brass) instruments, when their natural power is not quite sufficient for overruling the orchestra and for creation of new sounds. In incomplete orchestras and ensembles the EKVODIN can handle practically any part (the two-voice will handle two parts) of the bow, wood or brass groups.

A special ensemble consisting of EKVODINS allows to obtain, for a very small number of instruments (sextet or octet), a multifarious, fluent and high – power sound in original and common timbres. Both design versions of the instrument come in semi-stationary (dismountable-transportable) construction and high-class finish. The extension loudspeaker unit, supplied with the instrument, can be located independently up to a distance of 5 m. The loudspeaker unit is installed depending upon the location of listeners. When carried or transported from place to place, the instrument is packed in two units of suitcase type. For operation the instrument is connected to alternating current mains (127 or 220 V). The EKVODIN is not sensitive to fluctuations of the mains voltage. The one-voice version weighs about 35 kg, and its power consumption does not exceed 90 VA. The output power of the sound channel reaches 10 \V. The two-voice version weighs about 65 kg, and its power consumption does not exceed 200 VA. The output power is up to 10 Win each channel, the timbre setting being independent for each voice. To double the. power of solo parts and timbre effects the voices can merge in unison, octave and two octaves.


Ekvodin B9 1950's Model
Ekvodin B9 1950’s Model. Image: Museum of Soviet Synthesisers: http://www.ruskeys.net

The 1958 V11 Ekvodin model was a monophonic instrument was controlled via a six and a half octave, velocity sensitive keyboard which allowed the player to add vibrato by applying sideways movement to the key, plus a foot controlled volume pedal was included to add expression. Sound was generated from vacuum tubes and passed through a number of pre-set filter banks and octave dividers that could be combined to a total of 660 settings. The instrument was a significant evolution of the B9 and won the gold medal at the Brussels exhibition in 1958 (The V11 impressed Ikaturo Kakehashi with its ‘pleasant reed and string voices’ and inspired him to found the Roland Corporation in Japan).2 Kakehashi, Ikaturo .(2002) I believe in music : life experiences and thoughts on the future of electronic music by the founder of the Roland Corporation,  Milwaukee, WI : Hal Leonard Corp, 32.  Ekvodin V11 was said to be “capable of imitating almost any symphony orchestra instrument, including percussion”3 Davies, Hugh. (2014) Ekvodin, The Grove dictionary of musical instruments Volume 2, New York : Oxford University Press, 142. [/mf]

Informational Record for the Electromusical Instrument Ekvodin”,  All-Union Recording Studio label (Всесоюзная Студия Грамзаписи)

Track List:
A1. Introduction – Waltz, composed by Viktor Sams. Two Ekvodins (one single-voiced, one dual-voiced), accompanied by piano.
A2. Basic explanation of Ekvodin and timbre variation. (Note, the rest of side A is single two-voice Ekvodin either solo or accompanied by piano)
A3. Demonstration of “violoncello” timbre.
A4. Interpretation of one of Dvořák’s dances by two-voiced Ekvodin.
A5. Demonstration of “clarinet” timbre. A6. Demonstration of “oboe” timbre. A7. Demonstration of “bassoon” timbre. A8. Demonstration of “piccolo” timbre.
A9. Demonstration of “double bassoon” timbre.
A10. Demonstration of “trumpet” timbre.
A11. Demonstration of “muted trumpet” timbre.
A12. Demonstration of “french horn” timbre.
A13. Demonstration of various strings.
A14. Demonstration of “guitar” timbre.
A15. Demonstration of “duduk” timbre. A16. Demonstration of “zurna” timbre.
A17. Demonstration of “balalaika” timbre.
A18. Demonstration of “vocal” timbre.
A19. Ravel’s “Bolero”, used to demonstrate two-octave range of Ekvodin.
A20. Demonstration of “bell” timbre.

The Ekvodin was often played on stage – famously by an orchestra of five Ekvodins that claimed the musical capabilities corresponding to an orchestra of 27 ordinary instruments – and used by Soviet composers, especially in scores for movies and theatrical productions: the Ekvodin can be heard in the underwater scenes of the 1961 Soviet science fiction film Amphibian Man ( Gennadi Kazansky
Vladimir Chebotaryov 1962), The Tale of the Siberian Land ( Ivan Pyryev 1948) and Walking the Streets of Moscow ( Georgiy Daneliya 1964) but is probably best remembered for Vyacheslav Mescherin’s Electromusical Instrument Orchestra’s soundtracks for the long running soviet period cartoon  Ну, погоди! :

Andrei Aleksandrovich Volodin playing the Ekvodin c1960. Image: Ekvodin V11 Brochure

Andrei Volodin – Biographical Information:

Andrei Aleksandrovich Volodin was born in 1914 in Moscow into a family of artists. In 1940 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Communications Engineers with a specialization in electroacoustics and radio broadcasting. While still a student, he began working at the film factory in the field of sound recording and in the acoustic laboratory of the Moscow State Conservatory for musical acoustics under the guidance of prof. N. A. Garbuzova, intensively replenishing her knowledge in musical and theoretical disciplines.
After graduating from the institute, he worked on the development of electronic musical instruments. His inventions were used in concert practice and sound recording, exhibited at many foreign exhibitions, and were patented in the USA, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan. Volodin was awarded the Gold Medal for the Ekvodin electric musical instrument at the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958 and had more than 40 copyright certificates and patents for inventions.

