base with keyboard for Helmholtz sound synthesizer
Date: circa 1865
Inventory Number: 1997-1-0893
Classification: Helmholtz Sound Synthesizer
Subject:
Maker: Rudolph Koenig (1832 - 1901)
Cultural Region:
Place of Origin:
Dimensions:
10.3 x 29.5 x 104 cm (4 1/16 x 11 5/8 x 40 15/16 in.)
Bibliography:
Catalogue des appareils d'acoustique construits par Rudolph Koenig
Catalogue des appareils d'acoustique
Rudolph Koenig's Workshop of Sound: Instruments, Theories, and the Debate over Combination Tones
Rudolph Koenig (1832-1901), Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) and the Birth of Modern Acoustics
Description:
Long, thick mahogany base for 4 of the 10 resonators of the Helmholtz sound synthesizer. (Resonators 8 and 9 are missing.) The profile of the base edges are curved and are of a different style from that of its partner, 1997-1-0894, the base for the other 6 resonators.
The keyboard has 10 ivory piano keys that operate levers to which strings are attached. The strings go through the eyelets screwed to the base right behind the back of the keyboard. The strings terminate in blackened S-hooks. The string material is a replacement. Some brass eyelet screws are held in place by steel replacement screws. There are extra, unused screw holes in the base.
The keyboard top is stamped "21-48." There is an oval paper sticker marked, "19-5-1."
The keyboard has 10 ivory piano keys that operate levers to which strings are attached. The strings go through the eyelets screwed to the base right behind the back of the keyboard. The strings terminate in blackened S-hooks. The string material is a replacement. Some brass eyelet screws are held in place by steel replacement screws. There are extra, unused screw holes in the base.
The keyboard top is stamped "21-48." There is an oval paper sticker marked, "19-5-1."
In Collection(s)
Signedstamped on keyboard top: RUDOLPH KOENIG / À PARIS
FunctionTen electromagnetically-driven tuning forks are each pared with a brass resonator tuned to the same frequency. The tuning forks vibrate continuously, but produce little sound. Pressing one of the ivory keys on a piano-type keyboard, however, engages a string that pulls a shutter-type stop away from the opening of the resonator. This causes that resonator to produce a louder sound. The relative strength of the harmonic frequency is adjusted by the amount that the user pushed the key down. By activating combinations of resonators, the experimenter could synthesize different sounds. The goal was to see how various combinations produce different timbres.
Historical AttributesThis is Rudolph Koenig's version of "Helmholtz's large apparatus for compounding timbres of 10 harmonics." It sold for 1500 francs in the Koenig catalogue of 1889.
Primary SourcesRudolph Koenig, Catalogue des Appareils d'Acoustique (Paris, 1865), 11.
Rudolph Koenig, Catalogue des Appareils d'Acoustique (Paris, 1889), 26.
Rudolph Koenig, Catalogue des Appareils d'Acoustique (Paris, 1889), 26.
