Teaching Music by Radio

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 26, 10 January 1930, Page 10

Teaching Music by Radio

A Method in Use at the Berlin Academy pool nes BAS ot Music: Be , "Said fo. ) Surpass Other Systems

JFROM ‘time to time varied suggestions and schemes have been. put forward ‘concerning the.possibilities of utilising the manifold resources of radio as a means of. teaching music. .Such a system has been.adopted by the Berlin Academy of Music; and has been. successfully operated for. over. twelve months. A central radio: station’ has been established, where musicians,° on the one hand, and radio engineers, on . the other, are given an opportunity of co-operating in an investigation: of ¢ertain important problems of radio-broad-casting and of exchanging their personal views and experiences... _ All the halls and auditoriums of the Academy, as well as the Iaboratories forming part of the radio stations, have been equipped with wonderfully efficient. microphones,.. receiving: sets, and : loud-speakers. ‘ Direct current of yari-. able voltage and intensity: is‘made: use of to operate the amplifiers and’ loudspeakers, and is derived partly from accumulator batteries and partly. from special machine sets. 0 System of Communication. [HH amplifier-room coniprises" large switchboards whence the electrical . energy is properly distributed; moreover, each room: connected: up to the plant has its own smali switchboard, to which either microphones. or loudspeakers, as the.case may be, are connected. Finally, each. room communicates by a direct telephone. line with the amplifier-room, so that thé operator in charge of it can at any time. be'given all necessary instructions.s. 99°. The studio comprises ‘not only the usual removable draperies: serving to damp any echo, but elastic wooden linings on the‘walls. Also, provision has been. made for ascértaining the best conditions to give satisfactory acoustics, The principal innovations based on the use of radio which have been adopted at the Academy. of Music are briefly enumerated as follows :- Remote teaching of singing has been found thoroughly’ practicable. and: is largely made use of. ‘The ‘pupil, accotding to this scheme, stays in*his or her own dwelling, while the teacher from his study, which might be.in a ‘far-distant place, providing that d satisfactory connection can be ¢stablished, gives instructions as he would be expected to give in the case of an‘erdinary lesson. .- ORR ce we ‘All that.is required: to this: effect, of course, is that a duplex. télephone connection between, the two rooms.-be possible: Remote conducting is another practice which has been adopted at the Academy. The various members

of an orchestra or.choir are placed in. various rooms having no mutual connections, but communicating with the. study of:the conductor, who is seated. at his piano, the rhythm of which is transmitted by radio to each of the musicians, , , _ Broadcast Players. IX connection with a Swiss festival held reeently, an orchestra was ‘played in Berlin, the various musicians being located in that and various other towns of Germany, France, Italy and’ Switzerland ‘respectively. A recent invention of interest at the Academy is the steel-wire voice recorder, an-apparatus by means of which singing students may test their own. voices. This apparatus, invented by Dr. Stille,-is.based on the variable magnetisation of a steel wire or band passing in front.of the poles of an electromagnet actuated by microphone .currents. io ‘When reversing this process-that is, , causing the magnetised wire or band to pass in front of the same or a simi-' lar -electromagnet-currents corre-. sponding to the original microphone currents will be induced in its circuit, . so that a remarkably faithful repro-. duction of the speaker’s or singer’s voice is heard in a headphone or loud-° speaker connected up to the electro- magnet, Students cheek their Voices. THIS apparatus is freely made use’ of by students to check any de-’ fects of their own voices; it is even. resorted to by professors in more thor--oughly gauging their pupils’ achieve- : ments, An interesting method of ascertain-. ing the acoustic qualities of wall lin- . ‘ings is used. by Dr. Fischer at the Academy. A tube about 25 centimetres in diameter.and 2 metres in length con-.. tains in its interior a: miniature: loud-; speaker which produces: a standar sound effect. Skt oo The tube. terminates at one of its ends in a reversed funnel, at. the end: of which the emerging sound strikes.‘ plate of the material to be tested. Th ‘yeflected sound waves are picked up by: a microphone communicating with thi Joud-speaker or headphone in another." room, where comparative’ tests are; made, another loud-speaker or head phone, inserted in the same circuit being adjusted, until equal loudness As: obtained. This method enables the’ sound reflecting ‘properties of various: materials to be ascertained..with great: accuracy. , ee é