Name	Theremin
Background	electronic
Image capt	An Etherwave-Theremin, assembled from Robert Moog's kit: the loop antenna on the left controls the volume while the upright antenna controls the pitch
Hornbostel sachs	53
Hornbostel sachs desc	Electrophone
Inventors	Léon Theremin
Developed	1919

{{ listen | filename = Epro theremin middle bach.ogg | title = Epro theremin in middle range | description = J. S. Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring played by Italian thereminist Fabio Pesce on a Moog Etherwave theremin. }}

The theremin (), originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device in 1928. The controlling section usually consists of two metal antennas which sense the position of the player's hands and control oscillators for frequency with one hand, and amplitude (volume) with the other, so it can be played without being touched. The electric signals from the theremin are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.

The theremin is associated with a very sound, which has led to its use in movie soundtracks such as Miklos Rozsa's for Spellbound and The Lost Weekend and Bernard Herrmann's for The Day the Earth Stood Still and as the theme tune for the ITV drama Midsomer Murders. Theremins are also used in concert music (especially avant-garde and 20th- and 21st-century new music) and in popular music genres such as rock. Psychedelic Rock bands in particular, such as Hawkwind, have often used the theremin in their work.

History

The theremin was originally the product of Russian government-sponsored research into proximity sensors. The instrument was invented by a young Russian physicist named Lev Sergeivich Termen (known in the West as Léon Theremin) in October 1920 after the outbreak of the Russian civil war. After positive reviews at Moscow electronics conferences, Theremin demonstrated the device to Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. Lenin was so impressed with the device that he began taking lessons in playing it, commissioned six hundred of the instruments for distribution throughout the Soviet Union, and sent Theremin on a trip around the world to demonstrate the latest Soviet technology and the invention of electronic music. After a lengthy tour of Europe, during which time he demonstrated his invention to packed houses, Theremin found his way to the United States, where he patented his invention in 1928 (). Subsequently, Theremin granted commercial production rights to RCA.

Although the RCA Thereminvox (released immediately following the Stock Market Crash of 1929), was not a commercial success, it fascinated audiences in America and abroad. Clara Rockmore, a well-known thereminist, toured to wide acclaim, performing a classical repertoire in concert halls around the United States, often sharing the bill with Paul Robeson.

During the 1930s Lucie Bigelow Rosen was also taken up with the theremin and together with her husband Walter Bigelow Rosen provided both financial and artistic support to the development and popularisation of the instrument.

In 1938, Theremin left the United States, though the circumstances related to his departure are in dispute. Many accounts claim he was taken from his New York City apartment by KGB agents, taken back to the Soviet Union and made to work in a sharashka laboratory prison camp at Magadan, Siberia. He reappeared 30 years later. In his 2000 biography of the inventor, Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage, Albert Glinsky suggested the Russian had fled to escape crushing personal debts, and was then caught up in Stalin's political purges. In any case, Theremin did not return to the United States until 1991.

theremin, in kit form.]] After a flurry of interest in America following the end of the Second World War, the theremin soon fell into disuse with serious musicians, mainly because newer electronic instruments were introduced that were easier to play. However, a niche interest in the theremin persisted, mostly among electronics enthusiasts and kit-building hobbyists. One of these electronics enthusiasts, Robert Moog, began building theremins in the 1950s, while he was a high-school student. Moog subsequently published a number of articles about building theremins, and sold theremin kits which were intended to be assembled by the customer. Moog credited what he learned from the experience as leading directly to his groundbreaking synthesizer, the Moog.

Since the release of the film in 1994, the instrument has enjoyed a resurgence in interest and has become more widely used by contemporary musicians. Even though many theremin sounds can be approximated on many modern synthesizers, some musicians continue to appreciate the expressiveness, novelty and uniqueness of using an actual theremin. The film itself has garnered excellent reviews.

Today Moog Music, Dan Burns of soundslikeburns.com, Chuck Collins of theremaniacs.com Wavefront Technologies, Kees Enkelaar and Harrison Instruments manufacture performance-quality theremins. Theremin kit building remains popular with electronics buffs; kits are available from Moog Music, Theremaniacs, Harrison Instruments, PAiA Electronics, and Jaycar. On the other end of the scale, many low-end Theremins, some of which have only pitch control, are offered online and offline, sometimes advertised as toys.

