Telharmonium, created by Thaddeus Cahill 1897

Luigi Russolo and his assistant Ugo Piatti with their Intonarumori, 1913

Léon Theremin and his Theremin, 1919

Trautonium, 1928

An electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces its sounds using electronics. In contrast, the term electric instrument is used to mean instruments whose sound is produced mechanically, and only amplified or altered electronically - for example an electric guitar. Usually the instrument will have some way of controlling the sound, such as by adjusting the pitch, frequency, or duration of each note. Teleharmonium by Thaddeus Cahill 1897 Source: [1] This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Teleharmonium by Thaddeus Cahill 1897 Source: [1] This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Telharmonium console by Thaddeus Cahill 1897 The earliest purely electronic musical instrument was the Telharmonium or Teleharmonium, developed by Thaddeus Cahill in 1897. ... Thaddeus Cahill (1867 - 1934) was a prominent inventor of the early 20th century. ... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Luigi Russolo ca. ... This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons, a repository of free content hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. ... This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons, a repository of free content hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. ... A young Léon Theremin playing a theremin Léon Theremin (born Lev Sergeyevich Termen, Лев Сергеевич Термен in Russian) (August 15, 1896–November 3, 1993) was a Russian inventor. ... ‹ The template below is being considered for deletion. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 462 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1917 × 2488 pixel, file size: 893 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 462 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1917 × 2488 pixel, file size: 893 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... The trautonium is a monophonic electronic musical instrument invented ca. ... A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... This article is about the engineering discipline. ... An Electric Musical Instrument (which, in the broadest sense, includes both electrically amplified acoustic instruments and electronic musical instruments) is one in which a loudspeaker is used as the main sound generator. ... An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into electrical current, which is then amplified. ... Pitch is the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. ... For other uses, see Frequency (disambiguation). ...

All electric and electronic musical instruments can be viewed as a subset of audio signal processing applications. Simple electronic musical instruments are sometimes called sound effects; the border between sound effects and actual musical instruments is often hazy. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of movies, video games, music, or other media. ...

French composer and engineer Edgard Varèse created a variety of compositions using electronic horns, whistles, and tape. Most notably, he wrote Poème Électronique for the Phillips pavilion at the Brussels World Fair in 1958. A composer is a person who writes music. ... Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French-born composer. ... Poème électronique (English Translation: Electronic Poem) is a piece of electronic music by composer Edgard Varèse. ... The Atomium. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Electronic musical instruments are now widely used in most styles of music. The development of new electronic musical instruments continues to be a highly active and interdisciplinary field of research. Specialized conferences, notably the International Conference on New interfaces for musical expression, have organized to report cutting edge work, as well as to provide a showcase for artists who perform or create music with new electronic music instruments. Musician with a multimodal instrument based on electromyography, position sensing, and acoustically resonant bowls. ...

Early electronic musical instruments

In the broadest sense, the very first electrified musical instrument was the Denis d'or, dating from 1753. It was followed by the Clavecin électrique by the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste de Laborde in 1761. The Denis dor (golden Dionysius - spelling variants: Denisdor and Denydor) is, in the broadest sense, the first electric musical instrument in history. ... 1753 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The clavecin électrique was invented in 1759 by Jean-Baptiste de La Borde. ... 1761 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

The first purely electronic musical instrument was the Telharmonium, built by Thaddeus Cahill in 1906. Employing electric generators and tonewheels to produce notes, it had a length of 60ft and a weight of 200 tons; because of a lack of suitable loudspeakers at that time, the music was distributed over the telephone network. Telharmonium console by Thaddeus Cahill 1897 The earliest purely electronic musical instrument was the Telharmonium or Teleharmonium, developed by Thaddeus Cahill in 1897. ... Thaddeus Cahill (1867 - 1934) was a prominent inventor of the early 20th century. ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

One of the many instruments constructed in the following decades was the Theremin, invented by Leon Theremin in 1917, which used a pair of heterodyned vacuum tube RF oscillators to make an audible tone that varied in pitch depending on the distance, and thus the capacitance, between the user and the instrument. This was followed in 1928 by the Ondes Martenot which had a keyboard as well as several auxiliary controllers. ‹ The template below is being considered for deletion. ... A young Léon Theremin playing a theremin Léon Theremin (born Lev Sergeyevich Termen, Лев Сергеевич Термен in Russian) (August 15, 1896–November 3, 1993) was a Russian inventor. ... Ondes martenot demonstrated by inventor Maurice Martenot The Ondes Martenot (or Ondes-Martenot or Ondes martenot or Ondium Martenot or Martenot or ondes musicale) is an early electronic musical instrument with a keyboard and slide invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot, and originally very similar in sound to the Theremin. ...

