That there is a demand for new tone-qualities in musical instruments, need hardly be emphasized. No doubt you have heard of musicians who felt this need so keenly that they reached back into the past to revive such early instruments as the viola da gamba, the lute, and the complete fipple-flute (recorder) family in order that they might experience unfamiliar tone-colors--tone-colors so long-forgotten that now they seem new! Indeed, these revivals have been quite successful.

however, in seeking a means for continuing the progress of music, we are not limited to the latest finds in antiques. A new family (more accurately, several families) of instruments--the electronic musical instrument--is asking for its rightful place on the musical scene.

The other instruments now in use will have to make room for the new arrivals--but making room does not necessarily mean getting out of the way entirely. Musicians now realize, for example, the mistake which was made in the past when the piano completely supplanted the harpsichord and the clavichord; this mistake is now being rectified and rightly so.

Some of our present instruments will be replaced almost entirely by electrical instruments, because of the present instruments' needlessly difficult techniques, and because the electrical instruments can do their job so much better. Other instruments will not be replaced to any great extent, because they are now of greater perfection and/or have greater range of expression, than the first group alluded to.

The ideal orchestra of the future, then, will probably contain three kinds of instruments: 1) those we now use, which produce tone directly by acoustico-mechanical means; 2) those which are played in much the accustomed manner, but whose tones are sent through amplifying equipment and heard via loudspeakers; and 3) those instruments in which the tones are electrically generated and formed from start to finish.

The proper instrumentation and balance of the new electronic orchestra cannot possibly be decided by mere talking and planning-on-paper. It must be determined through actual experiment, starting right now--not twenty years hence, or "when we get around to it." At present, musicians and electrical engineers do not collaborate properly on the electronic orchestra becuase they speak of the same things and operations in two different, mutually unintelligible languages. (It is with considerably regret that the author--13 years after publishing the first version of this article--sees no improvement in engineer/musician relations: if anything, the confusion is worse, what with the recent "high-fidelity" craze.) Musicians must learn more about the instruments they will be using.

Musicians who refuse to take part in the development of these electronic instruments will have only themselves to blame when the market is flooded with improperly designed, soulless, built-merely-to-sell instruments. Electrical instruments can be "soulful" if their builders will put their hearts into their work as well as their pocketbooks. There is no more reason for an electrical instrument sounding "mechanical" than there is for any other kind of musical instrument having this shortcoming.

The new electronic musical instruments will (with the notable exception of the Thereminvox) offer much easier techniques. This fact has stirred up a storm of protest form those musicians who confuse difficulty of performance with artistic merit and perfection. Up to the present time, the orchestral performer has had to spend needless hours in mere drudgery, mastering difficulties of technique occasioned by the mechanical construction of present-day musiccal instruments. It is no wonder that these endless days of practice have accustomed players to enduring--and even glorifying--the defects and idiosyncrasies of their chosen instruments.

Many of the traditional methods of performing on the conventional instruments (particularly the French horn,the slide trombone, the bassoon, and the oboe) are quite awkward; these technical difficulties operate to retard the progress of music, and furthermore it is purely an accident in most cases that a certain quality of tone is coupled with certain exasperating stumbling-blocks of technique here and there in the compass of a particular instrument. For example, the clarinet has a certain peculiar tone quality no produced by any other instrument of the orchestra or band. It might have been true a century or so ago that no other mans of producing this timbre was known than the familiar hollow stick of wood or wood-substitute with a single-beating-reed mouthpiece and a formidable assemblage of keys, rings, and levers; but this does not prevent us, living today, from constructing an electronic instrument with a better tone, more even registers, smoother technique, and greater facility of playing, to say nothing of greater compass, than the present clarinet. And likewise with the other orchestral instruments. The poor intonation of many brass bands, and the years of training required before the players can perform passably in tune, will be nothing more than unpleasant memories after electronic orchestras and bands are introduced.

One of the problems at present existing for orchestra players is that of a musician who wants to change to another instrument, or to take up the playing of additional instruments. Whenthe tone-quality and compass of an instrument no longer determine its technique, there will be very little more to learn when one takes up an extra instrument--the resent need of "beginning all over again" when, for example, a violinist wishes to play the trumpet, the organ, or the bassoon, will disappear, for technique on all electronic instruments will approach uniformity. In fact, practically any kind of tone, either now existing or yet to be created, may be played form a keyboard. Instruments with special keyboard or with other means of control than keyboards will of course be available, for effects such as glissando, that are impractical on the usual keyboard instrument. Years will be subtracted from music study. Why waste time overcoming the restrictions of the imperfect mechanism of the average orchestral instrument, when that time could be much better spent in developing musicianship, expression, command over rhythm, ability to choose suitable timbres, and a feeling for tone-color, and the subtleties of proper phrasing?