Operating principles

The theremin is almost unique among musical instruments in that it is played without physical contact. The musician stands in front of the instrument and moves his or her hands in the proximity of two metal antennas. The distance from one antenna determines frequency (pitch), and the distance from the other controls amplitude (volume). Most frequently, the right hand controls the pitch and the left controls the volume, although some performers reverse this arrangement. Some low-cost theremins use a conventional, knob operated volume control and have only the pitch antenna. While commonly called antennas, they are not used for receiving or broadcasting radio frequency, but act as plates in a capacitor.

The theremin uses the heterodyne principle to generate an audio signal. The instrument's pitch circuitry includes two radio frequency oscillators. One oscillator operates at a fixed frequency. The frequency of the other oscillator is controlled by the performer's distance from the pitch control antenna. The performer's hand acts as the grounded plate (the performer's body being the connection to ground) of a variable capacitor in an L-C (inductance-capacitance) circuit, which is part of the oscillator and determines its frequency. (Although the capacitance between the performer and the instrument is on the order of picofarads or even hundreds of femtofarads, the circuit design gives a useful frequency shift.) The difference between the frequencies of the two oscillators at each moment allows the creation of a difference tone in the audio frequency range, resulting in audio signals that are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.

To control volume, the performer's other hand acts as the grounded plate of another variable capacitor. In this case, the capacitor detunes another oscillator; that detuning is processed to change the attenuation in the amplifier circuit. The distance between the performer's hand and the volume control antenna determines the capacitance, which regulates the theremin's volume.

Modern circuit designs often simplify this circuit and avoid the complexity of two heterodyne oscillators by having a single pitch oscillator, akin to the original theremin's volume circuit. This approach is usually less stable and cannot generate the low frequencies that a heterodyne oscillator can. Better designs (e.g. Moog, Theremax) may use two pairs of heterodyne oscillators, for both pitch and volume.

Performance technique

Easy to learn but notoriously difficult to master, theremin performance presents two challenges: reliable control of the instrument's pitch with no guidance (no keys, valves, frets, or finger-board positions), and minimizing undesired portamento that is inherent in the instrument's continuously-variable-pitch design.

Pitch control is challenging because, like a violin or trombone, a theremin can generate tones of any pitch throughout its entire range, including those that lie between the conventional notes. And, unlike all other instruments, the theremin has no physical feedback (other than sound), like string tension or the tactile fingerboard for strings, or air column resistance in wind instruments. The player has to rely solely on what is heard, and can only correct a pitch when its volume is not at zero. (At least one theremin, possibly Moog, has a jack for headphones that receive the continuous pitch before its volume is changed.) In the case of some string instruments, the range is divided along the strings by use of length divisions (e.g., frets on a guitar). By contrast, in the case of the theremin, the entire range of pitches is controlled by the distance of the performer's hand or fingers to the pitch antenna in mid-air. Precise control of manual position coupled with an excellent sense of pitch is required, since the oscillator tuning tends to change slowly over time, resulting in changing positions for individual pitches.

Because some portamento is inevitable in theremin performance and because only the most experienced performers can reduce it to an inconspicuous level, the theremin repertoire of the vast majority of players is limited to compositions that were written to be performed legato, especially those for voice or continuously-variable-pitch instruments, and in which it is acceptable or even traditional to include some degree of portamento and glissando. Examples of works well suited for performance on the theremin include Massenet's Thaïs-Méditation (originally for violin), Rachmaninoff's Vocalise, and Saint-Saëns' Le cygne (The Swan) (originally for violoncello).

Using rapid and exact hand movements, however, highly skilled players can reduce undesired portamento and glissando to a level enabling them to play individual notes and even achieve staccato effects. Small and rapid movements of the hands can create tremolo or vibrato effects. Although pitch is governed primarily by the distance of the performer's hand to the pitch antenna, most precision thereminists augment their playing techniques with a system called "aerial fingering," largely devised by Clara Rockmore and subsequently adapted by Léon Theremin and his protege, Lydia Kavina. It employs specific hand and finger positions to alter slightly the amount of capacitance relative to the pitch antenna to produce small changes in tone quickly and in a manner that can be reliably and quickly reproduced.

