Oskar Sala

Pioneered electronic music through his invention of the Trautonium

Oskar Sala (1910–2002), a German physicist and composer, revolutionized music technology by developing the Trautonium - one of the earliest electronic synthesizers. His groundbreaking work created entirely new soundscapes that influenced film scores and avant-garde music.

Unlike traditional composers, Sala manipulated electrical circuits to generate previously unheard frequencies. His most famous application came in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), where he produced the film's terrifying bird sounds using his Mixtur-Trautonium prototype.

What makes Sala's contribution unique was his dual mastery of engineering precision and musical creativity. While contemporaries focused on tape manipulation, Sala developed real-time performance instruments that became precursors to modern synthesizers. The Deutsches Museum preserves his original devices, showcasing their complex resistor banks and subharmonic mixing.