ELECTRIFYING MUSIC
With the historic avant-garde movements of Futurism, Surrealism, and Dadaism, which began after 1900, art entered an era in which there was no longer a universally accepted style. Futurism, in particular, testifies to the enthusiasm for progress of the time, which saw salvation in the mechanization of the world. The accompanying electrification of music in terms of recording (Thomas Alva Edison's invention of the phonograph in 1878) and instrument construction (Thaddeus Cahill built a dynamophone, a kind of electronic orchestra, in 1900) enabled a qualitative leap previously only possible with the invention of musical notation. For the first time, artistic means were seemingly unlimited; practically anything that floated around in an artist's mind could become art. And while in the visual arts, the centuries-old "imitatio naturae" gave way to abstraction, in music, sound became socially acceptable, meaning that the concrete depiction of nature could be incorporated into a compositional process.
The Trautonium, invented by Friedrich Trautwein and named after him, had an unbeatable advantage in this regard. Unlike the theremin, invented in the early 20s, which essentially operates with the differential tones of high-frequency sine tones, the Trautonium operates with the high-frequency oscillations of neon lamps. These produce a fundamental sound rich in overtones, which, via filters, enables a type of formant modulation, similar to the way vowels are formed in the human larynx. The modulation of these formants enables highly diverse timbres, as well as the imitation of animal or machine noises.
In contrast, the theremin, invented by Lev Termen in Russia in 1921, has a limited color spectrum due to the sine tones it uses. Even enlightened contemporaries like Franz Kafka classified such inventions as "ghost machines." Trautwein, on the other hand, enabled a novel play of timbres through the summation and variation of overtones. This would have been virtually impossible with such precision with a traditional orchestra, and it is astonishing that a composer like Arnold Schoenberg, for whom the parameter of timbre had been extremely important since his "Colors" movement in Op. 16, did not take up this instrument. The "air from other planets," which he first allowed to waft in via his dodecaphony in the Second String Quartet, remained filtered through equally tuned keys. In contrast, the theremin and the Trautonium are played continuously, the former touchlessly in the air, the latter on strings.
"Electric music," as Trautwein initially called it, was intended to be both continuous and keyless, unlike dodecaphony. And its protagonists, unlike Schoenberg (the involuntary revolutionary), certainly aspired to revolutionize music through their inventions. It seems almost strange today that Lev Termen was even allowed to demonstrate his instrument to Lenin, who then tried his hand at it himself by intonating the song "The Lark" by Michael Glinka. After the demonstration, Lev Termen received an annual rail pass to demonstrate the instrument throughout the country. And Trautwein's colleague Oskar Sala had to play it for Goebbels in order to be allowed to continue giving concerts and conducting his research. Goebbels' enthusiasm for the instrument, which he knew from Arnold Fanck's film "Storms over Mont Blanc" (with Leni Riefenstahl, whom he idolized, as the protagonist), was limited, as its propaganda uses were limited. Nevertheless, he allowed Sala to continue working (the film's music was composed by Paul Dessau and Edmund Meisel, the latter famous for his music for Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. In Fanck's film, Nazi flying ace Ernst Udet flies over Mont Blanc, and the Trautonium also provides the engine and wind sounds).
Despite the spectacular attention many of the first electronic musical instruments received after their invention, their continued existence in the music world after the Second World War was only incidental, partly due to their difficulty in handling. This was despite the fact that without such instruments, the development of the synthesizer, and indeed that of electronic music in general, would have been unthinkable. And even for composing with conventional instruments, the invention of the theremin, Trautonium, and Ondes Martenot (the French variant), with perhaps the most spectacular effect of all of these, the glissando, was of utmost importance. The Beatles' last song on their album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "A Day in the Life," contains two aleatoric glissandi inspired by Karlheinz Stockhausen. They testify to the substantial wave movement, the eternal ups and downs through which music is constituted over time.
The Mixturtrautonium
In 1927, the Radio Experimental Institute (RVS) was founded at the Berlin State Academy of Music with the goal of researching the relationship between music and technology in radio. Therefore, Friedrich Trautwein was appointed lecturer in musical acoustics there in 1929. Together with Paul Hindemith (1895–1963), Trautwein developed the Trautonium, which was first publicly demonstrated at the "Neue Musik Berlin 1930" music festival, featuring compositions by Hindemith. The musicians included Oskar Sala (1910–2002), Paul Hindemith, and pianist Rudolph Schmidt.
