120 Years of Electronic Music

The Saraga-Generator(1931)

The Saraga-Generator was developed by Wolja Saraga at the Heinrich-Hertz Institut Für Schwingungsforschung in Berlin, Germany around 1931. The Saraga Generator was an unusual photoelectrically controlled vacuum tube instrument. The instrument consisted of a photoelectric cell mounted on the white painted inside surface of a box with a small slit cut on one face. low voltage neon lamp was placed at some distance from the box and the performers movements interrupting the light beam caused variations in pitch.Envelope and timbre were affected by manipulating a hand held switch device, the overall volume being controlled by a foot pedal. The instrument had a tonal range of four octaves.

Sources:

for more on the Heinrich-Hertz Institut see The Kdf Grösstonorgel

Wolja Saraga:"Ein neues Elektrisches Musikinstrument", Funktechnisches Monatshefte (1932),433

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