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Between Air and Electricity

Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments

  • Overview
  • Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3
  • Chapter 4
  • Chapter 5
  • Other Examples

Category: 1950s and earlier

Posted on December 21, 2017July 2, 2019

112 loud-speaking telephone receivers and other early sound reinforcement systems by Ralf Ehlert

The picture above was made in 1919 during the Victory Liberty Loan and the lamp-like objects hanging above the crowd are so-called loud-speaking telephone receivers. The crowd had “the unusual sensation of having spoken messages come to them out of … read more

Posted on March 10, 2017March 3, 2019

An active loudspeaker by Hermann Scherchen

Through his intensive occupation with recording and reproducing music, the conductor Hermann Scherchen (1891-1966)  became aware of the enormous amount of people listening to music through loudspeakers. He was concerned with the difference between the complex sound diffusion during a … read more

Posted on January 31, 2017February 7, 2017

p. 88 Philips Pavilion by Le Corbusier, Iannis Xenakis and Edgar Varèse

Philips Pavilion (1958) by Le Corbusier, Iannis Xenakis and Edgar Varèse:

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Posted on January 31, 2017December 21, 2017

p. 76 Neo Bechstein

Neo Bechstein demonstration from 1933 “it is heard through the medium of a loud-speaker” (I love how she pronounces loud-speaker!).

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Posted on January 31, 2017May 16, 2019

p. 65 Apparat by Hermann von Helmholtz

David Pantalony plays on the 19th century Apparat zur künstlichen Zusammensetzung der Vocalklänge invented by Hermann von Helmholtz and built by Rudolph Koenig. This device was used to do research on the synthesis of vocal sounds.

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Posted on January 31, 2017December 21, 2017

p. 40 Leslie tone cabinet

Leslie tone cabinet

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Posted on January 31, 2017December 21, 2017

p. 37 Enrico Caruso

A “completely satisfactory” Enrico Caruso recording from 1902:

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Between Air and Electricity

  • Table of Contents
  • Cathy van Eck
  • introduction

key words

  • (acoustic) feedback
  • (hemi)spherical loudspeakers
  • contact microphones
  • everyday objects
  • flute
  • flying loudspeakers
  • movement
  • percussion
  • phonograph
  • piano
  • pick-ups
  • prepared loudspeakers
  • prepared microphones
  • sound reinforcement systems
  • space
  • tactile transducers
  • ten or more loudspeakers
  • trumpet
  • tuning fork
  • violin family
  • voice
  • walking
  • water
  • wearable

time line

  • 1950s and earlier
  • 1960s
  • 1970s
  • 1980s
  • 1990s
  • 2000s
  • 2010s
  • 2020s

Recent Posts

  • Megaphone Music I

  • A hydrophone synthesiser by Tomoko Sauvage

  • in steps by Ricardo Eizirik

  • Touch Amplifiers by Özgür Erkök Moroder and Steffi Weismann

  • Kkwaenggwari and Bambusoides by Ji Youn Kang

  • acoustic resonators by Jeff Snyder

  • Ohr-Weide — Salix aurita by île flottante | Andrea Gsell & Nica Giuliani and Lilian Beidler

  • Drohnenmusik by Genoël von Lilienstern

  • Echo Moiré by Matteo Marangoni

  • Kropka na Ogonie and Soroka Fruwa by Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman

  • 112 loud-speaking telephone receivers and other early sound reinforcement systems by Ralf Ehlert

  • Transduction and Acoustic Radiator by Kristen Roos

  • Loudspeakeroperas by Huba de Graaff

  • Points of Contact by Erfan Abdi

  • Vestiges of Discomposition and other works by Simon Whetham

  • The Springboard by Eric Leonardson

  • Touche Nature by I-lly Cheng

  • Small Movements by Adam Basanta

  • Speaker Dress by Pauchi Sasaki

  • Apart by Oscar Bettison

  • Sound in a Jar by Ronald Boersen

  • Transducer by Robin Fox and Eugene Ughetti

  • Speaker Feedback Instruments by Lesley Flanigan

  • Fifty years of loudspeakers and ping pong balls

  • Hemispherical loudspeakers for laptop orchestras

  • Doppelbelichtung by Carola Bauckholt

  • Tonewood by Hugo Morales Murguía

  • Klangflug by Lara Stanic

  • A sympathetic piano by Gökhan Deneç

  • An active loudspeaker by Hermann Scherchen

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