Image: Hollow Sun (talk) at en.wikipedia, CC BY 3.0 — via Wikimedia Commons
Novachord
| Category | Electronic (early polyphonic synthesizer) |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Classification | polyphonic synthesizer |
| Wikipedia | en.wikipedia.org |
| Wikidata | Q1545241 |
Overview
The Novachord is an early electronic keyboard instrument built by the Hammond Organ Company between 1939 and 1942. It is widely considered the first commercially produced polyphonic synthesizer: a single player could hold a full chord and have every note generated, filtered, and shaped by independent electronic circuits. Roughly 1,000 instruments were manufactured before production ended.
Origin & History
The Novachord was developed at the same Chicago workshop where Laurens Hammond had recently introduced the Hammond organ. Where the Hammond used rotating tone wheels, the Novachord used vacuum tubes – more than 160 of them in each instrument – to generate and process tone. Production stopped in 1942 as wartime demand redirected the company’s resources to military electronics, and the Novachord never returned to the catalogue. Surviving instruments are now treasured by collectors and historic studios.
How It’s Played
The Novachord is played from a 72-note keyboard. Internally it divides each tone into shared circuitry that yields full polyphony, with controls on the front panel for vibrato, several timbre presets, and amplitude shaping. Its sound is unmistakable: thick, slightly hazy, and woody, with attack and decay that suggest a hybrid of organ, string section, and modern pad synthesizer decades before either of those terms existed.
Cultural Significance
The Novachord is most familiar today through twentieth-century film scores, where its strange but warm voice was used by composers including Bernard Herrmann. It also features on a number of classical recordings from the 1940s and 1950s. Modern composers and producers seek out original instruments – or carefully built software emulations – for a sound that no other synthesizer can quite reproduce.
Related Instruments
- Hammond organ – the company’s other landmark electronic keyboard
- Telharmonium – the giant electromechanical predecessor
- Synthesizer – the broader instrument family
- Mellotron – a later electromechanical keyboard with a similarly distinctive voice
- Theremin – another pioneering early electronic instrument
Where to Hear It
Hans Zimmer used a restored Novachord on his score for The Thin Red Line (1998), and other film and television scores have featured it sporadically. Comparisons of original Novachords with modern emulations are widely available online.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Novachord an organ or a synthesizer?
It is more accurately described as an early polyphonic synthesizer. It generates tone with vacuum-tube oscillators rather than the spinning tone wheels of a Hammond organ.
How many Novachords were made?
About 1,000 instruments were built before production ended in 1942. Only a small number remain in working order today.
Image: photograph uploaded by Hollow Sun, CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons).