German inventor/composer Oskar Sala is best known for his role in developing the Trautonium: one of the earliest electronic instruments and a contemporary of the French Ondes Martenot and Russian theremin. While the Trautonium would eventually be viewed as a relic of electronic music's past, the instrument's tonal quality and expressive capabilities remain sadly unparalleled in the technology that followed. Nearly 70 years after its creation, its legacy seemed highly uncertain, as Sala was the only one capable of playing it.
Born in Berlin in 1910, Oskar Sala was introduced t...