In addition to practical and inventive work, A. A. Volodin during these years
was also engaged in the theory of electromusic and musical acoustics. On these problems, he published a monograph and numerous articles in the magazines “Radio”, “Radio-tekhnika”, “Problems of Radio Electronics”, etc. Solving the problem of sound synthesis in electronic musical instruments, A.A. Volodin came to the conclusion that sound synthesis is possible only with the comprehensive development and combination of the achievements of musicology, physics and psychology for a holistic presentation in the final sound. This prompted him to study musical sounds from the point of view of their psychological structure and aesthetic content. The perception of musical sounds became the central problem of his research. Studying the issues of perception of sound synthesis from the psychological side, he became a chief specialist in musical psychology, the author of many works on the theory of electromusic, and a doctor of psychological sciences. In 1975, A. A. Volodin began working at the Moscow State Conservatory, where he organized the Problem Laboratory of Music Theory and Music Education. For a set of works on special equipment, A. A. Volodin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, as well as a number of medals, such as the title of labour veteran. A man of deep and original mind, broad and versatile knowledge, Andrei Aleksandrovich Volodin was full of creative ideas. His premature death represents a great loss for science.3 Shishlev, Mark. (2024) 1937 Andrey Volodin – Invention of the Ekvodin synthesizer, Cantroll, http://cuntroll.ru/article15/ retrieved 25/02/2024.


References:

  • 1
    Zvorykin, A.A.(1970) Soviet Cultural Policy, UNESCO, 43.
  • 2
    Kakehashi, Ikaturo .(2002) I believe in music : life experiences and thoughts on the future of electronic music by the founder of the Roland Corporation,  Milwaukee, WI : Hal Leonard Corp, 32.
  • 3
    Davies, Hugh. (2014) Ekvodin, The Grove dictionary of musical instruments Volume 2, New York : Oxford University Press, 142. [/mf]

    Informational Record for the Electromusical Instrument Ekvodin”,  All-Union Recording Studio label (Всесоюзная Студия Грамзаписи)

    Track List:
    A1. Introduction – Waltz, composed by Viktor Sams. Two Ekvodins (one single-voiced, one dual-voiced), accompanied by piano.
    A2. Basic explanation of Ekvodin and timbre variation. (Note, the rest of side A is single two-voice Ekvodin either solo or accompanied by piano)
    A3. Demonstration of “violoncello” timbre.
    A4. Interpretation of one of Dvořák’s dances by two-voiced Ekvodin.
    A5. Demonstration of “clarinet” timbre. A6. Demonstration of “oboe” timbre. A7. Demonstration of “bassoon” timbre. A8. Demonstration of “piccolo” timbre.
    A9. Demonstration of “double bassoon” timbre.
    A10. Demonstration of “trumpet” timbre.
    A11. Demonstration of “muted trumpet” timbre.
    A12. Demonstration of “french horn” timbre.
    A13. Demonstration of various strings.
    A14. Demonstration of “guitar” timbre.
    A15. Demonstration of “duduk” timbre. A16. Demonstration of “zurna” timbre.
    A17. Demonstration of “balalaika” timbre.
    A18. Demonstration of “vocal” timbre.
    A19. Ravel’s “Bolero”, used to demonstrate two-octave range of Ekvodin.
    A20. Demonstration of “bell” timbre.

    The Ekvodin was often played on stage – famously by an orchestra of five Ekvodins that claimed the musical capabilities corresponding to an orchestra of 27 ordinary instruments – and used by Soviet composers, especially in scores for movies and theatrical productions: the Ekvodin can be heard in the underwater scenes of the 1961 Soviet science fiction film Amphibian Man ( Gennadi Kazansky
    Vladimir Chebotaryov 1962), The Tale of the Siberian Land ( Ivan Pyryev 1948) and Walking the Streets of Moscow ( Georgiy Daneliya 1964) but is probably best remembered for Vyacheslav Mescherin’s Electromusical Instrument Orchestra’s soundtracks for the long running soviet period cartoon  Ну, погоди! :