An alternate and controversial "hands on" technique is called "angling." In this method the pitch control hand is actually set on the top of the theremin, thus violating the "no touch" creed of traditionalists. The performer changes the angle of the hand and fingers to alter the pitch and repositions the hand if the pitch interval is too large for "angling." Touching the instrument dampens the effect of extraneous movement on pitch. This permits the use of steady pitches without vibrato and without the performer's remaining perfectly still. An alternate to touching the instrument is to rest the elbow of the pitch arm on a tripod while standing, or the arm of a chair, or one's knees while seated in order to provide a steady reference point and pivot for the arm allowing for steady pitch play over the entire pitch range.

Equally important in theremin articulation is the use of the volume control antenna. Unlike touched instruments, where simply halting play or damping a resonator silences the instrument, the thereminist must "play the rests, as well as the notes," as Ms. Rockmore observes. Although volume technique is less developed than pitch technique, some thereminists have worked to extend it, especially Pamelia Kurstin with her "walking bass" technique and Rupert Chappelle.

Skilled players who overcome these challenges by a precisely controlled combination of movements can achieve complex and expressive performances, and thus realize a theremin's potential.

Some thereminists in the avant-garde openly rebel against developing any formalized technique, viewing it as imposing traditional limitations on an instrument that is inherently free form. These players choose to develop their own highly personalized techniques. Other avant-garde players use strict form and techniques other than aerial fingering. The question of the relative value of formal technique versus free form performances were hotly debated among thereminists. Theremin artist Anthony Ptak uses antenna interference in live performance.

Recent versions of the theremin have been functionally updated: the Moog Ethervox, while functionally still a theremin, can also be used as a MIDI controller, and as such allows the artist to control any MIDI-compatible synthesizer with it, using the theremin's continuous pitch to drive modern synths. The Harrison Instruments Model 302 Theremin uses horizontal plates to control pitch and volume requiring techniques other than "aerial fingering".

Uses

Concert music

, protégée of Léon Theremin and instructor to other thereminists.]] Theremins are popular instruments among avant-garde and new music artists because of their perceived freedom from traditional compositional structures. It is also performed as a classical instrument, and is occasionally used in jazz improvisation.

Concert composers who have written for theremin include Bohuslav Martinů, Percy Grainger, Iraida Yusupova,.

Musician Jean Michel Jarre Jean Michel Jarre used the instrument in his concert Space of Freedom in Gdańsk, providing also short history of Léon Theremin's life.

Popular music

Theremins and theremin-like sounds started to be incorporated into popular music from the end of the 1940s (with a series of Samuel Hoffman/Harry Revel collaborations) and this continued, with varying popularity, to the present.

While The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" features an instrument that sounds much like a Theremin, in fact the sound is made by an instrument called the Tannerin.

Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin used a variation of the theremin (minus the loop) during performances of "Whole Lotta Love" and "No Quarter" throughout the performance history of Led Zeppelin, an extended multi-instrumental solo featuring theremin and bowed guitar in 1977, as well as the soundtrack for Death Wish II released in 1982.

Lothar and the Hand People, formed in Denver in 1965, used a Theremin (named "Lothar") onstage and on their LP.

The Lothars are a Boston-area band formed in early 1997 whose CDs have featured as many as four theremins played at once—a first for pop music.

Although credited with a "Thereman" [sic] on the "Mysterons" track from the album Dummy, Portishead actually used a monophonic synthesizer to achieve theremin-like effects, as confirmed by Adrian Utley, who is credited as playing the instrument; he has also created similar sounds on the songs "Half Day Closing", "Humming", "The Rip" and "Machine Gun".

Film music

performing the Spellbound Concerto by Miklós Rósza with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin]] The Russian Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the first composers to include parts for the theremin in orchestral pieces, including a use in his score for the 1931 film Odna. While the theremin was not widely used in classical music performances, the instrument found great success in many motion pictures, notably, Spellbound, The Red House, The Lost Weekend (All three of which were written by Miklós Rózsa, the composer who pioneered the use of the instrument in Hollywood scores), The Spiral Staircase, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Thing (From Another World), The Ten Commandments (the 1956 DeMille film). More recent appearances in film scores include Monster House, Ed Wood and The Machinist (both featuring Lydia Kavina). The DVDs for Ed Wood, Bartleby and The Day the Earth Stood Still and Spellbound (Criterion Collection) include short features on the theremin. Robby Virus, the founder and theremin player of the band Project:Pimento, was featured on the soundtrack to the movie Hellboy (2004).

