Trautwein, Friedrich (Adolf)

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Trautwein, Friedrich (Adolf)

Trautwein, Friedrich (Adolf), German electrical engineer; b. Würzburg, Aug. 11, 1888; d. Düsseldorf, Dec. 20, 1956. He was trained in electrical engineering, then was active in radio work. He became a lecturer (1930) and a prof, of musical acoustics (1935) at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik; founded his own composition school in Düsseldorf after World War II, which was made part of the Robert Schumann Cons. in 1950. In 1930 he constructed an electronic musical instrument which became known, after the first syllable of his name, as the Trautonium. Hindemith wrote a concerto for it. Trautwein publ. a Trautonium method as Trauto-niumlehre (1936); also wrote numerous articles on acoustics and electronic music.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire