Who is Oskar Sala? Google doodle honours German electronic music pioneer on his 112th birth anniversary

Tech giant Google has paid tribute to the 20th-century German composer and physicist Oskar Sala to mark his 112th birth anniversary. Google’s latest doodle shows several musical instruments on display. Oskar Sala was born on July 18, 1910, in Greiz, Germany, and is considered the pioneer of electronic music. Sala is honoured for his contribution to the music industry and the work he did in developing sound effects for television, radio and films on a musical instrument called the trautonium, which is a precursor to the music instrument synthesizer.

From a very young age, Sala was exposed to music as his mother Annemarie (1887–1959) had a job as a singer and his father Paul (1874–1932) was an ophthalmologist, who encouraged his musical talent, wrote Google in its post.

Some of his most popular works in films are the eerie and strange bird sounds which he also gave in many films including Alfred Hitchcock's ‘The Birds’ in 1962 and 1959's' ‘Rosemary’.

Sala, from the age of 14, began creating songs and music compositions on instruments like the violin and piano. After being fascinated by the endless tonal possibilities and technology of the device trautonium had to offer, Sala worked to master the instrument. The website said he further developed and inspired his studies in physics and composition at school.

The German composer took his studies at the University of Berlin in Physics and expanded his knowledge of mathematics and natural sciences.

The website further notes that Sala’s determination and focus led to the emergence of his own device, which he called the mixture-trautonium. He produced music that had a distinct style and his device, the mixture-trautonium, was made in such a unique way that it could play several sounds or voices simultaneously.

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The music composer has been awarded several accolades for his contribution to music and sound. He has met numerous artists and been honoured in radio broadcasts and movies.

In the year 1995, Sala donated his version of the original trautonium to the German Museum for Contemporary Technology.

Oskar Sala has also built the Quartett-Trautonium, the Concert Trautonium, and the Volkstrautonium. His work in the field of electronic music has led to the creation of another field called subharmonics. Apart from all this, Sala also built his own studio at Mars Film GmbH (4th incarnation) in Berlin in 1958, where he produced electronic soundtracks for films like ‘Veit Harlan's Different from You and Me’ (1957), ‘Rolf Thiele's Rosemary’ (1959), and Fritz Lang's ‘Das Indische Grabmal’ (1959).