Oskar Sala (1910-February 27, 2002) was a 20th century German electronic musician and composer. He played an instrument called the trautonuim , a predessesor to the synthesizer.

Sala was a pupil of Friedrich Trautwein , the inventor of the trautonium, and studied with Paul Hindemith in 1930 at the Berlin conservatory.

Oskar Sala further develped the trautonium into the Mixtur-Trautonium . The Mixtur-Trautonium allowed for the first time in music history the execution of sounds which had only been known in theory since the Middle Ages, but were never actually playable. Sala's invention opened the field of subharmonics , the symmetric counterpart to overtones, so that a thouroughly distinct tuning evolved. Sala presented his new instrument to the public in 1952 and would soon receive international licenses for its circuits. That same year, composer Harald Gezmer delivered the score to the first "Concert For Mixtur-Trautonium And Grand Orchestra."

In the 1940s and 1950s he worked on many film scores. He created the non-musical soundtrack for Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds. He received many awards for his film scores, but never an Oscar. He also did alot of work on German commercials, most notably one referred to as "HB's little man ".

He was an honorary Senator of Berlin.

Discography

• "My Fascinating Instrument"

Contains his own compositions, dating from 1955 to 1989

• "Subharmonische Mixturen"

Contains Paul Hindemith's "Langsames Stueck für Orchester und Rondo für Trautonium" ("Slow Piece for Orchestra And Rondo for Trautonium"), Sala's own compositions, dating from 1992 to 1995, and his soundtrack to "Der Wuerger von Schloss Dartmore" ("The Strangler of Castle Dartmore")

• "Elektronische Impressionen"

Hindemith's "7 Triostuecke für drei Trautonien" ("7 Triopieces for three Trautonien"), "Konzertstueck fuer Trautonium und Streicher" ("Concertpiece for Trautonium And Strings") written in 1931 and rec[[orded in 1977. Also contains Sala's "Elektronische Impressionen" ("Electronic Impressions"), 1978.