Various reasons, having to do with the history of the particular instruments concerned and also with the contsruction of instruments, plus a liberal amount of prejudice, have operated to cause a great deal of annoyance to music students, and enormous confusion to composers, conductors, arrangers, and copyists, because of the "transposing instruments:" clarinet, saxophone, French horn, trumpet, etc. The mental strain involved in imagining a tone to be some other pitch than it really is (i.e., writing C-sharp when you want the player to sound B), while practically non-existent for the performer who is concerned with but one note at a time and thus can ignore the fact that his music is written in a different key than the other parts, is still very real and frustrating for the conductor and composer. Of course they "get used to it" after a certain number of years, but that does not mean that it is necessary, let alone desireable, to continue this outmoded practice. WIth the substitution of electronic instruments, so many of which will have keyboards, pianists will be encouraged to play in orchestras, and they will refuse to bother with the transposing custom. Also, other simplifications is musica notation are very likely.

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We frequently hear the question: electronic instruments can play so much louder than conventional instruments; does this not meant hat each electronic instrument can replace several of the instruments now in the orchestra? Will this not put some musicians out of work? Far from it! It may be true that in a symphony orchestra there may be as many as twenty first violinists and as many as ten cellists, all the players in a given group playing identical parts, and it is also possible that an electrical instrument could be made which would play as well as the ten or twenty stringed instruments, but it is equally true that several much-needed instruments are MISSING from the orchestra, and the replaced string layers might not be sufficient in number to take over these new instruments and new parts.

Let us enumerate some of these missing instruments: there is an oboe piccolo (that is, there is no instrument with oboe tone-quality to play notes much above High C.). There is no bass flute, nor contrabass flute, for no human being would have the lung-power to blow such an instrument. There alto flute, which goes only a fourth below the standard flute, is a great rariry, and the tenor flute, one octave below the regular flute, is but a collector's curiosity. Yet thousands of pipe organs stand as living proof that flute tone in the bass register is a very desirable thing to have.

There is no soprano horn to continue French horn tone into the high treble. There is no bass xylophone (marimbas do not go down as far into the bass as they may seem to go). There is no bass celesta (even the tenor octave, furnished on the early celestas, was abandoned as being too weak). A very sad lack is that there is no continuous scale of tuned drums (it would take up too much space, require too many people to play it, and would cost too much).

A complete family of instruments is missing to provide the diapason tone of the pipe organ. There is also need of a family of instruments will a modified piano-like tone, of a kind that would blend with the other instruments, rather than stand out as the ordinary piano does. We could go on indefinitely listing these missing instruments, but suffice it to say that more than one writer has proposed the addition of amplifying guitars, Spanish and Hawaiian, and amplifying mandolins to the symphony orchestra.

Enough has now been said to make it obvious that there will be plenty of instruments to which the extra string players can transfer. Not only that, but these musicians will be happier playing individual parts, rather than tagging along after eleven others all playing the same part. (The author, having been a cellist in orchestras, is very sure of this point!) It should be mentioned here than the "chorus effect" now produced by several instruments or voices playing or singing the same part can just as well be produced by a single electronic instruments.

Our present orchestras are based upon a foundation of string tone (bowed instruments of the violin family). Several causes for this are: the average orchestra has enough of the four--violin, viola, violoncello, double-bass--to provide a complete set of parts in homogeneous tone-quality in all the registers at once. The other tone-families--oboe,flute, horn, percussion--are usually present only in incomplete form, so that the woodwinds, for example, have to take the place, with indifferent results, of missing members of each others' families. Thus the bassoon may have to substitute for the bass clarinet, or the horns serve as bass and/or tenor to the flutes. Had these various tone-colors been represented as fully in the orchestra as the string tone is represented, the foundation tone might well have been other than string.

