Harald Bode (October 19, 1909 – January 15, 1987) was a German engineer and pioneer in the development of
electronic musical instruments.
Biography
Harald Bode was born in 1909 in
Hamburg, Germany. At the age of 18 he lost his parents and started studying,[1] and graduated from the
University of Hamburg in 1934.[2] In 1935, he began his pioneering work in the field of
electronic musical instruments, and with funding support provided by Christian Warnke, his earliest work was completed in 1937.[1]
The Warbo Formant Organ (1937),[model 1][photo 1] an archetype of today's
polyphonic synthesizer, was a four voice key-assignment keyboard with two formant filters and dynamic envelope controller. Eventually it went into commercial production by a factory in
Dachau,[model 2] and it became one of the earliest
polyphonic synthesizer products, along with
Novachord (1939) by
Hammond.
From 1950, Bode designed
electronic organs for the
Apparatewerk Bayern [
de] (AWB) in Germany and the
Estey Organ Company in the United States. In 1954, Bode immigrated to the
United States as a chief engineer (later vice-president) of Estey Organ,[4] and resumed his research at several companies and as a contractor of German companies.
In 1959–1960, Bode developed a
modular synthesizer and
sound processor, and in 1961, he wrote a paper exploring the advantages of newly emerging transistor technology over older vacuum tube devices;[5][6][7] also he served as
AES session chairman on music and electronic for the fall conventions in 1962 and 1964;[2] after then, his ideas were adopted by
Robert Moog,
Donald Buchla and others.
After retiring from the chief engineer of
Bell Aerospace[4] in 1974, he composed TV-advertising spots and gave live concerts. Also in 1977, Bode was invited as a chief engineer of the Norlin/
Moog Music[8] after Robert Moog left.
He died in New York in 1987.[2] Bode's influence upon electronic music has persisted long after his death, with a number of 21st century musicians referencing or sampling his work.
Warbo Formant Organ (1937) one of the first key-assignment polyphonic synthesizers with formant filters and dynamic envelope shaping, designed and built by Bode with the funding support provided by Christian Warnke. (Note: "Warbo" is acronym of Warnke-Bode)[model 1][photo 1][model 2]
Melochord (1947–1949) 37-key monophonic keyboard with dynamic envelope wave shaping, volume pedal controller, and transpose switches to cover seven octaves. Later a second keyboard was added to control the timbre.[model 2][model 3]
Tuttivox (1953, Jörgensen Elektronic), under license by Jörgensen Elektronic in Düsseldorf, apparently the only one of this type built (a portable electronic organ based on vacuum tube technology)[model 2][9][model 5][model 6]
But in the case of
Karlheinz Stockhausen, a student of Meyer-Eppler at the University of Bonn in 1954–56, his only use of the melochord was in a failed experiment with a
ring modulator.[11] After this, he chose to disregard such instruments in favor of
sine-wave generators, which he used in producing Studie I (1953) and Studie II (1954). This was also true for the two works by
Karel Goeyvaerts produced there, and for Seismogramme (1954) by
Henri Pousseur.[12][13][14]
^
abc"In Memoriam"(PDF), Journal of the Audio Engineering Society (JAES), 35 (9): 741, September 1987, retrieved 2007-07-18
^"The Monochord (1948)", 120 Years of Electronic Music, archived from
the original on 2012-04-02 – Monochord, a modified Concert
Trautonium, was commissioned from Dr. Friedrich Trautwein by the Studio for Electronic of WDR, Köln.
^
ab
Bode, Harald (1961), "European Electronic Music Instrument Design", Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, ix (1961): 267
^
abBode, Harald (Bode Sound Co.) (September 1984),
"History of Electronic Sound Modification", Journal of the Audio Engineering Society (JAES), 32 (10): 730–739, archived from
the original(PDF) on 2011-06-09, retrieved 2011-09-13 On the
PDF version,
draft typescript is available at the tail; also HTML version without draft is available in
"here". 1984.
Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved 27 February 2021..
^
Morawska-Büngeler, Marietta, Schwingende Elektronen: Eine Dokumentation über das Studio für Elektronische Musik des Westdeutschen Rundfunks in Köln, 1951–1986, Cologne-Rodenkirchen: P. J. Tonger Musikverlag, 1988, p. 13
^
Kurtz, Michael (1992), Stockhausen: A Biography ((cloth) (pbk).), translated by
Toop, Richard, London and Boston: Faber and Faber, p. 62,
ISBN0-571-14323-7
^Stockhausen, Karlheinz (1964), "Komposition 1953 Nr. 2: Studie I, Analyse", in
Dieter Schnebel (ed.), Texte 2, Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg, pp. 23–36, here p. 23
^
Stockhausen, Karlheinz (1971), "Elektronische Musik: Brief von Douglas M. Davis (Antwort: geschrieben am 13.IX.1970)", in Dieter Schnebel (ed.), Texte 3, Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg, pp. 341–347, here pp. 344–345
^Ekbert Faas, "Interview with Karlheinz Stockhausen Held August 11, 1976", Interface 6 (1977): pp. 187–204; reprinted in Feedback Papers 16 (August 1978): pp. 23–40. here p. 191 and p. 27, respectively.
^
ab
Rhea, Thomas L. (July 2011),
"Harald Bode's Four-Voice Assignment Keyboard (1937)", EContact!, 13 (4) (reprint ed.), Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC); Originally published as Rhea, Tom, "Electronic Perspectives", Contemporary Keyboard (December 1979): 89
^Bode (6 octave) Clavioline (photograph). Clavioline.com. Archived from
the original on 2006-08-21. (photographs of Bode Clavioline and Bode Melochord with Harald Bode)