    Andrei Aleksandrovich Volodin playing the Ekvodin c1960. Image: Ekvodin V11 Brochure

    Andrei Volodin – Biographical Information:

    Andrei Aleksandrovich Volodin was born in 1914 in Moscow into a family of artists. In 1940 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Communications Engineers with a specialization in electroacoustics and radio broadcasting. While still a student, he began working at the film factory in the field of sound recording and in the acoustic laboratory of the Moscow State Conservatory for musical acoustics under the guidance of prof. N. A. Garbuzova, intensively replenishing her knowledge in musical and theoretical disciplines.
    After graduating from the institute, he worked on the development of electronic musical instruments. His inventions were used in concert practice and sound recording, exhibited at many foreign exhibitions, and were patented in the USA, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan. Volodin was awarded the Gold Medal for the Ekvodin electric musical instrument at the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958 and had more than 40 copyright certificates and patents for inventions.

    In addition to practical and inventive work, A. A. Volodin during these years
    was also engaged in the theory of electromusic and musical acoustics. On these problems, he published a monograph and numerous articles in the magazines “Radio”, “Radio-tekhnika”, “Problems of Radio Electronics”, etc. Solving the problem of sound synthesis in electronic musical instruments, A.A. Volodin came to the conclusion that sound synthesis is possible only with the comprehensive development and combination of the achievements of musicology, physics and psychology for a holistic presentation in the final sound. This prompted him to study musical sounds from the point of view of their psychological structure and aesthetic content. The perception of musical sounds became the central problem of his research. Studying the issues of perception of sound synthesis from the psychological side, he became a chief specialist in musical psychology, the author of many works on the theory of electromusic, and a doctor of psychological sciences. In 1975, A. A. Volodin began working at the Moscow State Conservatory, where he organized the Problem Laboratory of Music Theory and Music Education. For a set of works on special equipment, A. A. Volodin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, as well as a number of medals, such as the title of labour veteran. A man of deep and original mind, broad and versatile knowledge, Andrei Aleksandrovich Volodin was full of creative ideas. His premature death represents a great loss for science.3 Shishlev, Mark. (2024) 1937 Andrey Volodin – Invention of the Ekvodin synthesizer, Cantroll, http://cuntroll.ru/article15/ retrieved 25/02/2024.

the ‘Nivotone’ , Alexei Voinov, Russia, 1931.

The Nivotone optical reader
The Nivotone optical reader. Image: Sound in Z: Experiments in Sound and Electronic Music in Early 20th Century Russia, Koenig, 14.

The animator Nikolai Voinov (1900-1958), originaly part of Arseney Avraamov‘s group Multzvuk in Moscow, 1931, created his own method of optical synthesis. Instead of drawing or printing to 35mm sound-film Voinov cut wave forms from strips of paper which were then optically read by his machine the Nivotone (‘Paper-Sound’) and translated into sound by a photo-electric process.

“Voinov would painstakingly cut out short cog shapes from sheets of paper, with each cog representing a single semitone in the range of eighty piano keys. For each note he would take a contoured “comb” of cogs with the density related to the pitch, similar to the combs of natural soundtracks. Low pitches have a low density of cogs, while for higher pitches they are condensed and thin.” Vladimir Solev describing Voinov’s paper-cut technique in: Sound in Z: Experiments in Sound and Electronic Music in Early 20th Century Russia.1Smirnov, A, (2013) Sound in Z: Experiments in Sound and Electronic Music in Early 20th Century Russia, Koenig, 14 .

According to Solev, Voinov was able to accurately synthesise piano sounds with a surprisingly efficient level of control over the dynamics of sound:

Then Voinoff, made his “piano,” all of which can be fitted into a necktie box. Each of its keys, i.e., each half-tone, is represented by a long” comb,” which is a schematic record of the real piano. This schematization did not harm the achievement of the purpose. Voinoff complains only about the extreme bass notes, which, he says, having lost some of the overtones, do not sound as rich. Voinoff has not been able to add the necessary little ” teeth ” to the large basic ones. Voinoff fits his ” keys ” or ” combs” on to the regular appliances for cartoon photography in such a way as to have the “key” exactly on the sound track during the photographing process. In this manner, he has succeeded in photographing two three-minute items; a Prelude by Rachmaninoff, and a fox-trot The White Monkey. The Prelude showed especially interesting results. The ” designed music” (to be more exact, it was music cut out of paper) came out as an abstract design of diverging circles and prisms. Voinoff has also recorded a cartoon film, The Thief, in which he has preserved the rhythms very exactly.”. 2Solev, V. (1936) ‘Absolute Music’, Sight and Sound magazine (U.S.), 1936, N18, 48.