The ability quickly to change from one timbre to another, and the new flexibility this will bring, will be chief advantage of the electronic instruments. It will even be possible to have a different tone quality with each note of a melody, or to change quality while sustained the same note. Because of this the division into definite tone-families may have to be rather loosely considered. Still, for convenience' sake, it will be well to assign a fundamental timbre to each group of instruments in the orchestra, to which they will return after wandering off to other timbres as the composer or arranger has directed.

in passing, the observation should be made here that the inventors of various electronic musical instruments have usually held the idea that they could obtain all qualities of tone from just one device or invention.

While an approach to this is conceivable, it still remains that the best way to get different varieties of timbre, and to have them stand clearly apart one from another, is to generate them separately, preferably by circuits working on different principles. There are, incidentally, many hundreds of electrical tone-generating circuits--far more variety than can ever be obtained from the customary instruments working on mechanico-acoustic principles.

The present-day orchestra conductor has to be content with waving a baton, or just his hands in front of the players, and by suitable gestures combined with instructions already imparted at rehearsals, have the players perform as he wishes them to. The conductor of an electronic orchestra will really control the ensemble--not just beat time.

He will be able to regulate the balance of the orchestra and to bring forward now this, now that, choir of instruments; and the problem of keeping the accompanying parts "down" for the sake of a solo instrument will no exist any ore.

From his desk, the conductor will be able to alter the quality, as well as the volume, of each instrument, and will be able to indicate the beat by means of electrical devices (such as blinking lights, for example). None of these new facilities will in any interfere with his taking up the baton for the usual gestures. However, the new electrical conducting desk will given him such an extended command of his ensemble that the old way will seem hopelessly inadequate by comparison.

Those who have already heard any kind of electrical instrument will of course remark about its greatly increased dynamic range, encompassing the practically inaudible as well as the deafeningly loud. This power of expression exceeds that of the present instruments so much that its compelling novelty may lead to overuse or misuse at first, but, with practice, dynamic expression will take its legitimate place in the scheme of things.

Most effective among the electronic orchestra's resources will be power of controlling the places from which the sounds are to come. That is, now that the loudspeakers and amplifiers can be located any desired distance away from the musicians and their instruments, it will be possible to have the sound come partly from one side of the stage and partly form the other, or to have the sound originate in the extreme far end of the auditorium, or to have it come from the conventional sources, viz. where each musician is seated. The echo effects that will be added to the conductor's pallette, and the directional (stereophonic) effects possible, will enhance the expressive power of the orchestra immensely. It would be a grave mistake if those constructing equipment for electronic orchestras were to content themselves with but one amplifier and one loudspeaker cabinet for the whole ensemble.

The acoustical properties of halls and auditoriums, as well as the acoustical conditions obtaining at open-air concerts in parks and amphitheaters, will be utilized to the advantage of the music produced by the orchestra, rather than to its detriment, as so often happens now. The sound can be modified to fit any circumstances. For the open-air concerts just mentioned, the amount of bass in proportion to treble can be increased, and it will even be possible to add some reverberation (since most music has been written for performance in moderately "live" rooms, and the outdoor environment seems to "soak up" th sound).

Electronic orchestras will be a definite improvement in broadcasts and recording of music. Under present conditions, the studios for broadcasting and recording, however elaborate, do not duplicate the acoustics of the concert hall, thought hey may try to imitate it. The regular orchestral instruments were not designed either to blend with one another nor to balance; it is indeed a tribute to our present-day musicians that they can do as well as they can with such imperfect instruments. Now, when microphones are placed in the studio by technicians, and the sound picked up by them is monitored by mixing engineers in a control room soundproofed and separated from the conductor, we have in effect several conductors working at cross-purposes. When the record is played, or the radio program listened to, the acoustics of the listening room may or may not conflict with those of the originating studio. The electronic orchestra-conductors's desk is by its very nature a mixing panel; and the electric currents generated by the various instruments will not suffer distortion from microphones, neither will they be affected by the studio acoustics, nor yet by extraneous noises.

New instruments, of course, mean new styles in musical composition. Modern composers will no longer have their ideas filtered through antiques. Music will be more "in tune with the times." Even the older music may profit, for arrangers will have undreamed-of resources placed at their disposal. Musical education will gain most of all, for now every student that wants to play an orchestral instrument realize that ambition.

The whole world of sound now lies literally at our fingertips! Today's musicians have an unparalleled opportunity to create the orchestra of tomorrow.