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.

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