The Trautonium was originally a monophonic instrument and the first capable of generating sounds by using high-frequency oscillations for frequency modulation (the basis of the synthesizer, which was later developed by Le Cain, Buchla, Moog, and others). The further development of the Trautonium is inextricably linked to Oskar Sala, a student of Hindemith, who developed the Volkstrautonium, the Rundfunktrautonium, and the Konzerttrautonium in the 1930s, as well as the Mixturtrautonium in the late 1940s.
A special feature of the Mixturtrautonium are the frequency dividers, which, using the subharmonic frequency series, allow the generation of chords from a fundamental note that belong to the natural scale rather than the well-tempered spectrum. These can be stored via a matrix and assigned to the individual notes played.
Oskar Sala used the Trautonium to score over 300 films, including Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. The most obvious difference from modern synthesizers is the lack of a conventional keyboard. The Mixturtrautonium is played via two string manuals pressed onto a metal rail, allowing for seamless glissandi and the creation of sounds and chords.
HARALD GENZMER (1909-2007)
Kantate für Sopran und elektronische Klänge (1969)
Hindemith's master student Harald Genzmer composed several concertos for Mixturtrautonium and orchestra, as well as the cantata for soprano and electronic sounds, recorded here for the first time in its entirety. The first recording, from the 70s, was missing a movement. Peter Pichler discovered the music for this work in Genzmer's manuscript in the Munich State Library. The lyrical basis of the work is the mystical legends of the Gaels and Vikings (ca. 790–1070 AD). The cantata's texts are taken from Hans Trausil's collection of poems, *Irische Harfe*; they are funeral songs about the loss of a loved one.
PAUL HINDEMITH (1895-1963)
Das Unaufhörliche (1931)
A secular oratorio about the incessant change of creation. The Soprano Aria (No. 4) is the most popular piece in the work. In this recording, Peter Pichler plays all orchestral parts with the mixture trautonium. The author and physician Gottfried Benn wrote of his lyric text for the work: "We know nothing of creation except that it is transformed – and the incessant is meant to be an expression of this broadest background of life, its elementary principle of transformation and the restless upheaval of its forms." Hindemith also used this aria shortly after completing the oratorio as the slow movement in his concert piece for trautonium and string orchestra.
PAUL DESSAU (1894-1979)
Die Verurteilung des Lukullus (1951) excerpts
In the opera, the general Lucullus, representing all despots, is condemned to "nothingness" by a tribunal of his victims. Paul Dessau, like his colleague Hindemith, was fascinated by the possibilities of the mixture Trautonium and incorporated its spectacular sounds for the "nothingness" in his opera The Condemnation of Lucullus. The music was intended to sound like something from a shadowy realm—neither heaven nor hell. The opera was only performed a few times with the Trautonium in the 50s. After the construction of the Berlin Wall, this was no longer possible. It was only after the fall of the Berlin Wall that the opera, which was very popular in the GDR, was rediscovered in the FRG. Under Peter Pichler, it was performed again in its original instrumentation for the first time in 2021 in the Stuttgart production by the HAUEN UND STECHEN directing team.
HENRY PURCELL (1659-1695)
When I am laid in Earth (circa 1688)
Henry Purcell, who died in 1695 at the age of 36, is known in England as "Orpheus Britannicus" (a nice reference to Gottfried Benn, who ascribes Orphic traits to the artist in his well-known Orpheus poem). The final lament from Purcell's only opera, Dido and Aeneas, adapted by Peter Pichler for soprano and trautonium, only at first glance seems alien to the context of this CD. Purcell's librettist, Nahum Tate, had taken the material for the opera from Virgil's Aeneid. It is about the love between the Trojan prince Aeneas and the Carthaginian queen Dido. The lament describes Dido's lovesickness after Aeneas is forced to leave Carthage by order of Jupiter (Zeus). Because Aeneas, after his experiences in the Trojan War, believes he must put the supposed instructions of the gods above his vows of love, he abandons his beloved. Dido dies of a broken heart at the end of the opera. The musical structure is characterized by descending chromaticism, as if intended to suggest Dido's journey into Hades (as in Eurydice). The Trautonium is also a successful instrumentation in that, like the famous harmonizer "Publison Infernale," invented much later, it can symbolize this journey through the sound of the viola d'amore. Since "ancient" music has been repeatedly adapted for the Trautonium, similar to the theremin, since its invention, Peter Pichler also follows a "historical performance practice," although the term takes on a new context here.