The Multzvuk group

Multzvuk group was formed in 1930 by Arseney Araazamov to conduct research into graphical sound techniques. The group was based at the Mosfilm Productions Company in Moscow (one of the leading film production companies in Moscow, renamed Gorki Film Studio in 1948) and consisted of composer and theoretician, Arseney Araamov, cameraman and draughtsmen  Nikolai Zhelynsky, animator Nikolai Voinov, painter and amateur acoustician Boris Yankovsky. In 1931 the group moved to ‘NIKFI’,  the Scientific Research Institute for Photography for Film. Moscow, and and was renamed the ‘Syntonfilm laboratory’. In 1932 NIKFI stopped funding the group who then moved to Mezhrabpomfilm and finally closed in 1934.

From 1930-34 more than 2000 meters of sound track were produced by the Multzvuk group, including the experimental films ‘Ornamental Animation’, ‘Marusia Otravilas’, ‘Chinese Tune’, ‘Organ Chords’, ‘Untertonikum, Prelude’, ‘Piruet’, ‘Staccato Studies’, ‘Dancing Etude’ and ‘Flute Study’. The Multzvuk archive was kept for many years at Avraamov’s apartment, but destroyed in 1937.


References:

  • 1
    Smirnov, A, (2013) Sound in Z: Experiments in Sound and Electronic Music in Early 20th Century Russia, Koenig, 14 .
  • 2
    Solev, V. (1936) ‘Absolute Music’, Sight and Sound magazine (U.S.), 1936, N18, 48.

‘Graphical Soundtrack’, Arseney Avraamov, Russia, 1930

Arseny Avraamov in Moscow 1923. (Russian: Арсений Михайлович Авраамов), (born Krasnokutsky [Краснокутский], 1886 died Moscow, 1944)
Arseny Avraamov in Moscow 1923. (Russian: Арсений Михайлович Авраамов), (born Krasnokutsky [Краснокутский], 1886 died Moscow, 1944)
Methods of synthesising sound using a photo-electrical system flourished during the late 1920s, particularly after the development of sound-film techniques around 1926. In brief, the technique involved projecting a light beam through a transparent strip (or glass plate or rotating disk) onto a selenium cell. A graphic representation of a sound wave drawn onto the transparent surface varied the intensity of the light beam which in turn generated a variable and corresponding voltage output from the selenium cell i.e. a variable pitch corresponding to the drawn graphic. This technique was much used in Germany during the 1930s – for example: Oskar Fischinger’s sound-film based Tönende Ornamente (1932),  Rudolph Pfenninger’s similar Tönende Handschrift (1932), Spielmann’s glass-disc keyboard, the Superpiano (1928) and Welte’s Licht-Ton Orgel (1936) with other examples from around the world including the Luminaphone (UK/USA 1925), the Hardy Goldthwaite Organ (USA 1930) and Pierre Toulon’s Cellulophone (F 1927). However it was in 1930s Soviet Russia that light-sound synthesis was explored with particular interest, possibly because of the mystical synaesthetic theories of the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin (1871–1915) who, even in the 1930s, exerted an immense influence over young soviet musicians.

The Russian avant-garde composer and theorist, Arseny Mikhailovich Avraamov is probably best known for his Simfoniya Gudkov (“Symphony of Sirens”) (November 7, 1922, Baku, USSR – an epic production which involved a score that coordinated navy ship sirens and whistles, bus and car horns, factory sirens, cannons, the foghorns of the entire Soviet flotilla of the Caspian Sea, artillery guns, machine guns, seaplanes, a specially designed “whistle main,” and renderings of Internationale and Marseillaise by a mass band and choir.) Later, however, through his pursuit of new sounds and particularly microtonal tuning, Avraamov became a central figure in soviet optical sound synthesis.

Avraamov studied at the music school of the Moscow Philharmonic Society from 1908-11 but fled the country when the first world war broke, working, among other things, as a circus artist. Avraamov returned during the revolution of 1917 where he developed his own  “Ultrachromatic” 48-tone micro tonal system ( “The Universal System of Tones,” 1927). Avraamov later (1930) began to develop a technique of optical sound synthesis which involved hand-drawing geometrical representations of sound shapes and then repeatedly printing these shapes onto the audio-optical strip on a cine-film. 1Smirnov, Andrey, Sound In Z: Experiments In Sound And Electronic Music In Early 20th Century Russia, Walther Koenig, 2013, pp28-37. Avraamov’s technique bore a striking resemblance to those developed simultaneously by Fischinger and Pfenninger (circa 1930) in Germany, despite this similarity,  it seems that both soviet and German techniques were developed in isolation.

An example of Avraamov’s hand-drawn graphic soundtrack Moscow 1930-1. image: Smirnov, Sound In Z, 179.

