ELECTRIC MUSIC

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 December 1939, Page 7

ELECTRIC MUSIC

ORCHESTRA PLAYED BY ONE MAN. As we ail know weil. sound is merely a vibration of the air, which, striking on our ear-drums, is conveyed by specialised nerves to the brain, causing us to hear. We do not know why we hear, but we do know that any vibra tion so transferred results in the brail, conceiving sound. If the vibrations are irregular wi call the result noise. If they are re gular we are pleased with what we hear and call the result music. Musical instruments set ,up vibrations and we use them to make con-1 certed music. Each musical instru ment gives us a different kind of tone or timbre, because of differences in the vibrations which it causes. If we strike a certain note on the piano, and next sound it on the violin, we perceive that while the pitch is the same the tone is very different. That is because the piano wire, tapped by a hammer, gives out vibrations of a complex different from that of the string of a vio Im m-'dc io vibrate by a bow. In recent years there has entered r new way of setting up vibrations, oi making musical sounds. We can use electrical waves to set up aerial vibrations and to compound those vibrations in an infinity of ways. So if we make a machine transform ing electrical impulses into aerial vibrations we have an Infinite Orchestra That is, we can. by suitable manipulation. <o combine vibrations as to imitate known musical instruments, and, in addition, an infinite number of other musical instruments that have never yet been invented. The player on such an electrical instrument is in the position of mi artist using colour; he can produce an infinity of tones. The subject is only in its infancy, but we may be sure that it will be developed. Already organs are being made on the electrical principle, and we jnay look forward to a “new music’’ of infinite possibilities. It will be capable of concentrating, in the hands of a single performer, the production and control of orchestra) tones never before heard