Did you know that in 1897, the American inventor Thadeus Cahill patented an electronic instrument designed to transmit music around New York via telegraph wires?  His Mkll Telharmonium weighed 200 tons and broadcast concerts from the Telharmonic Hall in New York City between 1906 and 1910. Between 1902-1904, Grainger worked on plans for a Beatless-Notation Machine and Beatless Music Typer, devises designed to capture the performance of non-metrical rhythms and translate them to graphic notation.

Explore the Free Music Timeline to discover other key moments in the history of electronic music in relation to Percy Grainger’s work as a composer and inventor of Free Music machines.

Our exhibition, Tone Rhythm Pitch: Exploring Percy Grainger’s Free Music, closed last month, but information on Grainger’s work in experimental music continues to be available on our website.  Explore past blog posts on Free Music and 7 Crowell as a Workshop, the GLOSS website, or our the digital exhibition brochure.