The Hammond Novachord was manufactured by the Hammond Organ Co
in the USA from 1939 to 1942, designed by Laurens Hammond and
C.N.Williams. A total of 1096 models were built.
The Novachord was a polyphonic electronic organ and was Hammonds
first electronic tube based instrument. The Novachord was a much
more complex instrument than the
'Solovox', Hammond's other electronic instrument, the Novachord used 169
vacuum tubes to control and generate sound and a had a seventy
two note keyboard with a simple pressure sensitive system that
allowed control over the attack and timbre of the note. The sound
was produced by a series of 12 oscillators that gave a six octave
range using a frequency division technique- the Novachord was
one of the first electronic instruments to use this technique
which was later became standard in electronic keyboard insytuments.
The front panel of the instrument had a series of 14 switchable
rotary knobs to set the timbre, volume, 'resonance',bass/treble,
vibrato (six modulation oscillators were used) and 'brightness'
of the sound. A set of 3 foot operated pedals controlled sustain,and
volume the third pedal allowing control of the sustain by either
foot. The final signal was passed to a preamplifier and then to
a set of internal speakers. The Novachord was able to produce
a range of sounds imitating orchestral instruments such as the
piano, harpsichord, stringed and woodwind instruments as well
as a range of it's own new sounds.
In May 1939 'The Novachord Orchestra' of Ferde Grofé performed
daily at the Ford stand at the New York World Fair with four Novachords
and a Hammond Organ and in Adrian Cracraft's 'All Electronic Orchestra',
the Novachord also featured in several film scores (Hans Eisler's
"Kammersinfonie" 1940) but seems to have fallen from favour due
to the instability of it's multiple tube oscillators and playing
technique. The Novachord was discontinued in 1942. A Hammond employee
comments:
"The Novachord made beautiful music if played well, but it was
not well adapted either to either an organists style or a pianists
style. Thus it required development of a specific style, which
not many musicians were prepared to do. it also had technical
problems, requiring frequency adjustments to keep it operating
cheifly because the frequency dividers and electronic components
before the war were not nearly as good as those available in
later years. The hammond Organ Company could have revivied it
after the war, and could have made it better in light of available
technology at the time, but sales had been disapointing ad so
it was not considered a good commercial product"
