Prometheus Student Engineering Bureau presented the “Crystal” instrument at the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy in 1966. Its screen was a transparent Plexiglas octahedron containing a frosted-glass cube and a smaller octahedron fitted with five-colour light sources. A keyboard let the performer control the colour of each face independently. Brightness could respond automatically to the volume of the music or be controlled with foot pedals. Each colour channel had a power rating of 600 W. Bulat Galeev led the project; the design team included Yu. Kovalenko, R. Daminov, I. Galiullin, L. Galeeva, Rustem Saifullin and A. Salakhiev.
Between 1966 and 1970, the “Crystal” accompanied Alexander Scriabin’s “Dark Flame”, Pierre Boulez’s “Structures”, Alexander Nemtin’s “Tears” and Claude Debussy’s “Fireworks”. Each work had its own lighting score.
Further reading: I. K. Galiullin, L. Kh. Galeeva, S. A. Andreev, Yu. M. Kovalenko and G. V. Pronin, “Light-Music Instruments from Prometheus Student Engineering Bureau”, in The Art of Luminous Sounds: Articles from Prometheus Student Engineering Bureau (Kazan, 1973), pp. 149–162.
