Dictionary of Music - Birding America

124 electronic instrumentsas to obtain different tone colors, but because electronicmeans of amplifying the sounds had not yetbeen invented, it took enormous amounts of power;each fundamental note of the scale required a 200-horsepower motor. The instrument was played froman organ keyboard with thirty-six notes to theoctave, making it quite cumbersome to finger. Moreover,the Telharmonium’s operation interfered withthe commercial telephone system and so had to behalted.A more successful electronic instrument was thetheremin, invented in St. Petersburg in 1920 byLeon Theremin (1896–1993). Its sound is producedby two oscillators, one of fixed frequency and theother of variable frequencies. The sound produced isdetermined by the difference between the two frequencies,which is controlled by the player’s handsmoving near an antenna that controls the variableoscillator. Like the ondes Martenot, the theremin iscapable only of playing melodies. A few composerswrote music for it, but its widest use was in filmmusic. The Trautonium, invented about 1930 byFriedrich Trautwein, a German professor ofacoustics, used a neon tube instead of a vacuumvalveoscillator, thereby producing a sound muchricher in harmonics. Different tone colors wereobtained by using filters and other devices to reducethe number of overtones. There was no keyboard.Pitches were selected by means of a ribbon deviceoperated by the performer’s right hand, and higherharmonics were added by operating a series of pushbuttonswith the left hand. Hindemith wrote a Concertinofor Trautonium and strings (1931), andRichard Strauss used it in Japanese Festival Music(1940). The instrument survived into the 1950s,when an improved form, the Mixtur-Trautonium,was used in electronic studios.Numerous instruments in which sound is generatedin the ordinary way—by the vibration of stringsor of a column of air—have been fitted with electronicdevices. In most cases the tone is first convertedinto electrical vibrations by a pickup (microphone)and then is made louder or is changed insome other way by an amplifier. Such equipment notonly can make a small instrument produce very loudsound, but it can greatly alter the tone produced. Forexample, harmonics (overtones) may be changed oreliminated, thus changing the tone color (see SOUNDfor an explanation), or the sound of tones buildingup may be changed from sudden attack (as when afinger strikes a piano key) to a very gradual buildup(as when a bow is drawn across a violin string).The most important electronic instrument of thistype is the electric guitar. There are two main kindsof electric guitar. One kind, which can be playedwithout an amplifier, has a hollow body and six steelstrings whose vibrations are reinforced somewhat bythe wooden soundboard but still are too soft to beused in combination with other, louder instruments.Thus, for ensemble performance an amplifier isused. The second kind of electric guitar has a bodyof solid wood, whose only purpose is to hold the sixstrings and electrical equipment. One to four pickupsplaced under the strings convert their vibrationsinto electric impulses, which are then strengthenedby an amplifier (which may also include such modifyingdevices as wah-wah and fuzz tone) and arereconverted into audible sounds by a loudspeaker.(See also HAWAIIAN GUITAR.)Developed about 1948 by Leo Fender and others,the electric guitar helped create the new soundof rhythm and blues, and later rock, which alsoadopted its cousin, the electric bass. Also inventedby Leo Fender and first used in 1953, the electricbass is very similar in structure and electronics tothe electric guitar but has, like the acoustic doublebass, only four strings. Although available fromnumerous manufacturers, it still is often called aFender bass.Electronic flutes and electronic saxophonesusually have a small microphone mounted on thebody of the instrument. The microphone convertsthe sound of the instrument to an electrical signalwhich is then amplified and fed to a loudspeaker.Electronic violins, electronic violas, and electroniccellos usually have a pickup attached to the bridge.In a popular type of electronic piano, the hammersstrike reeds instead of strings. Because such pianosare much lighter in weight than ordinary pianos,they have been found useful for class instruction inpiano playing; for this purpose they are usually fittedwith earphones, so that only the player can hear thesounds he or she produces. (See also under PIANO.)One kind of electronic harpsichord has, instead of