US Patent no. 580.035, registered by Thaddeus Cahill (1867-1934) in 1897, described a landmark in electronic music. The Dynamophone, also known as the telharmonium, was an electric based sound-generation system (phonographs had been invented some twenty years previous, but were recording devices, not sound generators). The Dynamophone was presented to the public in 1906 at Holyoke Massachusetts. It was later shipped to New York on 30 flatcars. It consisted of shafts and inductors that produced alternating currents of different audio frequencies. A polyphonic keyboard and controls were used to control it.

The Dynamophone weighed over 200 tons, was 60 feet in length, cost $200,000 (that's $200,000 in 1906!), and was said to look like an engine room of a ship.

The idea behind it was that music would be played through the phone lines. People would subscribe to a service and a group of musicians would play various music. Restaurants and taverns would be able to have music played in over the phone lines, which excited them since that meant that they would save money used to pay live musicians ( Why does it seem that restaurant and club owners through the years always try to do away with musicians but want to keep the music...D.J.s ...karaoke.??!) . It actually had some early success piping music into some posh restaurants in New York.

The Telharmonium supplied 1 amp of power to each telephone receiver on the network this was much more than the telephone itself but was enough to be able to hear the music without lifting the receiver speaker to the ear however this also masked and disrupted any other signal on the line. The instrument was usually played by two musicians (4 hands) and reproduced "respectable" music of the time: Bach, Chopin, Grieg, Rossinni etc.

New England Electric Music Company which funded the unit, intended to sell models to cities and towns. It called the form of transmission as "Telharmony." It tried to set up a music broadcasting network. (Perhaps the Dynamophone was not only the grandpappy of synthesis, but of the internet as well !). The NY Telephone company actually bought into the idea.

Of course the telephone receivers made the music sound horrible (although Cahill had designed horns that would attach to them). Also it caused interference with regular phone service, as well as it would blow out the switching systems. Eventually the company went bankrupt just before World War one.

Some interesting features included a 36 note per octave keyboard (Cahill was into just intonation) which tripped the musicians hired to play it.

The keyboard was velocity sensitive!

The complexity of the machine is surprising. The tone- generating system consists of 12 axles on which is mounted a series of dynamos. Each dynamo creates an electrical oscillation of a given frequency or tone. Each axle rotates at a speed corresponding to the frequency of one of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale.

Three units were actually built (one in DC, one in NY). Not a part of any of the machines exist today.

There is a story that a NY businessman became so outraged with the interference with the phone service that he burst in, broke it up, and threw it into the Hudson river.

Radio, which had been around for five years, would soon be strong enough to cause the Dynamophones demise anyway.

To win backing from Washington Westinghouse, Cahill first sent Telharmonium music into his house.

The monstrous instrument occupied the entire floor of "Telharmonic Hall" on 39th Street and Broadway New York City for 20 years.

Excerpts from McClure magazine which  excited Busoni -

: Largest Musical instrument ever built...instead of bringing the people to the music, the new method sends the music to them..by opening a switch we may 'turn on' the music...gives a hint at what the music of the future may be like...a hundred instruments in one...Electricity used to produce music...the musician uses his keys and stops to build up the voices of flute or clarinet, as the artist uses his brushes for mixing colors for a certain hue...the workmen in the shop speak of 'electric music...we welcome the new with eagerness; it has a place to fill; it may revolutionize our musical art; but in accepting the new, we will not give up the old. (1)

Bibliography

• Russcol, Herbert, The Liberation of Sound :  An Introduction to Electronic Music , Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1972
• Appleton, Jon H. and Ronald C. Perera,The development and Practice of Electronic Music , Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1975 1) pp.5-6
• Simms, Bryan R., Music of the Twentieth Century, NY, Schirmer Books, 1996 _____________________________________________________________________________________________

Related web sites:

Http://www .obsolete.com/120_years/machines/telharmonium