Trautonium Sweeps

„A while ago I assembled myself a modular synth unit that you could call a Trautonium. I wanted to understand the sounds and mechanics of this early electronic instrument invented within Paul Hindemith’s progressive atonal composition class in the late 1920s in Weimar period Berlin. My basic Trautonium features a subharmonic generator, a formant filter and most important a string manual to manage pitch and dynamics with the touch of one finger. This allows a player to design slow-moving, shape-shifting glissandi going from very high to very low frequencies and vice versa. The project I bring to Brussels and QO2 is to find the time to explore the musical potentials of these long-durational sweeps and slides.“