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User:Techn0logist/List of recordings and surviving footage of electronic music before 1940

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Demonstration, experimental and performance footage (excl. appearance in fictional films)

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Theremin (and close derivatives)

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  • 1927 (no audio): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbaG57gUsro / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZp4qO_HK1c
  • 1929: Dunbar and Lennington Shewell demonstrating the Theremin Youtube
  • 1930: "LA MUSIQUE DES ONDES / THE MUSIC OF THE WAVES" [1]
  • 1931: Au Salon de la TSF. IN THE LOUNGE(SHOW) OF THE TSF. Theremin, Trautonium. the video claims to show 'l'inventeur français' Theremin demonstrating his instrument, but it is someone else playing a volume-switch version not unlike Taubman's Electronde. [2]
  • 1937: Shots of musician Musaire playing a version of a Theremin - The instrument has two aerials and by moving his hands Musaire changes the pitch and volume of the notes. He plays the tune 'Miracles Sometimes Happen'. [3]
  • 1938: MARTIN TAUBMAN and HIS ELECTRONDE in "MUSIC FROM THE AIR"'. [4]

Trautonium

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Ondes Martenot

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  • 1934: Maurice Martenot demonstrating the intrument ("Music from the Ether") Youtube [6]
  • 1934: "PR MARTENOT INVENTS A NEW DEVICE", could just be the French version of above [7]
  • 1937: "IN L EXPO A HEARING OF THE " WAVES MARTENOT " 27" [8]

Croix Sonore

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  • 1934-05-23: [9]
  • 1934-06-01: [10]
  • In October 1934, Germaine Dulac made a film of Aussenac de Broglie playing the instrument, with Obukhov at the piano. This took place in Italy with the assistance of the Institute of Rome. Apparently this is also in the Gaumont Pathe archives, though I didn't find it originally

Russian sound-on-film

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  • 1930-1935: Demonstration of 'Ornamental Sound Animation' Youtube
  • 1933?: Voinov demonstration footage of paper sound Youtube
  • 1934: Demonstration footage of Variophone [11]

German sound-on-film

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Date Composer(s) Title (Original) Title (English) Is original recording preserved? Notes
1932 Oskar Fischinger Tönende Ornamente Ornament Sound Yes<Vimeo> Based on the video (which I purchased), this is not compositional... just trying out the sounds of different images
1933 László Moholy-Nagy Tönendes ABC Sounding ABC Lost Short experimental film. A development of Pfenniger's experiments. The optical sound track was rephotographed such that it could be projected on the image track simultaneously with the sound (allowing one to see the same forms that one was also hearing). Some of the film soundtrack is preserved [12], and it's clear that he was just trying out the sounds of different images

Novachord

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Unknown

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Arrangements in film and radio

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Theremin

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  • 1936: The Green Hornet radio show. Described as "buzzy synthetic effect mixed with an arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Flight of the Bumblebee." <Recording>
  • The Russian movie Girlfriends/Three Women (1936) has a theremin playing the Russian soviet anthem haphazardly

Russian sound-on-film

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  • 1931: Nikolai Voinov - Rachmaninov's Prelude
  • 1933-1934: Evgeny Sholpo - Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries <Youtube>
  • 1935: "Ferenc Liszt - Rhapsody", programmed on the variophone by Evgeny Sholpo in 1935 with the assistance of Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov. <Soundcloud>
  • 1936: "Isaak Dunaevsky - The Song of Robert", programmed on the variophone by Envgeny Sholpo in late 1936 <Youtube>

German sound-on-film

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Date Composer(s) Film Title (Original) Film Title (English) Is original recording preserved? Notes
1932 Rudolph Pfenniger Barcarole (Tönende Handschrift III) Yes, but can't track down Groteskes ballett film directed by the brothers Diehl. The Barcarole from Offenbach's Hoffmanns Erzählungen
1932 Rudolph Pfenniger Serenade (Tönende Handschrift I) Yes, but can't track down Groteskes ballett film directed by the brothers Diehl. I don't have any evidence that this was an arrangement, but considering the title, and considering his two other arrangements, it's likely that it is.
1932 Rudolph Pfenniger Largo Yes(?), but can't track down Naturfilm. An arrangement of Händel’s Largo
  • The five films by Rudolph Pfenniger were compiled as "Tönende Handschrift" in 1932, and this is still available and reasonably widespread, though I'm having a hard time tracking it down. It appears that 3 are on this DVD. I'm willing to bet the other two are arrangements too, though I don't know.

