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Leopoldus Rademacher (c. 1665–1721)
Polyharmonia and Orchestralon
1707
Mahogany case with linseed oil finish and gilding over applied gesso, beech keybed with tortoiseshell stops and walnut and beech keys, gold leaf embellishments, internal mechanisms in brass and steel. 12 × 9½ × 14¼". Collection of the author.
An appropriate choice for New Year’s Day are these five instruments, commissioned by the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I of Austria from the workshop of Leopoldus Friedrich Rademacher (c. 1665–1721).
On New Year’s Day, Joseph opened the court with the traditional performance of Bach’s New Year’s Cantata (bwv 1296, ‘Begrüßen, das neue Jahr!’), a piece that Bach uncharacteristically arranged for the viola da gamba that had fallen out of fashion, and the alto recorder that had come to symbolize mourning in his later works. Rademacher was tasked with creating a multi-timbral keyboard instrument that could provide a more modern and upbeat accompaniment, and on New Year’s Day 1707, he unveiled his Polyharmonia, shown here. In the four subsequent years, he introduced a succession of instruments that explored different acoustical techniques to render Bach’s timeless work. These are the Polyharmonia (1707), the Doppia Spinetta (1708), the Orchestralon (1709), the Quarter Muselar (1710), and for the final year of the Emperor’s reign, the Rotae Exitium (1711). In Bach’s immortal words: ‘Er war Superstar, er war populär; er war so exaltiert, because er hatte Flair!’
Published January 1, 2023. Copyright © 2023 Jonathan Hoefler.
About
The objects in the Apocryphal Inventions series are technical chimeras, intentional misdirections coaxed from the generative AI platform Midjourney. Instead of iterating on the system’s early drafts to create ever more accurate renderings of real-world objects, creator Jonathan Hoefler subverted the system to refine and intensify its most intriguing misunderstandings, pushing the software to create beguiling, aestheticized nonsense. Some images have been retouched to make them more plausible; others have been left intact, appearing exactly as generated by the software. The accompanying descriptions, written by the author, offer fictitious backstories rooted in historical fact, which suggest how each of these inventions might have come to be.
These images represent some of AI’s most intriguing answers to confounding questions, an inversion of the more pressing debate in which it is humanity that must confront the difficult and existential questions posed by artificial intelligence.
Previously:
No. 25. New Year’s Devices
Next:
No. 27. Dutch Air Machines