“By knowing the way to record the most complex sound textures by means of a phonograph, after analysis of the curve structure of the sound groove, directing the needle of the resonating membrane, one can create synthetically any, even most fantastic sound by  making a groove with a proper structure of shape and depth”.2 Avraamov, A, (1916) Upcoming Science of Music and the New Era in the History of Music, Musical Contemporary Magazine, 1916, No 6, 85. 

“Composer Arseny Avraamov at the scientific-research institute conducts the interesting experiments on a creation of the hand-drawn music. Instead of common sound recording on film by means of microphone and photocell, he simply draws on paper geometrical figures, then photographing them on sound track of the filmstrip. Afterwards this filmstrip is played as a common movie by means of film projector. Being read by photocell, amplified and monitored by loudspeaker, this filmstrip turns out to contain a well-known musical recording, while its timbre is impossible to relate to any existing musical instrument. Comrade Avraamov conducts now a study in recording of more complicated geometrical figures. For instance, to record graphical representations of the simplest algebraic equations, to draw molecular orbits of some chemical elements. In this research composer is assisted by a group of young employee of the Research Institute for Film and Photo. By the end of December Avraamov will finish his new work and to show it to the film-community. Quite possibly the listening of the abstracts of “Hand Drawn Music” will be organized in radio broadcast”3‘Drawn Music’. Kino, Moscow, 16.12.1931. Trans. AS. in: Smirnov, Sound in Z, 178

The Multzvuk group

Multzvuk group was formed in 1930 by Arseney Araazamov to conduct research into graphical sound techniques. The group was based at the Mosfilm Productions Company in Moscow (one of the leading film production companies in Moscow, renamed Gorki Film Studio in 1948) and consisted of composer and theoretician, Arseney Avraamov, cameraman and draughtsmen Nikolai Zhelynsky, animator Nikolai Voinov, painter and amateur acoustician Boris Yankovsky. In 1931 the group moved to ‘NIKFI’,  the Scientific Research Institute for Photography for Film. Moscow, and and was renamed the ‘Syntonfilm laboratory’. In 1932 NIKFI stopped funding the group who then moved to Mezhrabpomfilm and finally closed in 1934.

From 1930-34 more than 2000 meters of sound track were produced by the Multzvuk group, including the experimental films Ornamental Animation, Marusia Otravilas, Chinese Tune, Organ Chords, Untertonikum, Prelude, Piruet, Staccato Studies, Dancing Etude and Flute Study. The Multzvuk archive was kept for many years at Avraamov’s apartment, but destroyed in 1937.4Smirnov, Andrey, (2013 )Sound In Z: Experiments In Sound And Electronic Music In Early 20th Century Russia, Walther Koenig, 2013, 181.


References

Much of the biographical information is from Andrey Smirnov’s pioneering work Sound In Z: Experiments In Sound And Electronic Music In Early 20th Century Russia, Walther Koenig, 2013. It is currently out of print but available here as a pdf download.

  • 1
    Smirnov, Andrey, Sound In Z: Experiments In Sound And Electronic Music In Early 20th Century Russia, Walther Koenig, 2013, pp28-37.
  • 2
    Avraamov, A, (1916) Upcoming Science of Music and the New Era in the History of Music, Musical Contemporary Magazine, 1916, No 6, 85. 
  • 3
    ‘Drawn Music’. Kino, Moscow, 16.12.1931. Trans. AS. in: Smirnov, Sound in Z, 178
  • 4
    Smirnov, Andrey, (2013 )Sound In Z: Experiments In Sound And Electronic Music In Early 20th Century Russia, Walther Koenig, 2013, 181.

 

‘La Croix Sonore’ Nicolai Obukhov. Russia – France, 1929-1934

Modern reconstruction of the Croix Sonore at the musée de L'Opéra, Paris.
Modern reconstruction of the Croix Sonore at the musée de L’Opéra, Paris.

Nicolai Obukhov was a Russian composer who, after studying  at the Moscow and St. Petersburg Conservatories with  Maximilian Steinberg and Nikolai Tcherepnin, left Russia on the eve of the Bolshevik revolution in 1918. Obukhov settled in Paris in 1919 where he studied orchestration with Maurice Ravel and Marcel Orban while supporting his new family by working as a bricklayer. 

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Marie-Antionette Aussenac-Broglie plays the Croix Sonore. Image; ‘Comoedia’ Paris 5th March 1934.

