Trautonium

[b0b]

I had never heard of this instrument before, until today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trautonium

Here's a performance on the original instrument:

https://youtu.be/uIGBaYcIuEI

And here's a video of a more modern one being played:

https://youtu.be/KqnLZXOySyY

[Charlie McDonald]

More fun than a Theramin!

The two links sound much alike....

[Ian Rae]

They're the same - please update
This is interesting

[Fred Treece]

A synthesizer that predates the keyboard-oriented concept. It certainly is a lot of technological complexity for making music, but it is a unique sound. The hand on the top bar seems to be playing mostly chords and the one on the bottom bar handles single note lines, and it sounds like a pedal steel playing accompaniment for a lap steel. There is some technique that makes sense and some that doesn’t. Do you think those things that look like levers are pitch reference markers? That seems a little over the top if that’s all they do.

[b0b]

They're the same - please update
This is interesting

Sorry. Fixed the first YouTube link. It's a piece by Paul Hindemith played on an early trautonium. I shows a lot of closeups of the technique used to play it.

[Fred Treece]

The new video reveals that every preconception I had about what this thing is and how you play it was wrong. It’s even stranger. I guess it is sort of a keyboard, though.

[Joachim Kettner]

On further reading the article I saw that the trautonium was featured in the soundtrack for Hitchcock's The Birds. I think at the scene at 24:00 the instrument is used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-7d029UR0k&t=1470s

[Ian Rae]

It isn't a keyboard. The whole point of it is that it doesn't have keys. Instead it has continuous contact plates to give infinitely variable pitch, like a steel guitar or an ondes Martenot (q.v.)

[b0b]

It isn't a keyboard. The whole point of it is that it doesn't have keys. Instead it has continuous contact plates to give infinitely variable pitch, like a steel guitar or an ondes Martenot (q.v.)

Correct. The black "keys" are actually just tabs to land on pre-defined pitches. You can use your fingers without the tabs to get any pitch in between.

A trio of them sounds great in classical chamber music. It's like a string or woodwind trio where each musician can change instruments at will.

https://youtu.be/k0UA0-heeFo

[Fred Treece]

Imagine what people would call it if you showed up for a gig with one.
Wow, cool slide keyboard, man...

[Joachim Kettner]

... and is hard to play?

[b0b]

... and is hard to play?

Doesn't look any harder than a steel guitar.