The Variophone

Gallery opened 31 July 2022

Updated: 22 Aug 2022

More new pics added

Electronic Music in Russia

The Variophone was a Russian machine designed to produce sounds of arbitrary timbre (waveform) and pitch. The first version was built in Leningrad by Evgeny Sholpo in 1930. The Variophone modulated a beam of light with a rotating tone-disc, and recorded it on cine film.

Above: Diagram of the Variophone electronic music generator: 1930
This sort of diagram used to fascinate me when I was but a lad, and this one is a beauty.
Some of the parts have been identified:

1, 2, 3: Electric motor and belt drive
6, 7, 8, 9: Gearbox for setting tone-wheel speed in large steps
10, 11, 12: Variable-speed friction drive to tone disc
13, 14: Pointer and scale for setting variable-speed drive to tone disc
17: Tone-disc
23 - 28: Cine camera
27: Cine camera lens
29: Light bulb
31: Apertures for setting attack and decay?
34: Dial for setting vibrato speed?
36, 37 Scrolling music score (no connection visible to the rest of the machinery)

I would be very grateful if anyone could decipher the Russian labels.

Left: Information on the Variophone: 2011
The machine was invented by Evgeny Sholpo. (1891-1951)He was helped by Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov (grandson of Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov), who assisted him in building the prototype at Lenfilm Studios in 1931.
Georgy Rimsky-Korsakoff & Evgeny Sholpo used the Variophone to create the interestingly-named The Carburettor Suite (1933-34)
You can hear the Variophone on YouTube. Frankly it's not that impressive, but does give rather a startling impression of Switched-On Bach. It is also reminiscent of the Casio VL-1 Keyboard. The mechanical sound is partly because the Variophone had no equivalent of a Voltage-Controlled Filter, which can modify the note during its duration.
The Variophone has a Wikipedia page.
Source: Generation Z: Russian Pioneers of Sound Art and Musical Technology. Document on an exhibition held at Budapest in June-July 2011.

Left: Tone disc for the Variophone: 1930

Source: Generation Z: Russian Pioneers of Sound Art and Musical Technology. Document on an exhibition held at Budapest in June-July 2011.

Left: Evgeny Sholpo with early Variophone: 1932
He looks worried, as well he might, living in Stalin's Russia.
The round thing to the left is the electric motot that drove the Variophone.
The original Variophone was destroyed in WW2 during the Siege Of The Leningrad. Future versions of the Variophone were never finished due to Sholpos death in 1951.

Left: Evgeny Sholpo with early Variophone: 1932
The black box on the left is probably the cine-camera.

Left: Early Variophone: 1932?
This does not seem to be the same machine as shown in the pictures above. The two open reels, and the absence of anything like a cine-camera, suggest this version is for playback rather than recording.

Left: Later Variophone: 1949
There seems to be an enormous amount of control circuitry in the cabinet on the right.
Note the pedals under the bench.