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Hugh Le Caine
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Hugh Le Caine (May 3, 1914 - July 3, 1977) was a Canadian physicist, composer and instrument builder.
Le Caine was brought up in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) in northwestern Ontario. After completing his Master of Science degree from Queen's University in 1939, Le Caine was awarded a National Research Council of Canada (NRC) fellowship to continue his work on atomic physics measuring devices at Queen's, and worked with the NRC in Ottawa from 1940 to 1974. During World War II, he assisted in the development of the first radar systems. On an NRC grant he studied nuclear physics from 1948 to 1952 in England.
At home he pursued a life-long interest in
electronic music and sound generation. In 1937, Le Caine designed an electronic free reed organ and in the mid 1940s, built the
Electronic Sackbut, now recognised to be the first
synthesizer. After the success of public demonstrations of his instruments, he was permitted to move his musical activities to NRC and to work on them full time in 1954. Over the next twenty years, he built over 22 different new instruments. Le Caine also collaborated in the development of pioneering electronic music studios at the
University of Toronto in 1959 and at
McGill University in 1964.
He was married to Trudi Le Caine, a notable supporter of the arts in Ottawa.
Though his composition output was small, Le Caine is remembered as one of the great pioneer composers of Musique concrète. His best known work being Dripsody (1955), a piece of Musique concrète based on the sound of a single drop of water that is permuted and contorted into a chorus of sounds.
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