science

Variophone

Variophone is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Variophone rather than just read about it. In short: The Variophone was an optical synthesizer that utilized sound waves cut onto cardboard disks rotating synchronously with a moving 35mm movie film while being photographed onto it to produce a continuous soundtrack. Afterwards this filmstrip is played as a normal movie by means of a film projector.

Key takeaways

Variophone belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Variophone to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Variophone from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Variophone was an optical synthesizer that utilized sound waves cut onto cardboard disks rotating synchronously with a moving 35mm movie film while being photographed onto it to produce a continuous soundtrack. Afterwards this filmstrip is played as a normal movie by means of a film projector. Being read by photocell, amplified and monitored by a loudspeaker, it functions as a musical recording process. It was developed by Evgeny Sholpo in 1930 at Lenfilm Studio Productions, in Leningrad, the Soviet Union, during his experiments with graphical sound techniques, also known as ornamental, drawn, paper, artificial or synthetic sound. In his research Sholpo was assisted by the composer Georgy Rimsky‐Korsakov.

Although with the first version of the Variophone, polyphonic soundtracks of up to 6 voices could be produced by shooting of several monophonic parts and combining them later, by the late 1930s and 1940s, some soundtracks contained up to twelve voices, recorded as tiny parallel tracks inside the normal soundtrack area. At the same time in the Soviet Union several other artists were experimenting with similar ideas. The first artificial soundtrack ever created was drawn in 1930 by composer and musical theorist Arseny Avraamov who was working with a hand-drawn technique for producing sound effects. Nikolai Voinov, Ter‐Gevondian and Konstantinov were developing paper sound techniques. Boris Yankovsky was developing his spectral analysis, decomposition and resynthesis technique, resembling the more erecent computer music techniques of cross synthesis and the phase vocoder. Many sound films and artificial soundtracks for movies and cartoons were produced by means of the Variophone, including the popular sound-films, often broadcast in 1930-1940s Symphony of the Piece and Torreodor. At the end of 1941 Siege of Leningrad, the Variophon was destroyed when the last missile exploded. After World War II, Evgeny Sholpo became the director of the new Scientific‐Research Laboratory for Graphical sound at the State Research Institute for Sound Recording, in Leningrad. The fourth and final version of Variophone was not finished, despite promising experiments in musical intonation and the temporal characteristics of live musical performance. The laboratory was moved to Moscow and Sholpo was removed from his position as director. In 1951, after a long illness, Evgeny Sholpo died and his laboratory was closed. Documentation for the Variophones was transferred to the Acoustical Laboratory at Moscow State Conservatory and later, to the Theremin Center. In 2007, several hours of graphical soundtracks produced with the Variophone were discovered in a Moscow film archive and await publishing.

See also Daphne Oram Oramics

References Izvolov Nikolai.From the history of painted sound in USSR. Kinovedcheskie Zapiski, no.53, 2001, p. 292 (in Russian) Levin, Thomas. 2003. Tones from out of Nowhere: Rudolf Pfenninger and the Archaeology of Synthetic Sound. Grey Room 12 (Fall 2003): p. 32-79 Smirnov, Andrei. Sound Out of Paper. Moscow, November, 2007 Smirnov, Andrei. Boris Yankovsky: Leben im Klangspektrum. Gezeichneter Klang und Klangsynthese in der Sowjetunion der 30er Jahre. pp. 97–120; Tim Boykett/Andrei Smirnov. Notation und visuelle Musik. pp. 121–126. Klangmaschinen zwischen Experiment und Medientechnik. (C)2010 transcript Verlag, Bielefeld. Aus:Daniel Gethmann (Hg.)[1] Archived 2011-07-20 at the Wayback Machine Smirnov, Andrei. Son produit par la lumiere et le papier. Article in the catalogue of the exhibition "Vois ce que j'entends" at the Centre des Arts Enghien-les-Bains, France. pp. 16–27, ISBN 978-2-916639-17-8 Andrei Smirnov & Liubov Pchelkina. Les Pionniers Russes de'l ART du SON. Experimentations musicales. Article in the catalogue of the exhibition "LENIN, STALIN and Music", pp. 96–105. Musee de la musique, October 12, 2010 - January 16, 2011. Cite de la musique, Paris. ISBN 978-2-213-65566-6

External links Variophone at the Theremin Center website (in Russian) Excerpt form Carburettor Suite by G.Rimsky-Korsakov, created with Variophone in 1935 Excerpt form Prelude by Chopin, created with Variophone in 1935 Excerpt form Rhapsody by List, created with Variophone in 1935 Excerpt form Sterviatniki soundtrack by E.Sholpo and I.Boldirev, created with Variophone in 1941 A link mentioning the invention "Listen to early Soviet synthesizer music, hand drawn on film and made from cut paper". Dangerous Minds. 2015-04-02. 1930s Russian Drawn Sound: Evgeny Sholpo's 'Variophone' (1932) on YouTube Eight minutes of Variophone music (1932) on YouTube

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Variophone

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Variophone claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Variophone before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Variophone ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Variophone

In research: Variophone appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Variophone in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Variophone is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Graphical sound, Russian electronic musical instruments, Soviet inventions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Variophone outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Variophone in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Variophone means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Variophone out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Variophone in simple terms?

Why does Variophone matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Variophone?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Variophone.