The Swedish musician Oskar Sala has had a very interesting career. He started his music career as a pianist and went on to become a singer and composer. But his career has not been without its hardships. His first wife died of cancer at age 36, and the death of his daughter was very sudden.
Career
Oskar Sala was a German composer and physicist. He is best known for his contributions to the field of electronic music.
Sala was born in Greiz, Germany on July 18, 1910, to a family that was deeply involved with musical performance. His father was an ophthalmologist and his mother was a singer. During his childhood, he studied both classical piano and violin. At age 14, he began composing songs on both instruments. By the time he turned 16, he had developed a taste for composing music for television and radio.
In 1929, Sala moved to Berlin to study with composer Paul Hindemith. While in the city, he became interested in a new instrument called the Trautonium, which was designed by Dr. Friedrich Trautwein. The Trautonium uses metal rails and dials to generate sound. Eventually, Sala created a variety of different versions of the Trautonium.
Besides his work as a composer, Sala also contributed to the field of electronic percussion. His inventions, including the Mixtur-Trautonium, were instrumental to the creation of a new form of music. As a result, he was regarded as a pioneer of the genre.
After the Second World War, Sala worked on a number of film scores. Among the films he scored were Rosemary’s Baby and The Birds.
Sala later built his own studio in Berlin, where he produced his own music and soundtracks. He founded Mars Film GmbH in 1958. When he was a student at the University of Berlin, he began experimenting with trautonium and trautonium-based percussion. Several years later, he built his own version of the Mixtur-Trautonium, which was used to create music.
Sala died in 2002, at the age of 91. The cause of death is unknown. Although Sala was well known, he was never honored with an Oscar. However, his achievements were widely appreciated. Among his many awards, he received the Honorary Award from the German Films Awards.
Google paid tribute to Sala by displaying a Google Doodle on his birthday. The Google Doodle included a photo of Oskar Sala playing a Mixtur-Trautonium.
Sala’s career as a soloist on the Trautonium was revived in the 1990s. Two collections of his works were released by the Fax label.
Musician
Oskar Sala is a German physicist, composer, and renowned inventor of electronic music. His innovative work is credited as the precursor to synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments. He is also known as the father of electronic music.
Oskar Sala was born in Greiz, Germany, on 18 July 1910. As a teenager, he studied piano and organ. Later, he studied composition with Paul Hindemith at the Berlin Conservatory. In 1929, he became interested in Friedrich Trautwein’s invention of Trautonium, a musical instrument that can be played by sliding a finger along a resistor wire. The wire is attached to a metal rail, and a note is played by the resistance of the wire.
Sala’s work on the Trautonium was highly successful. The instrument allowed him to create vocal and instrumental sounds that were similar to those of a violin or oboe. It was also capable of reproducing bird noises and bells.
As a composer, Sala created a number of pieces for notable movies. He wrote the soundtrack for Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds (1962).
Sala also worked with the German film company Mars Film. When they released the film Rosemary, he composed several pieces. However, the most famous of his musical works are his film scores. They were used for German and American commercials.
Sala received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to music. The German government granted him a Merit Cross for his lifetime dedication to music.
Oskar Sala was also an honorary senator of Berlin. During his lifetime, he performed public performances, gave “talking concerts”, and worked on hundreds of films.
At age 91, Oskar Sala passed away. There are no confirmed causes for his death. However, it is believed that he died of old age. A German Museum in Munich plans to preserve his lifework and will be the heir of his estate.
One of Sala’s most notable musical works is his soundtrack to the film The Birds. Sala was able to accurately recreate the sound of slamming doors, bird cries, and more.
In addition to his film work, Sala was known for his pioneering work in the field of electronic music. His efforts in the area opened the field of subharmonics.
Inventions
One of the most popular and innovative German physicists, composer, musician, and inventor of the twentieth century was Oskar Sala. In his lifetime, he was awarded several awards for his work in film scoring. He also was awarded a Merit Cross for his lifelong dedication to music.
As a physicist, musician, and inventor, Oskar Sala was a pioneer of electronic music. His inventions include the Mixtur-Trautonium, the first polyphonic electronic musical instrument, the Radio-Trautonium, the Mixture-Trautonium, and the Volkstrautonium.
Oskar Sala invented the Mixtur-Trautonium in 1948. It was the precursor to the electronic synthesizer. Unlike other musical instruments, the mixture-trautonium produced sound by a discharge voltage. The instrument could play multiple voices at the same time and could produce sounds similar to violins, door slams, and other noises.
During his youth, Oskar Sala studied piano and organ. His father, Paul, was an ophthalmologist, and his mother, Annemarie, was a singer. At age fourteen, he began writing his own compositions.
Several years later, he was studying physics at the University of Berlin, but he began to become interested in electronic music. He became acquainted with Dr. Friedrich Trautwein. There, he became fascinated by the sounds produced by Trautwein’s invention, Trautonium.
Eventually, Sala decided to develop his own instrument. A few years after the war ended, he built a large version of his invention. Eventually, the invention dubbed the Mixtur-Trautonium was registered in Germany, France, and the United States.
He played and recorded a number of albums with the invention. In addition, he received international licenses for the circuits used in the instrument.
During his career, Sala also worked as a composer for television, commercials, and film. His creations made him one of the most recognizable artists in the world. Despite his fame, Sala did not win an Oscar. But his achievements have earned him the title of the pioneer of electronic music for the 20th century.
Oskar Sala was born in Greiz, Germany on July 18, 1910. He died in Berlin on February 27, 2002. While his death is not yet known, it is believed that he died of old age.
Death
Oskar Sala was one of the pioneers of electronic music. He was born in Greiz, Germany in 1910. When he was a teenager, he began performing classical piano concerts. As he studied, he began writing compositions.
Oscar Sala worked on many films in the 1950s. He had his own studio in Berlin at Mars Film GmbH. He won the German Films Awards-Honorary Award for his work.
After World War II, Sala returned to his laboratory in Berlin. He became obsessed with the Trautonium. This was the precursor to a synthesizer. The device is played by sliding your finger along a rail, similar to a guitar string.
Mixture-trautonium was a polyphonic version of the original instrument. It was presented to the public at the end of 1952. In addition to playing notes, the mixture-trautonium could also play sounds through discharge voltage. These sounds could be varied with filters.
After he had developed the Mixtur-Trautonium, Sala continued to work on his invention. He made several other instruments, such as the “Concert Trautonium”, which weighed 200 pounds. He also built a portable trautonium.
He worked on numerous film soundtracks. Several notable European directors commissioned him to compose their film scores.
His innovative electronic music also transformed the world of radio and television. He developed the instrument that produced bird sounds for Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.”
Oskar Sala died on February 26, 2002. Though it is not known why he died, it is likely to have been due to health problems.
His wife Kathe Sala also passed away in 1999. The German Museum in Munich will establish an Oskar Sala Foundation to preserve his lifework.
While Sala’s career began in the 1930s, he was actually interested in sound since birth. His parents were singers. At the age of 14, he began composing music.
Sala’s inventions were instrumental in the development of the volkstrautonium. His innovative sound effects were also used in many films.
Although he was known for his mastery of the Trautonium, Oskar Sala was an interesting person in more than just music. He also studied mathematics and physics.
