unit 4 - acoustic recording

unit 4

acoustic recording

Today i will be writing about the Telharmonium. What is it? A telharmonium is a big instrument which is electrical first of its time and first ever. Thaddeus Cahil was the inventor who made the Telharmonium, and it was made in 1890s. Historically this was new age it was only 10 years before when electric was only just getting distributed into homes. How did Telharmonium work? The way Telharmonium worked by using dynamos to generate electrical signals additive synthesis. Which was transmitted through the telephone lines. To those who were paying for it.  

It was very expensive when it came out at the time of its release it was $200,000 which for the time that was a lot of money.  

The first place where the Telharmonium was used and hear was Holyoke Massachusetts in 1906. It moved not long after it was installed. It was then taken to New York where it was installed Telharmonic Hall. It was a very heavy instrument making it 200 tons which modern day instruments are light and small but back then it was a learning staple. It was 60 feet long. 

Polyphonic is a texture where two or more independent melodic occur simultaneously. The velocity sensitive keyboard is a keyboard that responds to the speed in which the key is pressed and release controling the sound in which you hear.  

The Telharmonium was polyphonic and had a velocity sensitive keyboard. by having Multiple and singular sets of tone making wheels which was connected to. Which created a multi tone.  

There where three that was made over the space of 9 years first one was made in 1901 the second one was made in 1906 and the third one was made in 1910 however its popularity declined in 1912  which led to the discontinuation of the instrument. The reason why this instrument discontinued  was firstly because of the size of the instrument secondly there where problems with using the telephone lines for it as this cause disruption and unfortunately the cost of the instrument  led to the company which made this to go out of business it was the very first electrical instrument which now we use all the time it was a prediction of music synthesisers and music streaming service which we all us everyday and everywhere we are  

The picture above shows the 1901 telharmonium

from this picture we can see the size was big

The picture above was from 1906

In this picture you can see Thaddeus Cahil using the instrument

the picture above shows the instrument in 1910

and people are present like a concert of its time

the picture above is a diagrams of the telharmonium

The picture above is of the telharmonium in moderns day

               

In this video it explains what a telharmonium is and how it worked 

                

In this video it takes you through the history of the telharmonium 

This is a picture of the mechanism which was used in the telharmonium

and this was the start of synthesisers