Sound effects in film and radio

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Theremin

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  • The theremin may have been used as a sound effect in King Kong (1933) and Bride of Frankstein (1935), though there is no evidence of this (so far?). One source goes as far as saying that there is no evidence of the theremin in Hollywood until 1944.[13]

Trautonium

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  • Used in the 1930 film Sturme uber dem Montblanc or Storm over Mont Blanc to make the sound of a propeller plane. <Youtube 5:42>
  • Used in the 1932 short film Besonntes Handwerk, though not sure if it was used as a sound effect or for musical use. Though the film seems to be preserved in German archives, it would be very hard to obtain it, so we will probably never know. The most likely assumption is that it was used as a sound effect.

Partiturophon

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  • Used by Jorg Mager in the 1936 film Stärker als Paragraphen for sound effects in the for "hallucination" scene. This could actually be a musical use, but I haven't seen it. The film still exists, so it's worth checking out.
    • "The resulting thirty-second clip of the Partiturophon is the only known recording of his instruments."

Sound-on-film

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  • Eric Allan Humphries synthetic voice
  • Ub Iwerks’ The Village Barber (1930) was pivotal in establishing some of the mickey mousing conventions for synthetic sound in animated film (e.g. glissandi, bouncing sounds and vocal utterances)
  • 1931: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Influenced by German techniques. "Took advantage of the uncanny acoustic possibilities afforded by the new technique as a means to provide a sonic correlate to the transformation of the gentleman into the monster and vice versa. The result was, as one commentator described it, “a vivid, synthetically created sound track built from exaggerated heart beats mingled with the reverberations of gongs played backwards, bells heard through echo chambers and completely artificial sounds created by photographing light frequencies directly onto the soundtrack." Arguably the most effective early example of connecting synthetic sound to cinematic horror. "The film director Rouben Mamoulian included a brief passage of drawn synthetic high and low frequencies in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1932)."
  • 1934: Arthur Hoérée, whose practice of zaponage, a technique that involves using a dark paint or stain called Zapon to touch up the optical sound track, was employed to great effect in Dimitri Kirsanoff’s Rapt. Listening to it, it wasn't really a musical use, he used it more to simulate the sound of a wind storm<Youtube>

Phonograph recordings

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Choralcelo

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  • 1916: "Choralcelo test instrumentalists". Unreleased, and probably lost. [14]
  • 1942: "Poor Little Butterfly". This abbreviated melody line of "Poor Little Butterfly" is extracted from a badly scratched original 78rpm glass master live 1942 recording, hand played by Regene Farrington, wife of Wilber Farrington, President of The Choralcelo Co., recorded in the Choralcelo Studio in New York City. When a restored, operating Choralcelo is found, a better quality music sample will be provided.

Theremin

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Unreleased

  • 1929: Unreleased, earliest known Theremin recording: "Sept 25, 1929 Test Shellac Camden, NJ. Victor." [15]
  • 1929: Multiple unreleased theremin recordings: [16] [17][18]
  • 1930: Multiple unreleased theremin recordings: [19][20][21]

Released

  • 1930-04: [Victor Records, 22296]: Love (Your Spell Is Everywhere) / (I'm A Dreamer) Aren't We All?. Orchestra with theremin soloist [22]
  • 1930-10: [Victor Records, 22495]: A/"Dancing With Tears In My Eyes", B/"Lover, Come Back To Me!", performed by Lennington Shewell on theremin, accompanied by pianist Youtube [23]
  • 1930~?: [Victor Records, 216559]: A/"Lonesome Lover", B/"Walter Donaldson - You're Driving Me Crazy", performed by Lennington Shewell on theremin and accompanied by pianist. I believe the A-Side does not feature a theremin.
  • 1935-11: [Victor Records, 25130]: A/"Love Sends A Little Gift of Roses", B/"In A Monastery Garden", performed by Lennington Shewell on theremin, accompanied by organ and piano. Looks like it was also released on His Master's Voice, HMV B 8309 (or Gramophone B-8309?) [24][25]
  • 1941: Bud Averill ‎– Theremin Melodies Discogs

Ondes martenot

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  • 1935: Pathé PA-789. Darius Cittanova. A1: Les trois petits cochons, A2: impression de musique de foire, B1: La rumba des phoques [26][27]
  • 1937: ? [28]

Croix Sonore

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  • 1935: [Pathe Records, PG 1]: A-Side: Nikolai Obukhov - "Le tout puissant benit la paix", B-Side: Nikolai Obukhov - "Pour le tabernacle, pour le mariage" (croix sonore and piano played by Nikolai Obukhov) The only commercially issued record with playing of the Croix Sonore. [29][30]

Trautonium

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  • 1942: [Deutsche Grammophon, 57212 HM] Oskar Sala plays Concerto for Trautonium and Orchestra Youtube
  • See appendix of Elektrische Klangmaschinen

Novachord

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