Summary
Who is Oskar Sala?
Why Google is celebrating his 112th Birthday? Oskar Sala (18 July 1910 – 26 February 2002) was a 20th-century German physicist, composer and a pioneer of electronic music. Google honour Oskar Sala with an artistic doodle today.
Born on July 18, 1910 in Greiz, Germany, Sala is best known for his work in the field of electronic music and for creating sound effects for TV, radio, and films on a musical instrument called trautonium. His most famous work includes the eerie bird sounds in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ and in Rosemary (1959).
He also built
- the Quartett-Trautonium,
- Concert Trautonium and
- the Volkstrautonium
Sala’s Volkstrautonium was presented to the public at the Berliner Funkausstellung radio exhibition in 1933.
Few Key Roles for Oskar Sala
Soundtrack | Behind Poem (2004) |
Sound Department | Reineke Fuchs (1989) |
Music Department | The Box (2000) |
One of the most important figures and pioneers of electronic music of the 20th century was Oskar Sala (1910–2002).

Today’s google Doodle celebrates what would have been the 112th birthday of Oskar Sala, an innovative electronic music composer and physicist.
Sound department
1989 – Reineke Fuchs (TV Movie) (sound effects)
1963 – The Birds (electronic sound production and composition)
1959 – The Bridge (sound effects)
Filmography – Oskar Sala Composer
Title | Release Year |
---|---|
Window with a View (Short) | 2001 |
Oskar Sala: The Former Future of Sound (Documentary) | 2000 |
III The Box (Short) (original score) | 2000 |
Tatort (TV Series) (1 episode) | 2000 |
Kingdom of Poet O (Short documentary) | 2000 |
Ich war Bürger der DDR (TV Movie documentary) | 1999 |
Kiss My Blood | 1998 |
That Was the GDR: A History of the Other Germany (TV Mini Series documentary) | 1993 |
The Last U | 1993 |
Gestern war heute noch morgen (TV Movie documentary) | 1992 |
Unterwegs nach Kathmandu (TV Movie) | 1971 |
Abfertigen? | 1969 |
Carbon (Documentary short) | 1968 |
Make Love Not War | 1968 |
Magic Light (Documentary short) | 1967 |
Kaum zu glauben (Short) | 1965 |
Petrol | 1965 |
unter dir der himmel (Documentary short) | 1965 |
Krampus und Angelika (TV Movie) | 1965 |
The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse | 1964 |
The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle | 1963 |
Sounding the Surface (Short) | 1963 |
Vulkanisches Antlitz (Documentary short) | 1962 |
Tagebuch eines Reporters (Short) | 1961 |
Widerstand | 1961 |
Geheimnis eines Stahls (Short) | 1960 |
Mit dem ‘Adler’ fing es an (Short) | 1960 |
Zündhölzer (Documentary short) | 1960 |
Atomic Power Ahead (Short) | 1960 |
Steel | 1960 |
Das magische Band (Documentary short) | 1960 |
Aluminium | 1959 |
Schöpfung ohne Ende | 1957 |
Snow White and Rose Red | 1955 |
Armer Hansi (Short) | 1943 |
The Legacy of Oskar Sala – Google Arts & Culture
As a musician, composer, and natural scientist, he fully devoted himself to the playing and development of the Trautonium in its many different forms—an instrument invented by Friedrich Trautwein at the end of the 1920s which could be used to produce all kinds of sounds and noises. The Trautonium is still considered the precursor to the synthesizer to this day.
Read other Doodle from Google
- The Legacy of Oskar Sala – Google Doodle Celebrates Today – Story
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Sala Personal info
Sala was born on July 18, 1910 in Greiz, Thuringia and came from a very musical family. His mother Annemarie (1887–1959) worked as a singer, and his father Paul (1874–1932) was an ophthalmologist who fostered his musical talent.
Sala was creating his own compositions even in his youth, such as sonatas and songs for violin and piano when he was 14. In 1962, he presented his own works for the first time at a concert in his hometown.
Deutshces Museum
In 2000, he donated his estate to the Deutsches Museum. He remained the only Trautonium player throughout his life. Sala died on February 26, 2002 in Berlin.