The Telharmonium at 100: A Century of New Musical Instruments

A talk and public discussion by Dr. Colby Leider
Friday, December 5th at 8:00 p.m. in the Museum Space Gallery
Refreshments served; activities for children

The historically significant symbiosis of music and technology is perhaps nowhere as visible as in the creation of new musical instruments. From the pipe organ and harpsichord through younger instruments like the clarinet and saxophone, the cooperation of performing musicians and engineers has allowed the creation of new musical experiences. The past century in particular has witnessed an unprecedented explosion in the sheer number of new musical instruments, especially those using electricity in the production of sound. This lecture presents a sampling of some of the most historically significant (and often strange) of these instruments. We will begin with the Telharmonium, a behemoth electric keyboard instrument that once occupied the better part of a city block in midtown Manhattan, and end with 21st-century instruments that are able to understand and interact with humans.



About Dr. Leider

Colby Leider composes music, builds musical instruments, and currently works as Associate Professor of Music Engineering at the University of Miami. His research interests include digital audio signal processing, sound synthesis, and tuning systems, and he has composed music for the Nash Ensemble of London, Paul Hillier and the Theatre of Voices, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and other performers. His own music is recorded on a wide range of record labels including Innova, ICMA, SEAMUS, Princeton, everglade, and UF, and he has received prizes and honors from the American Composers Forum, the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges, Princeton University, the International Computer Music Association, and Dartmouth College.

Colby chaired the 30th Annual International Computer Music Conference at the Frost School of Music in Miami, and his book The Digital Audio Workstation was published by McGraw-Hill in 2004. Dr. Leider serves as Associate Editor of Computer Music Journal (published by the MIT Press), and also works as a consultant in patent-infringement cases involving audio and new media technologies. He serves as President and Co-Founder of everglade records, a Florida non-profit record label devoted to preserving environmental sounds in danger of extinction. He holds degrees from Princeton, Dartmouth, and the University of Texas.

On a more personal note, he makes soap and helps raises goats, chickens, a horse, ducks, turtles, and two children in Redland, near the Florida Everglades.


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