The Clavioline (1947) & Combichord (1953)

The Clavioline

The Clavioline was a monophonic, portable, battery powered keyboard instrument designed by M. Constant. Martin in 1947 at Versailles, France. The Clavioline consisted of two units: the keyboard with the actual sound producing unit with controls and a box with amplifier and speaker. By using an octave transposer switch the single oscillator could be set within a range of five octaves (six in the Bode version). The keyboard unit had 18 switches (22 in the Selmer version) for controlling timbre ( via a high pass filter and a low pass filter ), octave range and attack plus two controls for vibrato speed and intensity, the overall volume was controlled by a knee lever. Martin produced a duophonic model of the Clavioline in 1949 shaped like a small grand piano and featuring a 2 note polyphonic system, the duophonic model never went into production. 

The Clavioline made brass and string sounds which were considered very natural at the time and was widely used in the 1950's and 60's by pop musicians such as the Beatles and the Tornadoes (on'Telstar') and by the jazz musician Sun Ra.
The Clavioline was licensed to various to various global manufacturers such as Selmer (UK) and Gibson (USA). An expanded concert version was produced in 1953 by René Seybold and Harald Bode, marketed by the Jörgensen Electronic Company of Düsseldorf, Germany. In the 1940's Claviolines were also built into large dance-hall organs by the Belgian company Decap and Mortimer/Van Der Bosch. 

The Combichord

The Combichord was a combination of a Clavioline and a Tuttivox, designed by Harald Bode in the 1950's.

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