Obukhov, who signed his name “Nicolas l’illuminé” (Nicholas the visionary), was a deeply religious mystical Christian and profoundly influenced by the new theosophical cult of the Salon de la Rose + Croix which became popular with artists and musicians in the early 1920s. These beliefs were expressed in his compositions which, like his fellow countryman Alexander Scriabin, were intended as a means of attaining a transcendent state and a bridge to the world of the spirit – rather than just an aesthetic creation – Obukhov was driven by the idea that there was a higher reality to which art could reach. He attempted to achieve this spiritual goal through, for the time, unconventional means; a “total harmony” of 12 tone composition, unusual rhythm, experimental methods of notation, new invented instruments and expressive vocal directions –Obukhov was probably the first composer to   require a singer to make ‘non musical’ vocal sounds:

 ‘I forbid myself any repetition: my harmony is based on twelve notes of which none must be repeated. Repetition produces an impression of force without clarity; it disturbs the harmony, dirties it.’1 Schloezer op. cit, p 47.

“…music enjoys decided advantages which endow it with possibilities of insinuation into the depths of the soul, and the mind, of emotions inaccessible to other arts. This faculty resides in the fact that music is hindered less than any other art in the realisation of its aims by material conditions.” 2Manuscript MS 15226, music department, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris.

In order to achieve this musical ‘insinuation’ Obukhov supplemented the traditional orchestra with new instruments of his own invention. These included the “Crystal” a piano type instruments where hammers hit a row of crystal spheres and the “Éther” an electronically powered instruments where a large rotating paddle wheel created various, apparently inaudible infra- and ultra-sonic humming sounds that ranged from approximately five octaves below to five octaves above human hearing. This sound was intended to have a mystical effect on the listener – though the effect was probably physiological, depending on the volume and frequency of the instruments sound. Low frequency infra-sound is known to have a physical effect on the human nervous system causing disorientation, anxiety, panic, bowel spasms, nausea, vomiting and eventually unconsciousness (supposedly 7-8 hz is the most effective being the same frequency as the average brain alpha wave). The effect is unintentionally generated by the extreme low frequencies in church pipe organ music, instilling religious feelings and causing sensations of “extreme sense sorrow, coldness, anxiety, and even shivers down the spine.” 3‘Organ Music Instills Religious Feelings’ by Jonathan Amos, 9/8/2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3087674.stm

The film actor Georges Colin presents Obukhov's "Chants Des Spheres " with the chorus and the Croix Sonore. Photo; L'Ouest-Éclair March 6th 1936.
The film actor Georges Colin presents the “Le Chant Des Spheres” with the Croix Sonore. Photo; L’Ouest-Éclair_03_06_1936_02

Obukhov’s only purely electronic instrument was “La Croix Sonore” or “Sonorous Cross” which was essentially one of several Theremin type instruments developed in Europe after Leon Termens departure to the USA in 1927 (others included the “Elektronische Zaubergeige” and the “Elektronde“). The Croix Sonore was designed and built in Paris by Michel Billaudot and Pierre Duvalier to Obukhov’s instructions in 1929 and was the result of several years experimenting with beat frequency/heterodyning oscillators probably after witnessing Termen’s demonstration of the Theremin while on tour around Europe. As with theTheremin the Croix Sonore was based on body capacitance controlling heterodyning vacuum tube oscillators. To suit Obukhov’s mystical and theatrical style, the circuitry and oscillators were built into a 44 cm diameter brass orb and the antennae disguised by a large 175 cm high crucifix adorned with a central star.

The Sonorous Cross was played in the same way as the Theremin – using the bodies capacitance to control the oscillators frequency, in this case moving the hands out from the central star on the crucifix altered the pitch and volume of the instrument. The ritualistic gestures made while playing this most unusual looking of instruments complemented the occult and mystical nature of Obukhov’s music and life.Obukhov continued to develop the instrument and produced an improved version, completed in 1934.

Nikolay Obukhov composed numerous pieces using his instrument as well as several using the Ondes-Martenot, culminating in his major work; “Le Livre De Vie” which exploited the glissando effects the Sonorous Cross could produce. The performances of these pieces were intended to be more like an occult church ceremony rather than an orchestral performance; Obukhov insisted that here were no spectators at his concerts – everyone would play their part in the mystical ritual which would take place in a circular ‘temple’:

“When the ‘Book of Life’ is performed, by which I mean when it is lived, the spectators, the participants will be arranged in spirals, in the interior of a circular and raised scene. The ‘terrestrial’ orchestra will be coiled up around the scene. A dome will contain the ‘celestial’ orchestra. Lighting changes will intervene in the ‘Sacred Action’, a synthesis of cult and orgy (the latter meant symbolically). Such is the ritual where science and religion are married.4Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde, 1900-1929 p. 107. By Larry Sitsky, .Greenwood Press, Westport Connecticut and London, 1994.

“…some like priests will take part directly in the action, the others witness it, participating mentally like the faithful in church.” 5 ‘ de Schloezer, Boris , “Nicolas Obukhoff”, La Revue Musicale, 1, part 3, Nov. 1921, pp 38-56.