Throughout the theremin's use in film music from the 1940s to the 1960s, its sound was equated with the bizarre and alien life. Because of Clara Rockmore's professed distaste for such projects, the thereminist most commonly enlisted to perform anything from haunting melodies to eerie sound effects was Dr. Samuel Hoffman, whose performances can be heard most prominently in the soundtracks for Spellbound (1945) and The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Although it has been alleged that Ronald Stein, who is best known as a composer of film scores, also played the theremin on the soundtracks of such movies as The She Creature (1956) and the Queen of Blood (1966) such information has not been confirmed.

Actor Jerry Lewis plays a theremin briefly in the 1957 Paramount film The Delicate Delinquent. The latter part of the scene actually uses thereminist Samuel Hoffman in the soundtrack, to which Jerry Lewis mimes the motions of playing the instrument.

A theremin was played by Jimmy Page in the 1976 Led Zeppelin movie The Song Remains the Same.

A theremin was not used for the soundtrack of Forbidden Planet, for which Louis and Bebe Barron built "disposable" oscillator circuits and a ring modulator to create the "electronic tonalities" for the film.

Bruce Woolley provided all the Theremin parts for "Storm" the title song of The Avengers movie and also the "Sound Of Music" sequence in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!

Philadelphia thereminist Howard Mossman provided the theremin music for Jens Lien's 2006 award-winning film The Bothersome Man using an RCA theremin.

Los Angeles-based thereminist Charles Richard Lester is featured on the soundtrack of Monster House and has performed the US premiere of Gavriil Popov's 1932 score for Komsomol—Patron of Electrification with the L. A. Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen in 2007.

In the 2007 biopic parody film , Dewey Cox suggests to one of his band members that he open his mind, and learn to play the theremin. It comes at a time when Dewey is using LSD pretty heavily, and has been working on his "masterpiece" album which is one very long song with countless obscure instruments, a full symphony, a vocal accompaniment of indigenous Australians and a goat. The scene is a parody of Brian Wilson, the driving force of The Beach Boys and the album Smile.

In a deleted scene from the 2009 documentary It Might Get Loud, Jack White from The White Stripes, The Edge from U2 and Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin play around with a theremin. At one point Jimmy says, "It hasn't got six strings, but it's a lot of fun."

Television

A theremin is used to generate the electronic wails of the energy monster in "The Invisible Monster" episode of the 1964 Hanna-Barbera animated series, Jonny Quest.

In the February 17, 1998 I Am Weasel episode I Are Music Man, I.R. Baboon played the theremin he acquired from The Red Guy gatecrashing a live event to prove he's a better musician that Weasel.

The theremin-like sound on the original Star Trek theme was supplemented by renowned studio soprano Loulie Jean Norman until her voice was removed in later seasons. (apart from a few episodes where an electric organ or synthesizer were used.) Soprano Elin Carlson sang part of the theme when CBS-Paramount TV remastered the program's title sequence in 2006. The British television series Midsomer Murders uses a theremin in its popular theme tune as well as in underscore, to add depth and melody. The theremin part is played by Celia Sheen. In May, 2007, the White Castle American hamburger restaurant chain introduced a television ad featuring a theremin performance by musician Jon Bernhardt of the band The Lothars.

In January, 2011, an episode of The Big Bang Theory ("The Bus Pants Utilization") featured Sheldon Cooper playing a theremin.

Books

In the novel Hannibal, Hannibal Lecter buys and plays a theremin as well as other musical instruments. A theremin is played at a wedding ceremony in the Herman Wouk novel Marjorie Morningstar The theremin is used as a literary device in "Constellations for Theremin" by Andrew Joron. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Captain Beatty says "If the drama is bad, if the film says nothing, if the play is hollow, sting me with the theremin, loudly. I'll think I'm responding to the play when it's only a tactile reaction to a vibration. But I don't care. I just like solid entertainment."

Video games

Composer Garry Schyman used a Theremin for the musical score of the 2005 videogame Destroy All Humans! Lydia Kavina's solo theremin is featured on the soundtrack for the 2006 MMORPG computer game Soul of the Ultimate Nation, composed by Howard Shore. The Homestar Runner universe character Homsar plays a theremin in the 2008 point-and-click adventure game ''Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People - Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands.

