Walter Tilgner

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Walter Tilgner

Walter Tilgner (born July 8, 1934 in Olomouc ) is a German biologist , nature photographer and sound engineer . The pioneer of digital nature recording is a well-known creator of nature audio images as well as a bioacoustic specialist .

Life

Walter Tilgner from Moravia is the son of a master carpenter. As a German Moravian expelled from his homeland after the Second World War , he and his family came to Hünfeld , where he grew up on a farm. During this time he discovered his interest in nature and later passed the hunter examination. After graduating from high school, Tilgner studied zoology and botany at the University of Frankfurt am Main .

Until his retirement in 1997, the biologist worked at the Bodensee-Naturmuseum in Konstanz .

In his free time, Tilgner initially worked as a forest and forest photographer . He has published his recordings in a wide variety of media since the 1950s and contributed to the illustrated books Zauber des Waldes (Lucerne and Frankfurt am Main 1967) by Max Albert Wyss and Animals of our Forests (Stuttgart 1980) by Günther Zimmermann .

In the early 1970s, Walter Tilgner also began to record animal noises and other nature noises on tape . The autodidact also worked with the directional microphones with parabolic mirrors usually used for nature recordings . But his dream of being able to capture and reproduce the entire sound fabric of a forest or lake shore as true to nature and as true to detail as possible only came true when the first portable digital and network-independent sound recording unit came onto the market in the fall of 1982 after the 1981 International Radio Exhibition . So Tilgner began in February 1983 and Neumann - artificial head microphone K 81i and the digital audio processor Sony PCM F1 and the Sony Betamax recorder SL F1 to work Konstanz in the book mixed forests of the forest district. The very spatial and natural binaural sound recordings achieved in this way reproduced even subtle noises that had previously been lost in the tape noise, crystal clear. When Walter Tilgner brought out his forest concert at WERGO in 1985 , it was probably the world's first published digital natural sound recording. Since then, Walter Tilgner has published his natural hearing pictures almost exclusively with this record producer under the label Natural Sounds .

In addition, Tilgner has also used other equipment over the years. The Sennheiser MKH 30 was used for his CD Blaukehlchen - Bird of a Thousand Voices (1992) , and for the Meistersinger (2000), in addition to the Neumann artificial head KU 81i, its successor KU 100 and a Denon DTR 80P DAT recorder. Since DAT recording devices went out of fashion, Tilgner has been using recording devices such as the Sound Devices 722. However, he is still on the road with the KU 100. According to Hans-Ulrich Werner, Tilgner's audio images are “already classic artificial head recordings”.

Walter Tilgner outlined his own technical and artistic aspirations in 2008 as follows:

"The recording produced should be so true to life that when you listen to it, you think you are in the place of the recording microphone and you can relive the recording experience."

Tilgner therefore prepares each recording precisely by observing, studying literature and on-site inspections without tape in order to capture the characteristic sound of a landscape, forest or lake, depending on the season and weather. He has repeatedly pointed out the increase in traffic noise since the 1980s. This is also shown again and again in his admissions:

"It has become practically impossible in Central Europe to make sound recordings without the noise of civilization ."

The bioacoustic specialist has therefore switched to digitally filtering out traffic noise when processing his sound recordings - according to his statement, however, the only manipulation he makes on his audio images.

With the support of his wife Heidrun, Walter Tilgner not only captured the natural soundscape around Lake Constance and Lake Neusiedl , but also, for example, the autumn migration of the cranes on the Baltic coast between Rostock and Rügen or the deer rut on the Darß . His several hundred hours of sound archive also contains curiosities such as the voice of the skull owl . His natural audio images earned him the nickname “The Green Ear from Lake Constance”.

The Klanglandschaft Forum made him an honorary member in 1999. He is also involved in the European Acoustic Heritage Project.

In addition to his pure nature photographs, Walter Tilgner has also worked on various art projects. The natural tones he recorded found their way into the soundtrack of the cartoon Reineke Fuchs (1989) and in the Ticino Sound House he combined the natural tones of the world musician Bardo Jäger with his sound recordings. The Vienna State Opera uses material recorded by Tilgner for acoustic stage design. In Raver -Kreisen the acoustic images found as a contribution to the chill-out recognition.

His recordings are also used in research into effects and sound therapy . And a number of music therapists and doctors use the recordings by Walter and Heidrun Tilgner - some of them custom-made - to support therapy. But they are also used as a calming background noise in the Konstanzer Café Voglhaus as well as in shops. In cooperation with Tilgner, the Hotel Sturm in Mellrichstadt experimented with the live transmission of nature images.

The Tilgner couple live in Allensbach .

