On November 25, 2020, my presentation was held in the seminar titled “Musik- und Klanggeschichte der elektronischen Verstärkung” in the module “M5 Musikmedien”.
In the previous semester, I had written a paper about Karl Straube as a NSDAP member
and organist in the St. Thomas Church Leipzig, so I chose the theme Megaphony regarding the Luitpold Hall in the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. Following the discussion with a professor, it was recommended that the theme also include the giant organ in the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
These giant organs were amplified by a large number of speakers and were able to reach 14.770 audiences for sound reinforcement of the 420.000 m³ room in Atlantic City and approx. 16.000 audiences in Nueremberg. According to the official homepage of the city of Nuremberg about the Nazi party rally ground, the organ in the Luitpold Hall was called a “total instrument” as a symbol of Totalitarianism of the NSDAP. In the case of Boardwalk Hall, the musicologist Timothy Hecker described this organ as “a monster pipe organ” which was referred to “an endpoint of a curious cultural obsession with power in musical instrument building” in his words. These giant organs were symbolized as power in Nazi Germany and the United States in the 1930s not only through sound, but also by the appearance of giant musical instruments which used to influence many people. Standard term of Megaphony to increase influence of the musical subject on people.
Figure 1: The 1934 Nazi Party Congress in the Luitpold Hall, Nueremberg, Germany
*Public Domain
The idea that giant organs as the Megaphony instruments conveyed to people was radical right-wing ideas e.g. Nationalism and Racialism at the Nazi Party convention in Nuremberg in 1934. However, the Democratic Party convention in Atlantic City in 1964, the ideas were racial equality and gender equality which would be understood as left-wing ideas. After the “Authoritarianism by Megaphony” in the 1930s, how was the sound technology of Megaphony instruments used for Liberalism in the 1960s? How can this time be positioned not only from a political point of view, but also from a musical point of view?
Figure2: The 1964 Democratic National Convention in the Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, United States
*Public Domain
The Woodstock Festival in 1969 was a symbolic event. At outdoor concerts during three days, great sounds in anti-war song influenced to 400.000 people against the Vietnam War at that time. From Authoritarianism to Liberalism. It can be said that Megaphony which influenced people by the giant organ in its appearance regained the original form of music which influenced people by sound in the 1960s.
Figure3: Picture taken on 17 August 1969 at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. The person carrying the placard is Moonfire Lewis Beach Marvin III. Joe Cocker is performing on stage.
The Leslie Speakers are sound amplifications for the Hammond organ which is an electronic organ modeled after a classical pipe organ. In this historical way, it can be said that these instruments are acoustic devices derived from the giant pipe organ as a Megaphony instrument. After the 1960s, the Leslie Speakers have been played to create loud sounds in many outdoor concerts such as the Sound Cloud Concerts by Japanese synthesizer composer Isao Tomita in the 1980s. These speakers are characterized as the Doppler Effect, which creates swelling sounds by rotating horn and drum inside the speaker cabinet and changing distance between listeners and the sound sources. The Composer Mark Weil insists that sounds subjectively seem to be louder for human ears with the Doppler Effect, even with no change of the sound volume. In relation to the Doppler Effect, the jog wheel structure in Hammond organ and its acoustic/musical difference from the classical pipe organ was explained in the project presentation.
The idea of the “swelling sound”in the Doppler effect motivated me to research New Music of Edgar Varèse and his student Chou Wen-chung in my master's thesis.
Raku Sato
01.12.2020 (summary of the project presentation)
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