Oh my! This is a surprise. Oskar Sala gets a Google Doodle for his 112th birthday!
Sala was a physicist and electronic music pioneer, who promoted and developed an instrument called the Trautonium (later the Mixtur-Trautonium), a precursor to the synthesizer. He also worked with composer Bernard Herrmann to create the unsettling sound design for Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” a film without a musical score. Note the inclusion of two birds (ravens?) in the doodle.
Sala died in 2002 at the age of 91. Keep an eye out for him, should you wind up doing a Google search today!
Sala plays his Mixtur-Trautonium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tQQEChMq1A
As soloist in Harald Genzmer’s Trautonium Concerto
More about this unusual instrument
https://120years.net/wordpress/the-mixturtrautonium-oskar-sala-germany-1936/
Sala’s sound design enhances “The Birds”
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