A postwar milestone and highly influential in electronic instrument evolution, the melochord is a monophonic keyboard created by German pioneer Harald Bode (1909–1987) in 1947 and based on vacuum tube technology. With a seven octave-range across the traditional 12-note chromatic scale, a foot pedal allowed overall control of the volume and a novel electronically operated envelope shaper could be triggered for each key. The instrument was derived from Bode’s earlier creation, his melodium, developed with the assistance of Oskar Vierling, inventor of the Grosstonorgel. Bigger and less practical, and not unsuitable for mass production, the instrument was still used extensively for film music and ‘light music’ during the 1940s.
Bode had studied mathematics, physics and natural philosophy at Hamburg University, graduating in 1934. In 1937, with funding support provided by the composer and band-leader, Christian Warnke, Bode produced his first instrument the Warbo-Formant Orgel (‘Warbo’ being a combination of the names Warnke and Bode). Bode moved to Berlin in 1938 to complete a postgraduate course at the Heinrich Hertz Institute where he collaborated with Oskar Vierling he developed the 1938 melodium.
Here Bode describes the instrument’s profile and usage:
“It was originally intended as an instrument which combined melody and chord capability all in one manual, but I then decided to use two voices on this one manual and split up a five-octave keyboard in such a way that the upper three octaves were assigned to one generator and the lower two octaves assigned to another generator. It was designed so that those two portions of the keyboard were independent, so they went to separate tone shaping means and to separate expression pedals, and the voices were arranged to allow for voice crossings. It was used on the German Broadcasting System, especially in Munich. It was not a production instrument (commercial product, that is), it was built and used by myself and was leased out to movie companies and for use in recordings with bands. It was also featured in a band I travelled with (as well as recorded with) in Germany.”
A later model of the melochord added a second keyboard:
Melochord with double keyboard
Bode went on to invent around 50 different instruments including designing the Hohner Mulimonica. This extensive ZKM video begins with a wonderful film footage showing sounds and images of him playing his various inventions, including the melochord, and ends in a discussion
And here is some footage of Bode’s Hohner Multimonica, with a wonderfully warm sound:
So from Kraftwerk to Stereolab and beyond, Harald Bode and his inventions are absolutely key. So to finish, here’s Stereolab with their song named after the instrument:
So then, any more melochord-connected music or footage? Feel free to suggest examples from any form of music, or even film, art, or other contexts in comments below.
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