|
 The
wonderful thing about early electronic gear is that at first glance
it's impossible to figure out what the deuce the thing is. Is it
a radio? A death ray? A hair dryer? None of the
above. In this case, it's a musical instrument.
In 1923, Hugo Gernsback sprang upon the world another of his
eighty-odd inventions. This time it was the Staccatone; an early
synthesiser (sort of) that used oscillators to produce musical notes.
That's one oscillator per note and don't be too fussy, because they
tend to fade in and out of tune. You can even build one yourself,
but don't let the magazine pages get stuck together or you might end
up receiving broadcasts from Yokahama. Three years
later, Gernsback came back again with his improved Staccatone, now
re-dubbed the Pianorad. This time Gernsback meant business.
The Pianorad was a truly polyphonic keyboard instrument with
twenty-five oscillators able to cover two whole octaves.
According to Gernsback's Radio News magazine in 1926,
The musical notes produced by the vacuum tubes
in this manner have practically no overtones. For this reason the
music produced on the Pianorad is of an exquisite pureness of tone not
realised in any other musical instrument. The quality is better than
that of a flute and much purer. the sound however does not resemble
that of any known musical instrument. The notes are quite sharp and
distinct, and the Pianorad can be readily distinguished by its music
from any other musical instrument in existence.
That's pretty high praise, even if Mr. Gernsback
did say so himself-- which he did. The Pianorad
didn't get much traction with the general public, but Mr. Gernsback
pioneered electronic music on the airwaves when he introduced the
Pianorad on his radio station WRNY in New York City, where it was used
to accompany violin and piano concerts. Nice what
you can do when you own your own station. |
