Google celebrates 112th birth anniversary of Oskar Sala, the pioneer of electronic music and physicist

Google doodle celebrates the 112th birth anniversary of electronic music composer and physicist Oskar Sala. With his dedication and creative energy, he became a one-man orchestra.

Oskar Sala
The tech giant Google honours Oskar Sala with doodle. (Photo:-Google)

Google doodle honours the pioneer of electronic music and German physicist Oskar Sala on his 112th birth anniversary. He was best known for producing sound effects on a musical instrument called a mixture-trautonium. He also built the Quartett-Trautonium, Concert Trautonium and the Volkstrautonium.

Oskar Sala was born in Greiz, Germany in 1910 and was immersed in music since birth. His mother was a singer and father was an ophthalmologist with music talent. At the age of 14, he started creating compositions and songs for instruments like the violin and piano.

When Sala first heard a device called the trautonium, he became fascinated by the tonal possibilities and the technology the instrument offered. His life aim became mastering the trautonium and developing it further which inspired his studies in physics and composition at school.

This new interest led Sala to develop his own instrument called the mixture-trautonium. With his education as a composer and an electro-engineer, he created electronic music that set his style apart from others. The architecture of mixture-trautonium is so unique that it was capable of playing several sounds or voices simultaneously.

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Sala composed musical pieces and sound effects for many television, radio and movie productions, such as Rosemary (1959) and The Birds (1962). The instrument created noises like bird cries, hammering and door and window slams.

Oskar Sala received several awards for his work—he gave many interviews, met numerous artists and was honored in radio broadcasts and movies. In 1995, he donated his original mixture-trautonium to the German Museum for Contemporary Technology.

“His efforts in electronic music opened the field of subharmonics. With his dedication and creative energy, he became a one-man orchestra. Happy birthday, Oskar Sala!,” Google wrote in a blog.

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