Evening star., 1933-06-18
Np vENTRILOoulsT

The lights Of the auditorium were turned
low. The stage curtain rose. Then from q
completely empty stage came the strains OF the
symphony orchestra, playing with a dynamic
range and volume never before attained. The
strangest part of it all was that the music
sounded as If the musicians were hidden some
where behind a curtain for any experienced
listener could easily tell the precise location OF
the separate instruments on the stage.
Then the sound of feet was heard crossing
the stage and finally came Brunhildes Fare
well and Finale" from Wagner's "Gotterdame-
rung," with just the disemboded voice of Miss
Agnes Davis floating on the stage. If woman
had been standing on the stage, no one in the
audience would have believed that the voice
not coming from her throat.
What really happened was that the Philadel-
phia Orchestra men and the singer were in
soundproof ball room several floors distant from
the auditorium while Stokowski, by means OF
two dials and three switches controlled the
volume and the quality of the music that came
from three concealed loudspeakers on the stage.
connected with three microphones in the ball
room where the orchestra and the singer were
being directed by Associate Conductor Alex
ander Smallens.
This was the first time in history that orches
trail music had been transmitted with tonal
fidelity over wires to an auditorium and In
such way that the illusion was created OF
invisible instruments playing exactly where they
ought to be on a concert stage and Of voices
talking as If people were standing at certain
spots.
What this new method can really be called
is operate or orchestral ventriloquism.
Stokowski is the ventriloquist who can hgur
atively hold upon his knee, through his elec-
trical control, both voices and music. On the
stage he can have whatever he chooses and he
can, by means of all kinds of levers, direct his
distant we'll his nearby performers.
TO Stokowski the possibilities of this develop
ment are enormous.
"It will lead" he said ito extensive broad
casting or transmissions of the best kind. Be-
fore long the whole country-the whole world
will be wired for the presentation Of music.
Beer gardens and homes in the country Will
hear music that is richer in quality than the
music you hear from an academy stage.
Il can imagine spacious gardens of pleasure
in which happy idlers, after brief days work,
wander amid the trees while they listen to the
strains of great music played in some distant
music tower.
Now the problem is solved of what We shall
do with our leisure time when We have to work
only few hours a day for living"
Make no mistake. These are not the ord1-
nary loudspeakers and mikes" These mixes
make it possible to reproduce the lowest and
the highest musical notes that the human ear
can hear. Even more this system reproduces
the space in which the distant music is being
played or sung.
Three main results have been achieved by
the invention which Stokowski can now employ
with his invisible opera singers and his invisible
musicians.
The first result is called auditory perspective
This was illustrated by Dr. Fletcher in a few
magical experiments. Voices up in the ball
room asked each other for hammer and saw;
then came the pounding of wood on the stage.
man walked across the stage in the ball room
and the audience could have sworn that he
had walked in front Of them in full view.
Unseen bells and tambourines raced around
the stage.
Secondly, Dr. Fletcher points out that perfect
reproduction requires that all the tones and
overtones present in the original music be re-