These performances received mixed reviews from the puzzled critics:

A Paris concert audience was stirred. and while it squirmed and tittered. tonight when Nicholas Obouhoff’ presented parts of his “Book of Life” and hitherto unknown “Annunciation of the Last Judgement.” to the accompaniment of the new electric musical instrument, the croix sonore.

Henry Prunieres introduced the concert. warning the audience that it was going to hear chords played on the piano. notes sung by a human voice and sounds drawn from an instrument such as it had never heard before. Even this warning. however. did not prepare the listeners for the sudden “shriek” – there is no other word for it-of Suzanne Balguerie on the opening note of one of Obouhoff‘s liturgic poems. There was no warning, either. when the singer suddenly began to whistle instead of sing. Some members of the audience thought it was one of their number expostulating in the classic manner and began to cry, “Hush! hush!“

Prunieres had praised the courage of the singers, Mme. Balguerie and Louise Matha. in attempting music so new, and as they produced strange note after strange note many felt that this praise was well merited. if only because their mastery of their effects prevented the audience from tittering more loudly.6 ‘Titters Greet Music of Obouhoff in Paris: Singers’ Strange Performance Accompanied by Electrical Instrument, Causes Stir’, 1. New York Times, May 16, 1934, p. 23.

“In “Annunciation of the Last Judgement” the singers stood together, one gowned in white. the other in red. while Obouhoff and Arthur Scholossberg played two pianos. and Princess Marie Antoinette Aussenac de Broglie, apart and sacramentally gowned in black, blue and orange, drew from the croix sonore notes that throbbed like twenty violins or at times sang like a human voice. In all this, it was the instrument that had the most success. Obuhoff’, it is said, dreamed of it long before the invention of the radio made application of the principle possible. He wrote music for it, calling it “the etherphone.” Out of it, by moving the hand back and forth, the Princess de Broglie drew an amazing sweetness or the most dreadful note, like the knocking of fate, to give Obouhofifs strange religious music far more power than his two pianos or even the distortions of his singers’ voices could produce.”7SHAW – MILLER, S. (2002). Visible Deeds of Music: Art and Music from Wagner to Cage. Yale University Press, p81 

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Nicolas or Nicolai Obukhov ( also Obouchov, Obuchov, Obouhow, Obuchow), Born April 22, 1892 in Ol’shanka, Kursk, Moscow – died, June 13, 1954 in St. Cloud, France

Nikolay Obukhov studied counterpoint at the Moscow Conservatory from 1911 and later at the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1913 (with Kalafati, Maksimilian Steinberg and Nikolay Tcherepnin). His first published works date from this period, and were published as ‘Quatre mélodies’ by Rouart et Lerolle in Paris in 1921.

Bienheureux6

In 1915 Obukhov developed his own idiosyncratic form of musical notation (similar to one invented in Russia by Golïshev during the same period) using a 12-tone chromatic language highly influenced by the mystical Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. The only performances of his music in Russia took place at this time. A report of the performance describes Obukhov as ‘a pale young man, with gazing eyes’ who ‘confused the audience’. Obukhov left Russia during the revolution with his wife and two children; they eventually settled near Paris a year later. In Paris he encountered financial hardship until helped by Maurice Ravel who found Obukhov a publisher allowing him to devote his time to his music.

The 1920s saw a handful of performances, most notably that of the ‘Predisloviye knigi zhizni’ (‘Introduction to the Book of Life’) under Kussevitzsky. During this and the next decade he put into practice ideas for electronic instruments Obukhov had conceived as early as 1917: the ‘efir’ and ‘kristal’ (‘ether’ and ‘crystal’) he had described in Russia eventually gave rise to the croix sonore, and even though he built and wrote for the ether, it was with the croix sonore that he gained most attention. He found an exponent of the instrument in his pupil Marie-Antoinette Aussenac-Broglie who had also performed some of his piano music; she demonstrated the instrument around France and Belgium. Similar to both the theremin and the ondes martenot in that pitch production is reliant upon the distance of the performer’s arm from the instrument, the croix sonore was the subject of a film of 1934. During the mid-1940s his notation again provoked heated discussion, this time in Paris; a book containing works from the 18th to the 20th centuries in Obukhov’s notation was published by Durand. In 1947, his ‘Traité d’harmonie tonale, atonale et totale’ ‚ which had already interested Honegger ‚ was published, while a year later he lectured on this subject in the Russian Conservatory in Paris. Obukhov spent his last years incapacitated by a mugging in 1949 where the final version of  ‘the Book of Life’ was stolen; he composed only a few works after this incident.

