Color Video with Stereo Sound .. (1998) .. 28:51
DVD,
NTSC System
It was 1906. “Get Music on Tap Like Gas or Water” promised the headlines, and soon the public was enchanted with inventor Thaddeus Cahill's (1867-1934) electrical music by wire.
The Telharmonium was a 200-ton behemoth that created numerous musical timbres and could flood many rooms with sound.
Beginning with the first instrument, constructed in the 1890's, and continuing with the installation of the second instrument at Telharmonic Hall in New York, the rise and fall of commercial service, the attempted comeback of the third Telharmonium, and ending with efforts to find a home for the only surviving instrument in 1951, this documentary provides a definitive account of the first comprehensive music synthesizer.
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Due to the long duration (28:51), this movie has a low resolution and a small screen size. A full-size, full-resolution movie is available via Amazon.com DVD or VIDEO DOWNLOAD
This is an animated documentary using only historically authentic still images. It was created on a computer using the software Director. Every known photograph of the Telharmonium is included. There are no live-action images, visual recreations, or mock-ups. Images from newspapers and periodicals of the day show the people, pertinent scenes and locations, and illustrations of developments in science and technology. One interesting source was picture postcards--skylines, hotels, restaurants, skyscrapers, and people (using the telephone, eating and drinking, and “glamour” pictures). Postcards were quite the rage in the early 1900s, when they were produced in greater quantity and variety than ever before or since.
Since no recordings of the Telharmonium have been preserved, the music is a recreation of what the instrument must have sounded like, based on descriptions published in the numerous reviews and other articles of the early 1900s. These descriptions may also be found in the book Magic Music from the Telharmonium. The narration of the documentary is interspersed with people’s comments as quoted in contemporary reviews.
The article "Video Production of Magic Music from the Telharmonium" (1 MB) briefly outlines pre-production procedures, including research methods and sources, of this video. It describes in detail the image and sound production techniques of the work, and how these carried out the design choices that were made.
The 80-page script Magic Music from the Telharmonium: Storyboard Script (6.6 MB) provides a thumbnail image of each picture, the complete narration text, music, and sound effects. A bibliography cites the source of each picture and where the picture was located when it was acquired.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Sound Software
SoundHack, Sound Designer, Hyperprism, Time Bandit, Reverb, Peak, Deck
Image Software
Photoshop, Director
Hardware
PowerMac 8500, Macintosh IIci, Yamaha TX802 Tone Generator
CREDITS
Script, Production, Direction, Image Processing, Animation, Audio Recording,
Sound Design, Editing
Reynold Weidenaar
With the Support of
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Inc., Hollywood, CA
The Center for Electronic Music, New York, NY
Harvestworks, Inc. / Studio PASS, New York, NY
William Paterson College, Wayne, NJ
Narration
Brian Lehrer
Keyboard Performances
Barbara Blegen
Additional Performance by Reynold Weidenaar
Voices
Lisa Brenner
Elliott Crown
Dennis Heaphy
Roseanne Limoncelli
James Edward Pierce
Julia Pennington
Reynold Weidenaar
MIDI Music Production
Alex Noyes, Harvestworks Inc. / Studio PASS
Mark Ramsey, Center for Electronic Music
Online Editor
Nils Nichols, through the Standby Program at Windsor Digital
Picture Sources
American Telephone and Telegraph Co. Corporate Archives
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Carnegie Hall Archives
David Sarnoff Research Center
Ella Merkel DiCarlo
Holyoke Public Library
The Maryland Club
Robert A. Moog
Museum of the City of New York
New Jersey Secretary of State, Corporate Information and Records Section
New York City Board of Estimate and Apportionment, Bureau of Franchises
New York City Municipal Archives
The New-York Historical Society
The New York Public Library, Mid-Manhattan Branch, Picture Collection
The New York Public Library, Performing Arts Research Center, Billy Rose
Theatre Collection
The New York Public Library, Performing Arts Research Center, Music Division
The New York Public Library, The Research Libraries, U. S. History, Local History
& Genealogy Department
Office for Metropolitan History
Thomas L. Rhea
Margaret Cahill Schwartz
Sound Effects Sources
Harvestworks Inc. / Studio PASS
Marilyn Reese
Music (in order of presentation)
1. Scott Joplin: Palm Leaf Rag
2. George Frideric Handel: Largo from Xerxes
3. Felix Mendelssohn: Frühlingslied, Op. 62, No. 6
4. Georges Bizet: March and Chorus from Carmen
5. Ethelbert Nevin: Narcissus, Op. 13, No. 4
6. Alphonse Czibulka: Songe d'amour après le bal (Intermezzo), Op. 356
7. John H. Flynn: Yip-I-Addy-I-Ay!
8. Robert Planquette: Legend of the Bells from Chimes of Normandy
9. Gustave Kerker: As She Played on the Cal-li-o-pay! from The Social Whirl
10. J. L. Molloy: The Kerry Dance
11. Georg Goltermann: Andante from Concerto No. 5 for Violoncello
12. G. A. Spink: I've Got to Dance Till the Band Gits Through (Bill Simmons)
...... ..from.The Social Whirl
13. Richard Wagner: Prelude from Lohengrin
14. Alfred G. Robyn: The Rook and the Robin from Princess Beggar
15. Victor Herbert: Absinthe Frappè from It Happened in Nordland
16. Karl L. Hoschna: Every Little Movement Has a Meaning All Its Own
...... from Madame Sherry
17. Charles de Bériot: Concerto No. 1 for Violin, Op. 16
18. Lowell Mason: Nearer My God to Thee
19. Giacomo Rossini: Andantino from William Tell
20. Johann Strauss: Du und du, Op. 367
21. Ludwig van Beethoven: Polonaise, Op. 8
22. Ben M. Jerome: Kiss Me Good-bye and Go, Jack
23. Gustave Kerker: It's Nice to Have a Sweetheart from The Tourists
24. Pietro Mascagni: Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana
25. Thomas Thompson: Serenade
26. Franz Lehár: I Love You So (The Merry Widow Waltz)
27. Richard Wagner: To the Evening Star from Tannhäuser
28. Reynold Weidenaar: Telharmania
29. Scott Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag
30. Scottish Folk Song: Auld Lang Syne
