Thanks to the generosity of our friend Tom Rhea, EMEAPP is proud to present all 52 of Tom Rhea’s Electronic Perspectives columns from Keyboard and Contemporary Keyboard magazine published 1977-1981.
We’re releasing a new column each week for a year, and all columns will include the facing left hand page from Tom’s 400-page book with 2 CDs of rare demos and performances: Electronic Perspectives: Vintage Electronic Musical Instruments (2023). You can view all 400 pages of EP:VEMI on a three minute YouTube video here!
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Photoelectric Instruments Part III: The Cellulophone (Electronic Perspectives September 1977)
The “light chopper” tone wheel of the type found in the photoelectric instruments described in my last two columns acts to interrupt the path between a light source and a photoelectric cell. The basic concept is that the amount of light that falls on a photoelectric cell can be manipulated over time in such a…
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Photoelectric Instruments Part II: The Superpiano (Electronic Perspectives August 1977)
As explained in last month’s column, a “light chopper,” or rotating tone wheel, can be used to interrupt the light shining onto a photoelectric cell, generating alternating current that creates pitched sound. The Austrian Emerich Spielmann used the rudiments of this concept in his Superpiano, a photoelectric instrument developed during the early 1930s. But before…
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Photoelectric Instruments Part I: The WCAU Photona (Electronic Perspectives July 1977)
The photoelectric tone generator is one of the oldest and most popular designs for early electric musical instruments. The roots of this idea can be traced to 1890, when Ernest J.P. Mercadier used a rotating light interrupter with light-sensitive cells to create frequencies used for multiplex telegraphy. (This made it possible to send many messages…
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The Hammond Organ Part II: Hammond and The FTC (Electronic Perspectives June 1977)
Marshall McLuhan, media sage, says that the content of a new medium is likely to be an older medium. Some of the early movies contained vaudeville, and the content of television is often the older medium of film. When the videotape system becomes commonplace, its primary content will probably be television. Perhaps the content of…
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The Hammond Organ Part I (Electronic Perspectives May 1977)
The father of the Hammond Organ may have been a clock. At least, the tone-wheel Hammond Organ is driven by a synchronous motor similar in design to the motor of the electric clock that was the first product of the Hammond Company. The secret of this clock’s accuracy was the motor which synchronized its speed…
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The Cahill Legacy (Electronic Perspectives April 1977)
Thaddeus Cahill’s Telharmonium (1906) wasn’t a commercial success, but the principles it embodied were used in later rotating-wheel electromagnetic instruments. The design based on Cahill’s often consists of a number of iron disks with indented edges which are mounted on a shaft and arranged to rotate in front of an electromagnetic pickup. The pitch depends…
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The Cahill Telharmonium Part II (Electronic Perspectives March 1977)
Thaddeus Cahill (1867-1934) was a rare designer who combined a talent for invention with the legal expertise to patent his ideas and the business acumen to interest investors in his turn-of-the-Century Telharmonium. This massive instrument, also known as the Dynamophone, was virtually an electric power generating plant, with dynamos rotating at the frequencies of the…
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The Cahill Telharmonium Part I (Electronic Perspectives February 1977)
The earliest use of electricity to make music was in motor-driven acoustic instruments such as Delaborde’s Electric Harpsichord (1759). And some of the first discoveries in electrically produced sound happened accidentally, as when in 1837 Dr. C.G. Page inadvertently discovered the principle of the electronic tuning fork while experimenting with magnets and coils. In 1885,…
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An Overview (Electronic Perspectives January 1977)
Music is probably as old as the human voice. Biblical references suggest that musical instruments have existed for millenia. Electricity has been used to make music only during the past century. And the voltage-controlled synthesizer has been in use for a scant decade. History lends perspective. In this column we will explore how electricity has…
About Electronic Perspectives: Vintage Electronic Musical Instruments
Electronic Perspectives was created by three people:
Brian Kehew is a polymath in music and audio: musician, author, historian, keyboardist, synthesist, mixer, stage technician, and producer. He’s no jack of all trades—he has stellar credits in these interests: Tour Technician for The Who since 2002, and substitute for John Bundrick. Performer with Air, Hole, Dave Davies, and Moog Cookbook; co-producer for Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine; studio work with glitterati from Aretha Franklin to Tiny Tim; consultant-programmer for Moog, Alesis, Casio, Solaris, and Polyfusion; author for Tape Op, Keyboard magazine, and Beatlefan.
Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan spent 15 years researching & writing Recording The Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (2006). Three (3) books on Sir George Martin’s Music are in process. He mixed Rhino’s Woodstock 50–Back to the Garden: The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive, a 38 CD collection. Brian Kehew curated and produced the audio tracks for Electronic Perspectives: Vintage Electronic Musical Instruments and is a significant contributor of historical artifacts for this project. Visit Brian’s website at www.roundandwound.com
Joseph Bastardo is an artist and musician whose eye for detail, indefatigable energy, and thorough mastery of pertinent tools mark him as a true graphic arts professional. His design portfolio includes work for clients all around the world and he has released several albums of electronic music on various independent record labels. He worked his magic quickly and efficiently. His fastidious restorations of photographs and graphics brought worn images (seen in all too many places) to sparkling new life. His layouts seem to intuitively manifest what Susanne K. Langer calls “significant form.”
His experience as a synthesist, composer, and performer informed his graphic design work for this publication, and he shows budding capabilities as an historian in the field. I look forward to working with Joe on future projects. Visit Joseph’s website at www.josephbastardo.com
Tom Rhea introduced analog synthesizers internationally as a Moog clinician, functional design consultant, marketing executive, artist relations specialist, and documentation writer. He has written articles for Computer Music Journal, and many owner’s manuals, e.g. the Minimoog Model D Operation Manual (1974). A noted historian, his PhD titled The Evolution of Electronic Musical Instruments in the United States (1972), and his Keyboard and Contemporary Keyboard magazine “Electronic Perspectives” columns (1977-1981) are cited in The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, and The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, 2nd edition. He conceived of, and wrote the first music for Oxylights (winter 1985-1986), at the time the world’s largest music & light installation (Niagara Falls, NY), recognized in The Guinness Book of World Records. Visit Tom’s website at www.drtomrhea.com