Quote

“What we call silence in the forest is a melodious sound that is starkly different from the noise of civilization. It is actually the sound in which primitive humans grew up. "

- Walter Tilgner, 1999

Discography

  • Forest concert. Digital audio images . Natural Sound / Wergo, Mainz 1985.
  • Luscinia megarhynchos - nightingale . Natural Sound / Wergo, Mainz 1987.
  • Spring concert. Nature shots . Natural Sound / Wergo, Mainz 1988.
  • Bird wedding. Nature shots . Natural Sound / Wergo, Mainz 1990.
  • Bird of a thousand voices: Bluethroat . Nature shots . Natural Sound / Wergo, Mainz 1992.
  • Forest noise. Digital audio images . Natural Sound / Wergo, Mainz 1994.
  • Cranes . Autumn migration of the cranes on the Baltic coast between Rostock and Rügen . Digital audio images . Natural Sound / Wergo, Mainz 1995.
  • Morning Mood. Nature shots . Natural Sound / Wergo, Mainz 1996.
  • King of the forest: stag rut . Wergo, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-7957-6020-8 .
  • Mastersingers . Natural Sound / Wergo, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-7957-6070-4 .
  • Waldamsel: Morning serenade . Natural Sound / Wergo, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-7957-6086-0 .
  • Winter on Lake Constance. Nature shots . Wergo, Mainz 2003, ISBN 3-7957-6092-5 .
  • Enchanting spring: Ried concert . Wergo, Mainz 2006, ISBN 978-3-932398-43-8 .
  • Audio CD for the media combination by Wolfgang Fasser, Kurt Mosetter and Reiner Mosetter: Hearing in balance. New horizons for tinnitus and ear impairments. A guide and exercise book . Vesalius-Verlag, Konstanz 2011, ISBN 978-3-934952-16-4 .

Radio features

  • Wild Soundscapes - The Heiwatils. Or: 70 audio images for Heidrun and Walter Tilgner . Feature by Hans-Ulrich Werner and Michael Rüsenberg. DeutschlandRadio Berlin 2004, approx. 55 minutes
  • Home visit: On the trail of the perfect natural sound . Feature by Karin Wehrheim SWR2 2014, approx. 7 minutes ( SWR media library )

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Short biography on Walter Tilgner's website ; Retrieved August 3, 2014
  2. ↑ Happy birthday on www.wergo.de; Retrieved August 3, 2014
  3. ↑ a b The natural hearing trainer . Interview by Marcus Kürten with Walter Tilgner. In: Field Notes No. 2, p. 12
  4. ↑ a b Ulrich Grober : Hunter of Tones. Walter Tilgner overhears the German forest with the recorder . In: Die Zeit No. 13/1999 ( page 1 of the online version ; accessed on August 3, 2014)
  5. ↑ a b Sebastian Pantel: The hunter of the perfect sound . In: Südkurier , ( online version of June 17, 2011 ( memento of August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ))
  6. ↑ a b c Ulrich Grober : Hunter of Tones. Walter Tilgner overhears the German forest with the recorder . In: Die Zeit No. 13/1999 ( page 2 of the online version ; accessed on August 3, 2014)
  7. ↑ a b c d e The natural hearing trainer . Interview by Marcus Kürten with Walter Tilgner. In: Field Notes No. 2, p. 15
  8. ↑ Walter Tilgner on the wergo website ; Retrieved August 3, 2014
  9. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Werner: "Natural Sound": From bioacoustics to biophony . In: IAF, Articles from Research and Technology , 2009, p. 110 ( PDF )
  10. ↑ cf. plus home visit: on the trail of the perfect natural sound . Feature by Karin Wehrheim SWR2 2014 ( SWR-Mediathek ); Retrieved August 3, 2014
  11. ↑ a b c d Information on the feature Wild Soundscapes - The Heiwatils. Or: 70 audio images for Heidrun and Walter Tilgner in the archive of Deutschlandradio ; Retrieved August 3, 2014
  12. ↑ a b The natural hearing trainer . Interview by Marcus Kürten with Walter Tilgner. In: Field Notes No. 2, p. 17
  13. ^ Association report on the 2nd FKL Symposium 2005 ; Retrieved August 3, 2014
  14. ↑ EuropeanAcousticHeritage, p. 48ff. ( PDF ); Retrieved August 3, 2014
  15. ↑ cf. to information on the movie in the Internet Movie Database ; Retrieved August 3, 2014
  16. ↑ Ulrich Grober : Hunter of Tones. Walter Tilgner overhears the German forest with the recorder . In: Die Zeit No. 13/1999 ( page 3 of the online version ; accessed on August 3, 2014)
  17. ↑ -mch-: Natural tones give the imagination wings. Hotel Sturm in Mellrichstadt brings nature into the house - via live broadcast . In: Main-Post ( online version from May 20, 2008 ; accessed on August 3, 2014)
personal data
SURNAME Tilgner, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biologist, nature photographer and sound engineer
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Olomouc