PETER PICHLER
Die sieben Todsünden · Die sieben Tugenden (2024)
Peter Pichler's pieces are character studies in both the sense of the word. This refers to both their musical meaning and content. Based on the Baroque theory of affects (a nice reference to the Purcell aria preceding this one), these studies seek to recreate the named characters or affects through "timbre melodies" and texture. These pieces are also particularly challenging from a technical perspective, as the addition of the so-called Doepfer rail made real three-part counterpoint possible. The Seven Deadly Sins was inspired by Bertolt Brecht's ballet of the same name, with music by Kurt Weill, to which there are also allusions. The Seven Virtues are the programmatic counterpoint, perhaps also a tongue-in-cheek reference to Hindemith's The Little Electronic Musician's Favorites.
In any case, these 14 aphorisms demonstrate that the instrument can also function perfectly with contemporary music. Peter Pichler's pieces, however, cannot be pigeonholed, but rather seek timelessness through stylistic changes, thus combining musical progress with tradition.
Detlef Heusinger
Peter Pichler about his compositions for this album
This project highlights the diversity and expressive power of the Trautonium and places it in the context of timeless, existential questions. It combines historical references, technical sophistication, and artistic innovation into a unique musical experience.
Die sieben Todsünden
Hochmut
A rhythmic overlay in which slow beats meet shimmering counterrhythms. The computer's voice – "MAY I PRESENT" / "TRAUTONIUM" / "STOP – NO" – symbolizes pride in technological creations, but is counteracted by glitches and interruptions. Various rhythms overlap in this piece.
Geiz
A pain-filled duet of the Trautonium with a generated church organ, amplified by the "Ibanez DM 2000" effects unit – a soundscape of egotistical restraint.
Wollust
The Trautonium quotes Strange Fruit (a song against racism) and contrasts it with Schubert's Piano Trio D. 929. Transitions are created through sound clusters, noises, and dramatic effects (such as screams or laughter). The Trautonium creates these with clusters, noises, and laughter.
Zorn
Pounding rhythms from the Trautonium's built-in percussion, accompanied by melancholic organ sounds, lead to a sonic hope beyond the disharmony.
Völlerei
An aggressive, fast beat combined with subharmonic chords, a noise generator, and frequency converters create an expansive soundscape.
Neid
Inspired by a play by A. L. Kennedy, this psychological thriller depicts an elementary school teacher and a killer caught between love, betrayal, and murder. The Trautonium reflects the destructive power of envy in heartbeat rhythms and sawtooth vibrations.
Faulheit
A play of subharmonics. Notes are gradually added until eerie chords disperse in all directions, an inertia that tips into the ominous. In this composition, you can hear the subharmonic generator at work. In the first 16 seconds, one note after another is added or added by the subharmonic generator: first four notes on the upper manual, then four notes on the lower manual. The play of spooky, gruesome, and eerie chords can begin.
Die sieben Tugenden
Demut
Rushing rhythms meet subharmonic chords. The melodies of the Doepfer Trautonium leap through the piece like syncopations, telling of a journey of humility.
Mildtätigkeit
Layers of sound and rhythm tell a story from "As if we lived in a merciful land." Albert Lockwood's seemingly gentle act is underscored by sonic contrasts between gentleness and violence. He takes action and kills an innocent man, freeing him from his hamster wheel. We hear the voice of Edmund Telgenkämper.
Keuschheit
A chromatically descending melody, accompanied by chords, ultimately leads from C-sharp major to C major. A chaste introduction to the organ and the mixture trautonium.
Geduld
In waltz time, the Trautonium tells a Cinderella story. The melody of the upper manual (OM) dances over the accompaniment of the lower manual (UM). The song for Cenicienta (Cinderella). Two quotes: "The good ones in the potty, the bad ones in the crib" / "I don't care what people think of me, because I believe in myself. And I know that everything will be alright." The UM plays the accompaniment in 3/4 time, the OM plays the wondrous Cinderella melody.
Mäßigung
A more conventional composition, written for Pamela Rachholz in 2022. It features an organ and the Trautonium in interplay with flowing timbres.
Wohlwollen
The synthesized voice of the historic "Voder" speech synthesizer is accompanied by the Trautonium. It ironically references the Voder's first words—a commentary on the synthesis of language and machine. These first words of the speech computer were "drinking everybody." The Voder used electrical oscillators to generate the formant frequencies.
Fleiß
Industrial work rhythms symbolize the industrious movement and dynamism of creativity. A modern, punk-inspired piece for Trautonium concludes the cycle.