Voices & Instruments

The 20^th century orchestras are similar to the ones in the Romanticism, but with a higher number of instruments. They needed very big concert halls!

But what’s more prominent in this century was the creation of some instruments:

In the new musical trends where they looked for new sounds, it was necessary to find new instruments to produce them. That necessity together with electricity gave place to these instruments:

- Ondes martenot: electronic instrument created by the French cellist Maurice Martenot. It is made up of a keyboard, a speaker and a generator of low frequency. In order for the instrument to sound, the performer has to wear a metallic ring on the right index finger and depending on the movement in the keyboard the height of the notes will vary. The movement was very simple and they were able to play many notes easily. With the left hand they moved the controllers of dynamics and articulation. An amplifier was needed to listen to the sound.

-Theremin: electronic instrument created by the Russian Leon Theremin. It is made up of two metallic antennas. Height and volume were controlled with each hand and there was no need to touch the instrument. It was amplified with a speaker. It was used in many soundtracks because of its sound, mainly in movies about aliens. Can you imagine why?

- Prepared piano: it was a piano where some objects were placed (clothespins, screws, nails, etc) between the strings to modify the sound. John Cage was the first in using it. Other instruments like the guitar were also modified.

- Rhythmicon: electronic instrument created by Henry Cowell with the help of Leo Theremin. It was the first drum machine in history.

All these instruments were the predecessors of all the electronic instruments we know nowadays, like the guitar or the bass guitar.