Kromarograph

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From Scientific American

Kromarograph is the name for an automatic music notation device developed by Laurenz Kromar around 1900 for recording improvisations on the piano. Kromar worked as the "chief controller [!] Of the main cash desk of the city of Vienna".

Social and media history context

The renewed interest in shorthand in the 17th century also led to attempts “to find a short written expression for the tonal language corresponding to the word, which would enable the artist to improvise the imagination”.

Laurenz Kromar was not alone in his attempts to develop an automatic musical notation apparatus. Since the second half of the 19th century, self-registering recording systems have become more important in many areas . Analogous to this, efforts in the field of music were directed less towards musical shorthand than towards the development of apparatus, in order to “completely eliminate the aid of a middle person through technology and to win the recording automatically”. In the journal Wissen für alle , published by the Association of Austrian University Lecturers, it says in a note about Kromar's invention: “Carried by the idea that a quick record of a musical composition or improvisation is at least as important and useful as a speech through shorthand, Mr. Laurenz Kromar, the inventor, has been studying for many years to devise a mechanical device through which the notes played on a keyboard instrument are automatically written down. "

The popular science magazine Scientific American reported in 1906 on the occasion of an international music exhibition in Berlin on the automatic music notation apparatus invented by Kromar. In this report, this invention is placed in the general development of writing systems. "While the phonograph offers the possibility of recording the spoken word or sounds, and modern methods of mechanical writing, both with the help of shorthand and with the help of the typewriter, make it possible to record language graphically at the same speed as it is spoken, has hitherto been lacking an apparatus for recording the notes produced by a musical instrument. Such a device would be of fundamental value when composing, because a lot of time is lost in transferring the composition to paper and creative power is lost. "

How the Kromarograph works

Austrian national anthem

About the device developed by Kromar, the magazine Wissen für alle states that “a completely accurate and easily legible character output is achieved in terms of pitch and duration, [...]. The apparatus can be associated with any keyboard instrument and then writes down everything that is played on the keyboard with the keystroke, in a handwriting which is so similar to ordinary musical notation that it can be easily read and played again . [...] The device is the size of an ordinary typewriter and works without any disturbing noise. It is by the electric current, by virtue of a hand-filled device in the keyboard, in or out of action set and depending on the length of the cable may also be placed in a remote room. "A further development of technique for automatically recording music provide the jukebox of the Welte company.

literature

  • Rudolf Kaiser: Demonstration of the radiant piano and the Kromarograph . In: Gustav Mayer (Ed.): Report on the 1st Austrian Music Pedagogical Congress . Vienna / Leipzig 1911, pp. 175–178
  • Kromarograph, automatic music notation device for recording improvisations on the piano (harmonium) . In: Association of Austrian University Lecturers (ed.): Knowledge for all , 1905, vol. V, no. 46, p. 729 f.
  • The Kromarograph - An automatic music-recording apparatus . In: Scientific American , Sept. 1, 1906, p. 159
  • Johannes Wolf: Handbuch der Notationkunde , Part II. Leipzig 1919, p. 419 ff.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Scientific American , September 1, 1906, p. 159
  2. ^ Rudolf Kaiser: Demonstration of the radiation keyboard and the Kromarograph . In: Gustav Mayer (Ed.): Report on the 1st Austrian Music Pedagogical Congress . Vienna / Leipzig 1911, p. 175
  3. ↑ Johannes Wolf: Handbuch der Notationskunde , Part II. Leipzig 1919, p. 419 ff.
  4. ↑ Johannes Wolf: Handbuch der Notationskunde , Part II. Leipzig 1919, p. 458
  5. ↑ Kromarograph, automatic musical notation apparatus for recording improvisations on the piano (harmonium) . In: Verein der Österreichischen Hochschuldozenten (Ed.): Wissen für alle , 1905, Jg. V, Nr. 46, S. 729
  6. ↑ translated to: The Kromarograph - An automatic music-recording apparatus . In: Scientific American , Sept. 1, 1906, p. 159
  7. ↑ Kromarograph, automatic musical notation apparatus for recording improvisations on the piano (harmonium) . In: Association of Austrian University Lecturers (ed.): Knowledge for all , 1905, vol. V, no. 46, p. 730