Oskar Sala
German composer and electronic instrument scientist Oskar Sala was born on 18 July 1910 in Greiz.
He invented and learnt to play the trautonium, the electronic instrument used to create the haunting bird cries in Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds. As the instrument's only virtuoso, Sala performed with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and worked on the soundtracks for over three hundred films.
Oskar Sala died on 26 February 2002, aged ninety-one.