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.

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