Biography
He was born in 1909 in Hamburg, F.R.G.. At the age of 18 he lost his parents and started study, and graduated from the University of Hamburg in 1934. In 1935, he began his pioneering work in the field of electronic musical instruments, and with funding support provided by Christian Warnke, his earliest work was completed in 1937.
Warbo Formant Organ (1937), an archtype of today's polyphonic synthesizer, was a four voice key-assignment keyboard with two formant filters and dynamic envelope controller. Eventually it went into commercial production by a factory in Dachau, and it became one of the earliest polyphonic synthesizer products, along with Novachord (1939) by Hammond.
Melochord (1947–1949) developed by Bode was extensively used by Werner Meyer-Eppler in early days of the electronic studio at Bonn University. Then in 1953 Melochord was, along with Monochord by Freidrich Trautwein, specifically commissioned to the Studio for Electronic Music of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR Studio in Cologne, West German Broadcasting Corporation) to upgrade their synthesis modules, and used by the Elektronische Musik group throughout the 1950s. (See #Melochord at the WDR Studio in Cologne for details)
From 1950, Bode designed electronic organs for the Apparatewerk Bayern (AWB) in Germany and the Estey Organ Company in the United States. In 1954, Bode immigrated to the United States as a chief engineer (later vice-president) of Estey Organ, and resumed his research at several companies and as a contractor of German companies.
In 1959-1960, Bode developed modular synthesizer and sound processor, and in 1961, he wrote a paper exploring the advantages of newly emerging transistor technology over older vacuum tube devices; also he served as AES session chairman on music and electronic for the fall conventions in 1962 and 1964; after then, his ideas were adopted by Robert Moog, Donald Buchla and others.
After retiring from the chief engineer of Bell Aerospace in 1974, he composed TV-advertising spots and gave live concerts. Also in 1977, Harald was invited as a chief engineer of the Norlin/Moog Music after Robert Moog left.
He died in New York, New York, United States in 1987.
Read more about this topic: Harald Bode
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