The sound of the Ondes Martenot is used extensively in the Turangalîla-Symphonie and other works by Olivier Messiaen. However, these were not true synthesizers in the modern sense, as they were not configurable to produce a range of complex sounds by additive or subtractive synthesis, instead generating single pure tones with controllable pitch, amplitude and vibrato. The Turangalîla-Symphonie is a large-scale piece of orchestral music by Olivier Messiaen. ... Olivier Messiaen It has been suggested that List of students of Olivier Messiaen be merged into this article or section. ... Pitch is the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. ... It has been suggested that pulse amplitude be merged into this article or section. ... Vibrato is a musical effect where the pitch or frequency of a note or sound is quickly and repeatedly raised and lowered over a small distance for the duration of that note or sound. ...

Ca. 1929 Friedrich Trautwein invented the Trautonium in Berlin. It was played with a resistor wire which has to be pressed against a metal plate. Oskar Sala was one of the first players and continued development until his death in 2002. Paul Hindemith wrote some compositions for it. The trautonium is a monophonic electronic musical instrument invented ca. ... Oskar Sala Oskar Sala (June 18, 1910 - February 26, 2002) was a 20th century German electronic musician and composer. ... Paul Hindemith aged 28. ...

These early electronic instruments produced only pure tones and were frequently used to make avant garde music. In April 1935, Laurens Hammond introduced the Hammond tonewheel organ, which generated complex tones using an electro-mechanical principle derived from the design of the Telharmonium. Later Hammond used the Leslie speaker to achieve special modulation effects, and the resulting Hammond organ sound is still regarded as the benchmark for the "electric organ" sound. This sound can be simulated by many modern synthesizers and digital samplers. Experimental music is any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Telharmonium console by Thaddeus Cahill 1897 The earliest purely electronic musical instrument was the Telharmonium or Teleharmonium, developed by Thaddeus Cahill in 1897. ... The Leslie speaker is a specially constructed amplifier/loudspeaker used to create special audio effects utilizing the Doppler effect. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Synthesizers

The most commonly used electronic instruments are synthesizers, so-called because they artificially generate sound using techniques such as additive, subtractive, FM and physical modelling synthesis to create sounds. For other uses, see Synthesizer (disambiguation). ... 194. ... Subtractive synthesis is a method of sound synthesis characterised by the application of an audio filter to a source signal. ... Frequency modulation synthesis (or FM synthesis) is a form of audio synthesis where the timbre of a simple waveform is changed by frequency modulating it with a modulating frequency that is also in the audio range, resulting in a more complex waveform and a different-sounding tone. ... Physical modelling synthesis is the synthesis of sound by using a set of equations and algorithms to simulate a physical source of sound. ...

Dr. Robert Moog introduced the first practical commercial modern music synthesizer with his Moog synthesizer. This instrument used a series of tone generators with keys that would adjust the tone generators' pitch. Moog resolved to sell Theremins to gain enough money to engineer this synthesizer. Dr. Robert Arthur Moog (pronounced // to rhyme with vogue, not //) (May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was a pioneer of electronic music, best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer. ... For other uses, see Synthesizer (disambiguation). ... The term Moog(pronounced // as in moan) synthesizer can refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for analog and digital music synthesisers. ... ‹ The template below is being considered for deletion. ...

The first digital synthesizers were academic experiments in sound synthesis using digital computers. FM synthesis was developed for this purpose, as a way of generating complex sounds digitally with the smallest number of computational operations per sound sample. A digital synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds. ... Frequency modulation synthesis (or FM synthesis) is a form of audio synthesis where the timbre of a simple waveform is changed by frequency modulating it with a modulating frequency that is also in the audio range, resulting in a more complex waveform and a different-sounding tone. ...

Modern electronic musical instruments

While synthesizers dominate the current market, other instruments such as the radiodrum are being developed by people such as Peter Driessen and Andrew Schloss as an alternative to the standard user interfaces of traditional instruments. These modern electronic instruments seek to improve the musician's ability to express music, rather than experimenting with tone which can then be done by synthesizers. There are also electronic wind instruments like Akai's EWI EWI, played by a lot of wind musicians. For other uses, see Synthesizer (disambiguation). ... The Radiodrum is a musical instrument played in three dimensional space using two drumsticks. ... Andrew Schloss is a musician and computer engineer. ... For other uses, see Synthesizer (disambiguation). ... An EWI The EWI (an acronym for Electronic Wind Instrument) is an electronic musical instrument developed by the Akai Electronic Musical Instruments Corporation of Japan. ...

See also

• Drum machine
• Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music

A Boss DR-202 Drum Machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums and/or other percussion instruments. ... Ishkurs Guide to Electronic Music (often referred to as just Ishkurs Guide) is an online Flash-driven guide to electronic music created by Kenneth John Taylor of British Columbia. ...

External links

• 120 Years of Electronic Music
• History of Electronic Music
• Tons of Tones !! : Site with technical data on Electronic Modelling of Musical Tones