Similar instruments

The Ondes-Martenot also uses the principle of heterodyning oscillators, but has a keyboard as well as a slide controller and is touched while playing. The Electro-Theremin (or Tannerin after Paul Tanner who played it in several productions including three tracks for The Beach Boys), built by Bob Whitsell in the 1950s, does not use heterodyning oscillators and has to be touched while playing, but it allows continuous variation of the frequency range and sounds similar to the theremin.

The Persephone, an analogue fingerboard synthesizer with CV and MIDI, inspired by the trautonium. The Persephone allows continuous variation of the frequency range from 1 to 10 octaves. The ribbon is pressure and position sensitive.

The Electronde, invented in 1929 by Martin Taubman, has an antenna for pitch control, a handheld switch for articulation and a foot pedal for volume control.

The Syntheremin is an extension of the theremin.

The Croix Sonore (Sonorous Cross), is based on the theremin. It was developed by Russian composer Nicolas Obouchov in France, after he saw Lev Theremin demonstrate the theremin in 1924.

The terpsitone, also invented by Theremin, consisted of a platform fitted with space-controlling antennae, through and around which a dancer would control the musical performance. By most accounts, the instrument was nearly impossible to control. Of the three instruments built, only the last one, made in 1978 for Lydia Kavina, survives today.

The Z.Vex Effects Fuzz Probe, Wah Probe and Tremolo Probe, using a theremin to control said effects. The Fuzz Probe can be used as a theremin, as it can through feedback oscillation create tones of any pitch.

The Haken Continuum Fingerboard uses a continuous, flat playing surface along which the player slides his fingers to create the desired pitch and timbre values. Describable as "a continuous pitch controller that resembles a keyboard, but has no keys."

The MC-505 by Roland being able using the integrated D-Beam-sensor like a Theremin.

The Otamatone by the Cube works company which is played by sliding the fingers up and down a stem to control a three-level pitch sound.

See also

American Museum of Radio and Electricity, which features a theremin that visitors can play.

The Exploratorium in San Francisco has a restored RCA Theremin playable by visitors.

The Pacific Science Center also has a theremin on display that guests can try to play. It is located in the lobby of the Boeing IMAX Theater building.

The Music Museum in Stockholm, Sweden has a theremin that visitors can play.

The first theremin concert for aliens in the Teen Age Message sent to space.

References

Theremin Family

Publications

Rockmore, Clara (1998). Method for Theremin. Edited by David Miller & Jeffrey McFarland-Johnson. Made publicly available at Clara Rockmore Method for Theremin [pdf]

Film and video

External links

Portals and general information

ThereminWorld.com

ThereminVox.com

TECI: Theremin Enthusiasts Club International

Theremin.info

Etheremin: Theremin website for the French speaking

The Solar Powered Theremin (Heliophone)

Further information

Page Theremin Family

Leon Theremin by Lirego!

oddmusic.com theremin page

Canadian singer and thereminist Peter Pringle's Theremin website, with pictures, audio, and text

Dr. Samuel Hoffman, Hollywood's premiere thereminist

Art's Theremin Page: Complete construction plans for solid state and vacuum tube theremins

CamTheremin: A freeware program simulating theremin with your webcamera.

What Is A Theremin?

THE WIEN-BRIDGE THEREMIN This page contains a good, basic explanation of the physics and electronics behind a heterodyne Wien Bridge theremin. Also contains design schematic of the parts of a heterodyne Wien Bridge theremin.

The Harrison Instruments Model 302 Theremin A battery operated horizontal plate theremin with a seven octave range.

Audio and Video

Clara Rockmore playing "The Swan" (Saint-Saëns)

Ted.com: Pamelia Kurstin plays and discusses her theremin

Theremin Music Gaining Popularity - Audio: KPLU's Bellamy Pailthorp reports.

Pekkanini Swedish composer and thereminist

Super Mario theme being played on the theremin by Randy George.

Examples of "angling" technique using the Model 302 theremin while seated (Rupert Chappelle)

Spellbound, a brief program of music for theremin - weekly Internet radio program playing music featuring the theremin, offers audio and video podcasts

YouTube Theremin Guide - A video with 70+ links to theremin websites, books, lessons, theremin makers, and thereminists around the globe

Category:Electronic music instruments Category:Continuous pitch instruments Category:Russian electronic music instruments Category:Russian inventions Category:Russian musical instruments Category:Experimental musical instruments

Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman (born in New York City, July 23, 1903 – died in Los Angeles, December 6, 1967) was a notable thereminist.

