Movies

HomeMoviesSearchTV SeriesBookmarksView Source
Magic Music from the Telharmonium

Magic Music from the Telharmonium

Genres

Documentary

OverView

It was 1906. "Get Music on Tap Like Gas or Water" promised the headlines, and soon the public was enchanted with inventor Thaddeus Cahill's (1867-1934) electrical music by wire. The Telharmonium was a 200-ton behemoth that created numerous musical timbres and could flood many rooms with sound. Beginning with the first instrument, constructed in the 1890's, and continuing with the installation of the second instrument at Telharmonic Hall in New York, the rise and fall of commercial service, the attempted comeback of the third Telharmonium, and ending with efforts to find a home for the only surviving instrument in 1951, this documentary provides a definitive account of the first comprehensive music synthesizer.

Others

Budget

$--

Revenue

$--

Status

Released

Original Language

English

Runtime

25 mins

Rating

0/10

Release Date

15 April 1998

Country

Cast

Similar Movies

6.3

What About Me: The Rise of the Nihilist Spasm Band

September 2000 •English

A documentary about the Canadian noise band.

5.2

Moog

September 2004 •English

Best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer, Robert Moog was an American pioneer of electronic music, and shaped musical culture with some of the most inspiring electronic instruments ever created. This "compelling documentary portrait of a provocative, thoughtful and deeply sympathetic figure" (New York Times) peeks into the inventor's mind and the worldwide phenomenon he fomented.

6.5

Welcome Home

September 2013 •German

This documentary gives a voice to organizers, DJs and party guests. Through their memories and confessions as well as unpublished videos and photos 20 years of history come back to life.

0.0

Synergy: Visions of Vibe

January 1999 •English

This comprehensive documentary chronicles the underground rave culture in Southern California, one of its first American strongholds. With roots in a tribal past, this movement attempts to format the future of a truly global community by combining elements of electronic/percussive music, the psychedelic imagination, and mass dancing. From warehouses to mountain retreats to the deserts of the Mojave, an unseen world comes into clear focus; with kinetic camera work and candid interviews, this slice of visual anthropology probes the underbelly of a worldwide subculture with the help of some of electronic music's most acclaimed DJs, a technomusicologist, and a county sheriff. Open your mind to this moving entertainment experience and intimate portrait of a modern counter-culture that follows its own electronically induced beat.

0.0

Psychedelic Trance: Music Is My Drug

January 1995 •English

The history of trance music between Goa and Tel Aviv. During their annual leave, young active duty Israeli soldiers discover the path to a new techno music genre: Goa trance is born.

5.1

What Difference Does It Make?

February 2014 •English

A documentary that explores the challenges that a life in music can bring.

0.0

Universal Techno

October 1996 •English

This French-produced 1996 documentary is an hour-long piece covering the history of techno music from Detroit to Berlin Sheffield.

7.0

Talkin' Headz

November 1998 •English

The Metalheadz Documentary is an intimate and immediate account of a Drum & Bass label poised for world domination. DJs and producers talk openly of the artistic freedom they enjoy, how the label has evolved to represent such a diverse musical scene and why moving forward and pushing the boundaries is so vital. These names have created a global phenomenon and here talk for the first time of how it was achieved, where it's at and what the future holds.

0.0

Siob

February 2025 •French

If a tree falls dead, does it cease to be alive? Like a deep breath in the forest, Siob explores the different textures of wood, from its life in nature to its rebirth as a musical instrument. And what if, in human hands, wood found its voice again?

0.0

Bristol Bass Oddity

May 2014 •English

Documentary on Bristol's Dub music and culture

6.8

The Two Horses of Genghis Khan

October 2009 •German

An old, broken morin khurr (horse head fiddle) compels renowned Mongolian singer Urna Chahar Tugchi to take a road journey to Ulan Bator and the steppes of Mongolia.

10.0

Lotfi: Four Seasons

May 2015 •Persian

This Documentary takes a look at the art life of Maestro "MohammadReza Lotfi", the great master of "Târ", "Setâr"; great composer of Persian traditional music and the father of art of improvisation in "Dastgâh" music. by interviewing some of the greatest Iranian traditional music maestros and his close friends such as: MohammadReza Shajarian, Hossein Alizâdeh, Bizhan Kâmkâr, Houshang Ebtehâj (a.k.a Sâyeh), Majid Derakhshâni and a lot of other great musicians, the film narrates the life of Lotfi in 4 seasons of his life, from the spring until winter.

5.0

'Are'are Music

January 1979 •English

A documentary about the traditional music of the 'Are'are people of the Solomon Islands.

0.0

Broken Sound

March 2022 •Greek

A documentary about the origins and legacy of Bouzouki, an instrument which dominated the Greek folk music era of the 2Oth century in Greece.

7.5

The Summer of Rave, 1989

January 2006 •English

In the final days of the yuppie decade, the summer of ’89 saw a new type of youth rebellion rip through the cultural landscape, with thousands of young people dancing at illegal Acid House parties in fields and aircraft hangars around the M25. Set against the backdrop of ten years of Thatcherism, it was a benign form of revolution, dubbed the Second Summer of Love – all the ravers wanted was the freedom to party… The rave scene, along with the drug Ecstasy, broke down social barriers and even football hooligans were ‘loved up’, solving a problem the government had never managed to crack. But lurid tabloid headlines and cat-and-mouse games with the police eventually turned the dream sour, as the gangster element moved in at the end of the summer.

6.4

I Dream of Wires

November 2014 •English

An independent documentary film about the phenomenal resurgence of the modular synthesizer — exploring the passions, obsessions and dreams of people who have dedicated part of their lives to this esoteric electronic music machine. Inventors, musicians, and enthusiasts are interviewed about their relationship with the modular synthesizer — for many, it's an all-consuming passion.

0.0

Better Than Dog

January 2016 •Georgian

The story of a unique Georgian musician - Gia Iashvili, who makes music for the sake of creating and remains little-known in his own country.

5.3

What The Future Sounded Like

March 2007 •English

From Dr Who to The Dark Side of the Moon to modern day dance music, the pioneering members of the Electronic Music Studios radically changed the sound-scape of the 20th Century. What the Future Sounded Like tells this fascinating story of British electronic music. What The Future Sounded Like mixes experimental visual and sonic techniques with animation and never-seen-since archival footage. A sonic and visual collage, this documentary colors in a lost chapter in music history, uncovering a group of composers and music engineers who harnessed technology and new ideas to re-imagine the boundaries of music and sound.

10.0

The Rezillos Documentary

December 2022 •English

Two brothers reflect on their chaotic journey to stardom, as part of the legendary punk rock bands The Rezillos & The Revillos. Navigating friendships, fame, and fallouts.

0.0

Shaping Bamboo

January 1979 •English

For the 'Are'are people of the Solomon Islands, the most valued music is that of the four types of panpipe ensembles. With the exception of slit drums, all musical instruments are made of bamboo; therefore the general word for instruments and the music performed with them is "bamboo" ('au). This film shows the making of panpipes, from the cutting the bamboo in the forest to the making of the final bindings. The most important part of the work consists in shaping each tube to its necessary length. Most 'Are'are panpipe makers measure the length of old instruments before they shape new tubes. Master musician 'Irisipau, surprisingly, takes the measure using his body, and adjusts the final tuning by ear. For the first time we can see here how the instruments and their artificial equiheptatonic scale-seven equidistant degrees in an octave-are practically tuned.