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Witness History: Trautonium: A Revolution in Electronic Music

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Trautonium: A Revolution in Electronic Music

27/12/2018 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, Trautonium: A Revolution in Electronic Music

Meet the trautonium, the early electronic instrument promoted by the Nazis.

Invented in 1929 in Germany, the trautonium was capable of creating strange and eerie sounds, used in classical music and film soundtracks, famously in Hitchcock's 'The Birds'.

'I like it, carry on', said Joseph Goebbels, after listening to the trautonium, invented in Berlin. It was used first in classical music in the early 1930s. Paul Hindemith composed pieces for it. For decades it was played by one man only, Oskar Sala. Thomas Pappon spoke to him in 1997, and to Peter Pichler, who still performs on the trautonium.

Picture: Alfred Hitchcock observes Oskar Sala playing the trautonium in the latter's studio, Berlin, in 1962. Credit: Heinz Koester/ Ullstein Bild via Getty Images

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