At age 14, began playing the violin professionally in New York City. Under the stage name Hal Hope, he led nightclub and society bands. By 1936, he had taken up the theremin and begun featuring it in publicity for his engagements.

In 1941, Hoffman moved to Los Angeles, where he established a medical practice and had little time for musical activity. But as the only theremin player in Local 47 of the Musicians Union, he got the call in 1945 when composer Miklos Rosza decided he wanted to use a theremin in the score to Spellbound. Hoffman began performing under his real name; he was customarily referred to as "Doctor" because he was also a podiatrist. In the wake of the film's success, he was asked to play on many more soundtracks; for instance, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). He was in demand for horror movie and sci fi soundtracks through the end of the 1950s.

In the late 1940s, he recorded three studio albums with bandleader Les Baxter. These were forerunners to exotica; they also influenced Sun Ra, who recorded a composition from Perfume Set to Music on his first LP, Jazz by Sun Ra. One of Hoffman's last recordings, made in 1967, was Safe as Milk by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, where he appeared on two tracks.

Death

Hoffman died of a heart attack on December 6, 1967.

Discography

Music Out of the Moon (1947)

Perfume Set to Music (1948)

Music for Peace of Mind (1949)

These albums are compiled and remastered in Waves in the Ether: The Magical World of the Theremin (2004).

Filmography

Spellbound (1945)

The Lost Weekend (1945)

The Spiral Staircase (1945)

The Red House (1947)

The Pretender (1947)

Road to Rio (1947)

Raw Deal (1948)

Let's Live a Little (1948)

Impact (1949)

She Shoulda Said No! (1949)

Oriental Evil (1950)

Rocketship X-M (1950)

Fancy Pants (1950)

Let's Dance (1950)

The Thing from Another World (1951)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Phantom from Space (1953)

It Came from Outer Space (1953)

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953)

Project Moon Base (1953)

The Mad Magician (1954)

Day the World Ended (1955)

Please Murder Me (1956)

The Ten Commandments (1956)

Voodoo Island (1957)

The Delicate Delinquent (1957)

Earth vs. the Spider (1958)

Billy the Kid versus Dracula (1966)

External links

Dr Samuel Hoffman Biography

Web sources

Category:Theremin players Category:Podiatrists Category:1903 births Category:1967 deaths

Pamelia Kurstin (born Pamela Stickney May 28, 1976 in Southern California) is a theremin player who has performed and recorded with artists such as David Byrne, Richard Cheese, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, and Ulver (on the album Shadows of the Sun) and has performed on the television show Saturday Night Live. Her background as a jazz musician on the upright bass has led to her "walking bass" theremin technique. She was based in New York until 2005; she now lives in Vienna.

She was first introduced to the theremin during production of the album Into the Oh in 1999 by Luaka Bop duo Geggy Tah – singer/writer Tommy Jordan and keyboardist Greg Kurstin. Kurstin recorded Gymnopedie in 2000 as a member of the theremin/keyboard duo called "The Kurstins" with her then-husband, Greg. Her first solo album Thinking Out Loud was released in 2007 on the Tzadik label. She also appears on the Foetus album "Love", and has also composed music for a CNN special using her theremin orchestra. She makes an appearance in the 2004 documentary Moog.

External links

Myspace site

Official site

Barbez's website

Tzadik site

Pamelia Kurstin links and info at ThereminWorld

Interview at Guardian website

Improvisation at Guardian website

Pamelia Kurstin interview (march 2003) for QRD

TED Talks: Pamelia Kurstin plays the theremin at TED in 2002

Category:American electronic musicians Category:Theremin players Category:1976 births Category:Living people

Name	Lydia Kavina
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth date	September 08, 1967
Origin	Moscow, Russia
Instrument	Theremin
Url	www.lydiakavina.com
Notable instruments	Theremin

Lydia Kavina (born 8 September 1967) is a Russian theremin player, and is currently the leading performing musician on the instrument.

The grandniece of Léon Theremin, Kavina was born in Moscow and began studying the instrument under the direction of Theremin when she was nine years old. Five years later, she gave her first theremin concert, which marked the beginning of a musical career that has so far led to more than 1000 theatre, radio, and television performances around the world.

