Oskar Sala was a German physicist, composer, and pioneer of electronic music. He is best known for playing the Trautonium, an early form of electronic synthesizer, and for creating the eerie sound effects for Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds. He died at the age of 92 on February 26, 2002, in Berlin, Germany. According to the official report, he died of a health issue.
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Early Life and Education
Oskar Sala was born on July 18, 1910, in Greiz, Germany. He showed an interest in music from a young age and learned to play the piano and organ. He performed classical piano concerts as a teenager and moved to Berlin in 1929 to study piano and composition with Paul Hindemith at the Berlin Conservatory.
He also became fascinated by the experiments of Dr. Friedrich Trautwein, who invented the Trautonium, a musical instrument that used electric circuits to produce sounds. Sala learned to play the Trautonium and gave a public performance with Hindemith in 1930 to introduce the new instrument to the world. He later soloed in several concerts for Trautonium and orchestra composed by Hindemith and his student Harald Genzmer.
Sala also studied physics at the University of Berlin from 1932 to 1935. He helped to develop different versions of the Trautonium, such as the Volkstrautonium, the Radio-Trautonium, and the Konzerttrautonium. He served as a soldier during World War II and was injured on the Eastern Front.
Mixtur-Trautonium and Electronic Music
In 1948, Sala further improved the Trautonium by creating the Mixtur-Trautonium, which allowed him to explore subharmonics, a novel way of generating sounds that are lower than the fundamental frequency. He also collaborated with music therapist Maria Schüppel in the 1950s and built the Quartett-Trautonium.
Sala presented his new instrument to the public in 1952 and received international recognition for his innovation. He composed and performed several pieces for Mixtur-Trautonium and orchestra, such as Genzmer’s Concert for Mixtur-Trautonium And Grand Orchestra. He also experimented with electronic music and sound synthesis in his own studio in Berlin.
Film Work and Awards
Sala worked on many film scores in the 1940s and 1950s, using his Trautonium and other electronic devices to create unique soundtracks. He worked with directors such as Veit Harlan, Rolf Thiele, and Fritz Lang. His most famous work was for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963), where he created the terrifying sounds of the attacking birds using his Mixtur-Trautonium.
Sala received many awards for his film work, including the German Film Award-Honorary Award. He also worked on many commercials, such as the HB’s little man series. He was an honorary Senator of Berlin and a respected figure in the field of electronic music.
Conclusion
Oskar Sala was a musical genius who pioneered electronic music and sound synthesis. He played and invented various forms of Trautonium, an early synthesizer that produced amazing sounds. He composed and performed many pieces for Trautonium and orchestra, as well as created soundtracks for films and commercials. He died of a health issue in 2002 at the age of 92. Google Doodle celebrated his 112th birthday on July 18, 2022.