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Commentary on Obukhov’s work by Jonathan Powell 8https://www.planettree.org/2000/crussian.html

Obukhov’s output is dominated by vast works of which the most notorious ‚ notwithstanding the gargantuan ‘Troisième et dernier testament’ and ‘La toute puissance’ ‚ is the ‘Kniga zhizni’ (‘The Book of Life’) on which he worked from around the time he left Russia until at least the mid-1920s. Described by the composer as ‘l’action sacrée du pasteur tout-puissant regnant’ it was intended to be performed (or ‘accomplished’) uninterruptedly every year on the night of the first and on the day of the second resurrection of Christ. Obukhov did not consider himself the composer of this work; instead, he saw himself as the person permitted, by divine forces, to ‘show’ it. Parts of the score, one version of which is nearly 2000 pages in length, are marked in the composer’s blood.9 Powell: “This is now regarded as not true (see Pol’dyaeva, 2006)” The music is preceded by a lengthy exposition in archaic Russian, while the work concludes with one section the score of which unfolds into the form of a cross and another, taking the shape of a circle, which is fixed onto a golden and silver box decorated with rubies and red silk. (Nicholas Slonimsky, in his memoir ‘Perfect Pitch’ relates that the composer’s wife, driven to despair by Obukhov’s obsessive behaviour regarding this piece, attempted to burn ‚ or ‘immolate’, in the composer’s terminology ‚ the manuscript but was interrupted in her crime.) Much of the instrumental writing is characterized by the alternation of chorale-like material (often ornamented by filigree arppegiation) with tolling patterns, building to textures of considerable rhythmic and contrapuntal complexity. The vocal parts ‚ as with his writing for the voice in most of his other works ‚ have huge tessituras and are bespattered with glissandi and instructions for screaming or whispering. The style which is consistently applied in this magnum opus is prevalent in all of his mature works and has its roots in the songs and piano miniatures written in Russia.

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Taking as a starting point the language employed by Skriabin in his mid- and late-period works, Obukhov evolved a harmonic technique based on the systematic configuration and manipulation of 12-note chords or harmonic areas. The sonorities resulting from this ‘total harmony’ are often broadly octatonic and frequently have a quasi-dominant character due to the prevalence of diminished fifths in the lower elements. Although longer structures appear to unfold in a schematized yet organic manner, the detail of musical procedure is curiously static. Obukhov saw his work as a musical articulation of his strongly-held religious beliefs and would sometimes sign his manuscripts ‘Nicolas l’illuminé’ or ‘Nicolas l’extasié’. Possibly inspired by Vladimir Solov´yov’s idea of ‘sobornost´’ (collective spiritual or artistic experience), Obukhov sought to abolish the traditional performer-audience polarity in favour of a merging of these previously mutually exclusive groups into one of participants. Obukhov mostly used his own texts which are frequently inspired by the Book of the Revelation or the Apocrypha. It is thus no coincidence that the only poets whose work appealed to him spiritually and compositionally were Solov´yov and Bal´mont, since it was the former’s orthodox mysticism that significantly informed the apocalyptic vision of the latter. In addition to these sources, mention should be made of Obukhov’s use of two verses by Musorgsky; it is between his work and that of Messiaen that Obukhov’s visionary language can be placed.


References

  • 1
    Schloezer op. cit, p 47.
  • 2
    Manuscript MS 15226, music department, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris.
  • 3
    ‘Organ Music Instills Religious Feelings’ by Jonathan Amos, 9/8/2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3087674.stm
  • 4
    Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde, 1900-1929 p. 107. By Larry Sitsky, .Greenwood Press, Westport Connecticut and London, 1994.
  • 5
    ‘ de Schloezer, Boris , “Nicolas Obukhoff”, La Revue Musicale, 1, part 3, Nov. 1921, pp 38-56.
  • 6
    ‘Titters Greet Music of Obouhoff in Paris: Singers’ Strange Performance Accompanied by Electrical Instrument, Causes Stir’, 1. New York Times, May 16, 1934, p. 23.
  • 7
    SHAW – MILLER, S. (2002). Visible Deeds of Music: Art and Music from Wagner to Cage. Yale University Press, p81 
  • 8
    https://www.planettree.org/2000/crussian.html
  • 9
    Powell: “This is now regarded as not true (see Pol’dyaeva, 2006)”

Further Reading:

Hugh Davies. “Croix sonore.” In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online

E.Ludwig: “La Croix Sonore” ReM, nos 158-9(935),96 ReM,nos 290-91 (1972-73)

Consciousness, Literature and the Arts. Archive. Volume 1 Number 3, December 2000 “Skriabin and Obukhov: Mysterium & La livre de vie The concept of artistic synthesis”. By Simon Shaw-Miller
‘Nikolay Obukhov and the Croix Sonore’ Rahma Khazam. From: Leonardo Music Journal,Volume 19, 2009, pp. 11-12