Spharophon

The Spharophan is an electrical instrument used to make music. It was invented in 1926 by Jörg Mager.

Jörg Mager, in the spirit of many other electrical engineers during the early part of the 20th century tried to come up with new electrical devices that produced music. His most successful invention is called the Spharophon.

There were two different inclinations of the Spharophon. The first one was similar to a Theremin, however Mager went the extra step and built in an aspect of his instrument that could change timbres as well as utilize discrete pitches. ["Electric Sound", pg 11] Mager’s second prototype was keyboard based but used a radio frequency oscillator as well. The instrument was capable of producing quarter-tones of an octave. In many of his instruments, including the Spharophon, Mager experimented with the drivers in the loudspeakers to achieve different sounds as well. ["A History of Electronic Music Pioneers", pg 25]

Mager premiered his special new instrument at the Donaueschingen Festival, Germany in 1926. At this Festival Rimsky-Korsakov composed innovative pieces for the new instrument. ["History of Electronic and Computer Music"] The festival had been started in 1921 to display new types of music and still continues on to this day in the town of Donaueschingen, which is in Southwest Germany just north of Zurich, Switzerland. ["Donaueschingen Musiktage"]

There is at least one photo of Mager playing a Spharophon in its original inclination since there is a lack of a keyboard. Mager appears to be in his late forties in the photograph and knowing that the Spharophon was invented in 1926 and he was 46 at that time, the photograph was almost certainly taken in the late twenties. Mager is sitting in a chair to play the instrument. All of his components are laid out on a table except for a large metal stand, which has a small metal rod he is manipulating with his left hand. This device has two series of wires coming out of it. One of them is most likely the power supply, while another group is probably for the output of messages. Since Mager is holding onto this rod with his left hand this stand is probably a large aspect of the control of the music. On the top of this stand there is some sort of antenna that juts out approximately 45 degrees to the left. As the Spharophon utilized radio frequencies, we can assume that the antenna was a part of this phenomenon in Mager’s instrument. Directly behind this antenna in the photograph partially eclipsed by it is a much larger sheet of metal also pointing 45 degrees to the left. Directly to the right of the large sheet of metal is a box with two or more interchangeable knobs. It is likely that these were the special addition that allowed for Mager to change timbres and utilize discrete pitches. At this point Mager’s plump body blocks the sight of what is in between this component and the components on the far right. These components have an array of wires coming from the top of them and have peaks jutting out from them. It is hard to see what this components function is because of the quality of the photograph.

All that is known about the Spharophon is from pictures, witnesses’ accounts, and written records. There are no Spharophons in existence today because they were all destroyed along with all of Mager’s instruments such as the Partiturophon and the Kaleidophon during World War II. ["History of Electronic and Computer Music"]

References

* [http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/~wowem/electronmedia/music/eamhistory.html Burns, Dr. Kristine H.; "History of Electronic and Computer Music including Automatic Instruments and Composition Machines" (September, 2006)]
* Chadabe, Joel; "Electric Sound"
* [http://www.swr.de/swr2/donaueschingen/beitrag2.html "Donaueschingen Musiktage" (official website of the Donaueschingen Festival) (September, 2006)]
* [http://www.vasulka.org/archive/eigenwelt/pdf.old/020-034.pdf#search=%22spharophon%22 Dunn, David; "A History of Electronic Music Pioneers" (September, 2006)]