75 years on, a Grammy for British genius who changed music for ever
HE invented the stereo sound we are all so familiar with.
And yet, despite his vast contribution to the music business, Alan Dower Blumlein is all but forgotten – in part because his death during the Second World War was hushed up.
All that is about to change, however. The electrical engineer is to receive a posthumous Grammy award for transforming the way we listen to music – and his life is likely to be the subject of a movie.
Mr Blumlein’s name is listed as one of the 2017 special merit recipients for Sunday night’s Grammys and he will be honoured alongside many of the giants of contemporary music. The engineer from Hampstead, North London, was killed while working on top-secret radar technology in 1942. His work was so important that his death at the age of 38 was kept quiet.
Born in 1903, he showed early promise by fixing his father’s doorbell at the age of seven. He gained a first class degree and joined the research department of Columbia Graphophone, later part of EMI, at the age of 25.
It was three years later that he had the ‘Eureka moment’ that led to the development of stereo recording and playback. While watching a film with his wife Doreen, he became frustrated that the sound did not match what was happening on screen.
He decided it would be more realistic if he used two microphones to record separately. The development – ‘binaural recordings’ – is what is now known as stereo.
The first film with a stereo soundtrack was of a steam train travelling from Hayes Station in Middlesex in 1935 – next to EMI’s HQ.
During the Second World War, his talents were used by the military and he was working on a H2S, an airborne radar system when he was killed. On June 7, 1942, the Halifax bomber he was flying in – converted into a flying lab – caught fire at 15,000ft and crashed at Welsh Bicknor, in Herefordshire.
All the other ten passengers and crew, including five other top scientists, were killed. The project was completed by RAF engineers.
Like another genius engaged in top-secret work for the war effort, artificial intelligence pioneer Alan Turing, Mr Blumlein’s life is soon to get the big-screen treatment. Universal Music Group – which merged with EMI in 2012 – said Mr Blumlein’s life is being developed into ‘an as-yet untitled film project’.
Radar and stereo were not the scientist’s only fields. During his 13 years at EMI he filed some 121 patents. He also pioneered the Marconi-EMI television system which was adopted by the BBC and was the basis for TV broadcasting until the switch to digital.
Simon Blumlein, his son, said of the Grammy: ‘It is a great honour for my father and the Blumlein family. We’re immensely proud. He’s always been held in the highest esteem by recording engineers and so to now receive this from the wider music industry is simply wonderful.’
Universal boss Sir Lucian Grainge said: ‘Alan Dower Blumlein and his prolific period of invention whilst at EMI, not only transformed audio and music recording technology, but also helped shape modern media communications for generations to come through his pioneering work in television.’