Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1906-04-19

ono OF the dressing rooms transform
the electrical vibrations into aerial vi
brations and the whole ballroom is
filled as with the strains OF an orcnes-
ira. In violin and cello pieces the list
ener hears the bow gliding across the
strings-or thinks he hears it. for there
| is in fact neither bow nor string The
whole is purely electrical, vet the ear
| is almost right in its guess, for though
the horschair bow be absent the living
| hand of the performer is controlling
what answers to an electrical bow. The
lpcrformcr himself hears only the cleo
trical music. He listens to Il receiving
INSTRUMENT Just as his hesrers do in the
next block or miles away.
One of the striking features OF the
electrical music as heard in the Cahill
laboratory in Holvokc, is the perform
er's perfect control of the expression
The volume of sound seems to respond
absolutely to his touch-in fact, the
nearer soon becomes conscious that the
soul of the musician is in his music. BY
the to,lc! Of the hand tie performer
controls the attack and sostenuto and
varies the note at every instant. The
musicians at the Cahill laboratory pro-
duced very good vibrato effects, and
crescendos and diminuendes not infer
ior to those produced by good violin
The singularly pure quality of the
tones and the remarkable control over
them which the performer possesses
take the listener by surprise. 1T is a
curious system i'm which a battery of
powerful alternators at central sta
ton may be used tovibrate diaphragms
all over a great city, producing music
in thousands of homes, while the cleo
trical forces are so perfectly under the
control of the performers fingers that
they respond to their musical feelings
more perfectly than any existing instru-
mcnt, saving the violin, viola, and
cello. 1t is said to be as easy for Il
musician to recognize friends touch
a mile or fifty miles away, asif he We're
playing Il violin in the next room.
Perhaps one of the most remarkable
features of this new art is the "tonc
mixing" or tone building. Physicists
have known for some time that most
musical sounds were composed of sew
eral parts or clements and that the diff
fercnt tone qualities or tone colors re-
suited from the presence of different
overtoncs or harmonics in combination
with the fundamental or ground tone
Thus, when a single key is struck on
the piano, the tone is composed of sew
eral different sets of vibrations, from
the lowest of which it receives its
pitch-designation. This is called the
ground tone, fundamental. or first par
tial while the other elements are called
ovcrtones or harmonics, and it is we'll
known that if the ground tone is repre-
scntcd by n, the ovcrtones for the lower
notes of a piano will be IN, ;1n, In, 5n,
etc. The timbre or quality of the note,
then, depends upon the harmonics
which enter into it and their res pective
strengths Now. in the musical instru
mcnts of the past the tone-color or
quality is dependent upon many things.
In the piano, for instance, the kind of
wire used, the manner in which it was
drawn and tempered, the tightncss
with which it is strung, the manner of
attaching to the soundboard, the shape,
the weight and hardness of the ham
where it is struck, etc. each plays its
sound produced The same general
struments In DIR Cahill's electrical
elements of tone are generated sep
aratcly and blended at the will of the
performer i'm such combinations as he
MAY desire. A number of inductori,lms
or tone mixers serve to build up from
the simple or sinusoidal waves of the
altcrnators complex resultant vibra-
tons Thu, several alternators con-
tribute their waves to a single note,
when that is of a rich or string quail
lily Several such notes on single
keyboard are combined electrically into
more highly composite vibrations,
which when they reach the ear, appeal
to it as musical chords of great beauty.
In some cases the complex vibrations
from different kcyboards are further
lcombined into still more highly com
positc vibrations, so as to produce sew
eral voices or parts, as violin and a
cello, or clarinet and flute, i'm the
same receiver at the same instant.
Some of these superpositions of vib:a-
tions are produced conductivelv and
Isomc magneticallN
This system of building up the quail
| lily of tone desired by mixing with tho
ground tone one or many harmonics,
with any strength desired, opens up a
new field OF timbre control. The wood
wind. brass, and stringcd tones of the
orchestra are easily produced 10y mix
| ing the required harmonics in the re-
quircd proportions. A musician i'm DIR.
| Cahill s laboratory showed d staff corre-
sponeent that a mere ground tone pro-
duccs clear, pure flute note, a ground
tone with the third and fourth harmo-
MICS of suitable strength produces the
sound of a clarinet while to initiate the
violin all the harmonics up to the
eighth we're useful Another combina-
ton of harmonics, in which the seventh
and eighth are strong. gives the char
acteristic blare of brass. In addition
to reproducing the leading orchestral
tones, a skillful performer can mix the
harnonics so as to produce musical
timbres unknown before. These new
qualities are striking feature of the
electrical music.
1t is impossible within the limits of
this article to enter upon any elaborate
description of these tone-mixing or
tone building devices. Suffice it to say
that there are special forms of induc-
forums, having usually plurality of
primary circuits into which vibrations
from different alternators are fed, and
a combining secondary circuit in which
resultant vibrations are propuced,
equivalent unsteady and electrically to
the several series of vibrations in the
several primary circuits. Some of these
inductorinms have iron circuits almost
closed Others have open iron circuits,
while still others are air-core trans
formers-entirely without iron.
| One thing that is to be emphasized
in connection with this new music is
that while the telephone is employed
as a receiver it is not held to the ear.