Hugh Le Caine

Canadian physicist and music composer

• Born: May 27, 1914
• Birthplace: Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), Ontario, Canada
• Died: July 3, 1977
• Place of death: Canada

Le Caine was one of the founders of the field of electronic music, inventing such instruments as the Electronic Sackbut and the Special Purpose Tape Recorder for composition and performance.

Primary fields: Music; physics

Primary invention: Electronic Sackbut

Early Life

Hugh Le Caine (leh KEHN) was born in Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada. From childhood, he was fascinated by both music and science. He studied piano and began to envision the possibility of utilizing techniques used in science to invent musical instruments. Le Caine enrolled at Queen’s University in the Department of Applied Science and studied physics. He received his bachelor of science degree in 1938 and his master of science degree in 1939. That year, he was also awarded a National Research Council (NRC) fellowship, which enabled him to remain at Queen’s to do additional research. This was the beginning of a long relationship between Le Caine and the NRC, as he worked with the council from 1940 to 1974.

During his graduate studies, Le Caine became involved in atomic physics and made important technical improvements to several of the measuring devices used in the field. He also made significant contributions to the development of the first radar systems. The papers he presented and the articles he published earned him acclaim as a scientist in both fields. In 1948, he received another research grant from the NRC. This grant enabled him to study nuclear physics in England from 1948 to 1952. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham in 1952.

Life’s Work

While studying physics, Le Caine still maintained his interest in music and also developed a fascination with motorcycles, which he enjoyed riding at high speeds. He actually set speed records, though unofficial, for the distance from Montreal to northern Ontario. While these feats impressed his friends and colleagues, his innovative activity in music was of much greater consequence. He tried applying the scientific techniques he was learning to the invention of musical instruments. In 1937, he invented an electronic free reed organ. In 1945, he set up a studio in his home; there he worked on developing electronic instruments, including the Electronic Sackbut, the first synthesizer ever built. He regularly had weekend jam sessions in his studio with his friends Bill Farrow and Mal Clark, his colleagues in physics.

Le Caine also started developing a polyphonic touch-sensitive organ and a device capable of simultaneously playing several tape recordings. His demonstrations of these instruments to the public made such a strong impression that in 1954 the NRC invited him to move his work to its facilities. The NRC provided him with a studio where he could work on his various projects. There he invented the Multi-track (Special Purpose) Tape Recorder. This device had the capability of simultaneously changing the playback speed of several recordings through the use of a keyboard.

Le Caine also composed music using the recorder. His purpose in composing was to understand the needs of the composer and to demonstrate the capabilities of his instruments. In 1955, he composed a piece called “Dripsody.” It was created using the sound of a single drop of water falling. Le Caine continued to experiment with a variety of techniques for producing and controlling sound. As a result of his experimental work, he built more than twenty-two new instruments.

Le Caine was instrumental in the creation of Canada’s first electronic music studio, which was installed at the University of Toronto in 1959. The studio was equipped with the various components of the Electronic Sackbut; Le Caine made the parts available as individual units. These could be used for specific tasks and in varied sequences, thus giving composers a true laboratory in which to experiment. In 1964, Le Caine collaborated on the installation of an electronic music studio at McGill University. It was in Le Caine’s laboratory studio at the NRC that the equipment used in both these studios was developed. In 1966, he began teaching at both universities and presented seminars on electronic music.

During his lifetime, Le Caine received many awards and recognitions for his inventions and contributions to the new field of electronic music. In 1971, McGill University awarded him an honorary doctorate of music; in 1974, he received an honorary LL.D. from the University of Toronto. Also in 1974, Queen’s University presented him with an honorary doctorate of music and named the Harrison-Le Caine Hall on its campus in his honor. In 1971, Le Caine attempted to commercially market the Electronic Sackbut but met with little success. In 1974, he retired from the National Research Council. On July 4, 1976, he was involved in a serious motorcycle accident; his injuries resulted in his death on July 3, 1977, in Ottawa.

After his death, Le Caine continued to receive honors for his many contributions to electronic music both as an inventor of instruments and as a composer of music. In 1978, the Hugh Le Caine Project was organized by the Canadian Electronic Ensemble to disseminate information about Le Caine. The ensemble began publishing a newsletter in June, 1979, and also played a minimum of one Le Caine composition at each of its concerts during the 1978-1979 season.

Impact

Le Caine was one of the pioneers in electronic music. With the invention of the Electronic Sackbut, he created the first voltage-controlled synthesizer. Using the various components of this instrument, he equipped the first two electronic music studios in Canada and provided the technical equipment needed for early composers of experimental electronic music.

Le Caine also wrote a large number of articles about his work in electronic music and gave numerous public demonstrations of the twenty-two instruments he developed. He also wrote thirty-eight electronic music compositions to demonstrate the capabilities of his instruments. In this way, he disseminated information about this new form of music and the instruments required to compose and perform it.

Through his teaching at the University of Toronto and McGill University, he had a significant impact on an entire generation of electronic-music composers. Le Caine played a significant though indirect role in the development of the first commercially successful electronic synthesizer. Gustav Ciamaga studied composition at the University of Toronto and knew about the filters Le Caine had developed. It was Ciamaga who influenced Robert Moog to invent the voltage-controlled low-pass filter used in his modular Moog synthesizer, and it was the Moog synthesizer that really gave impetus to the field of electronic music.

Bibliography

Holmes, Thom. Electronic and Experimental Music: Pioneers in Technology and Communication. New York: Scribner’s, 1985. Places Le Caine in the context of the field of electronic music and discusses the Electronic Sackbut.

Kettlewell, Ben. Electronic Music Pioneers. Vallejo, Calif.: ProMusic Press, 2002. Good overview of the development of electronic music and its importance in the music industry. Briefly discusses Le Caine’s role.

Manning, Peter. Electronic and Computer Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. Good treatment of the creation of electronic music studios. Le Caine played a major role in setting up the early studios in Canada.

Young, Gayle. The Sackbut Blues: Hugh Le Caine—Pioneer in Electronic Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. Excellent source for information on Le Caine’s life, his inventions, his philosophy in regard to music and the application of scientific techniques to music.