Kavina has appeared as a solo performer at such prestigious venues as the Bolshoi Saal of the Moscow Conservatory, Moscow International Art Centre with National Philarmonic of Russia under Vladimir Spivakov and Bellevue Palace in Berlin, the residence of the German President. She has also performed at leading festivals, including Caramoor with the Orchestra St. Luke's, New York's Lincoln Center Festival, Holland Music Festival, Martinu Festival, Electronic Music Festival in Burge and Moscow “Avantgarde”.

Kavina performs most of the classical theremin repertoire, including popular works for theremin by Bohuslav Martinů, J. Schillinger, and Spellbound by M. Rosza, as well as the lesser-known Equatorial by Edgard Varèse and Testament by Nicolas Obouchov.

In addition to giving concerts, Kavina is a composer of music for theremin and teaches the instrument in Western Europe, Russia and the United States. Together with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, she played theremin for Howard Shore's soundtrack of the Oscar-winning film Ed Wood, as well as for eXistenZ (also by Shore) and The Machinist. Additionally, Kavina has recorded several compact discs and is the subject of an instructional video from the theremin manufacturer Moog Music. She was also featured in stage productions such as Alice and The Black Rider (both conceived and directed by Robert Wilson, with music by Tom Waits) at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, and in collaboration with the Russian experimental surf band Messer Chups.

Lydia Kavina is an active promoter of new experimental music for the theremin. In collaboration with Barbara Buchholz and Kamerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Kavina performed a number of concerts of contemporary works for theremin in Germany in 2005-2007 as part of the Touch! Don't Touch! - Music for Theremin project.

The most notable project of her recent career is her theremin solo in The Little Mermaid, a ballet by Lera Auerbach, choreographed by John Neumeier in Copenhagen New Opera Haus and Hamburg State Opera (2007).

Kavina has completed a number of her own compositions for theremin including a Concerto for Theremin and Symphony Orchestra, first performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra under the direction of Gil Rose.

Kavina holds a degree in composition from The Moscow Conservatory, where she also completed a postgraduate assistantship program.

CDs

Music from the Ether, Mode records, 1999

Concerto per Theremin. Live in Italy, Teleura, 2000

Touch! Don't Touch! - Music for Theremin with Barbara Buchholz, Wergo, 2006

Spellbound!, Mode records, 2008

Collaborations

Music for Films III Music by Brian Eno, Opal Records, 1988

Music by Howard Shore, Hollywood Records, 1994

eXistenZ, Soundtrack Music by Howard Shore, RCA Victor, 1999

Black Black Magic Music by Messer Chups, Solzne Records, 2002

Crazy Price Music by Messer Chups, Solzne Records, 2003

Baehlamms Fest Music by Olga Neuwirth, Kairos, 2003

The Machinist, Soundtrack Music by Roque Baños, Melodramma Records, 2005

Videos

Mastering the Theremin, Big Briar, 1995

Concerto per Theremin. Live in Italy, Teleura, 2001

External links

Official website

An interview with Lydia Kavina

Lydia Kavina at Mode Records

Concerto per Theremin: the Live CD from Lydia Kavina

Lydia Kavina performing Debussy's "Claire de Lune" on YouTube

Category:Theremin players Category:1967 births Category:Living people

Name	Léon Theremin
Caption	A young Léon Theremin playing a theremin, c. 1924
Birth date	August 27, 1896
Birth place	Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Death date	November 03, 1993
Death place	Moscow, Russia
Known for	Theremin
Occupation	Inventor

Léon Theremin (born Lev Sergeyevich Termen, ) (, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire – 3 November 1993, Moscow, Russia) was a Russian and Soviet inventor. He is most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments. He is also the inventor of interlace, a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal, widely used in video and television technology. His invention of "The Thing", an espionage tool, is considered a predecessor of RFID technology.

Early life

Léon Theremin was born Lev Sergeyevich Termen in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire in 1896 into a family of French and German ancestry.

By the age of 17 he was in his last year of high school and at home he had his own laboratory for experimenting with high frequency circuits, optics and magnetic fields. His cousin, Kirill Fedorovich Nesturkh, then a young physicist, and a singer named Wagz invited him to attend the defense of the dissertation of professor Abram Fedorovich Ioffe. Physics lecturer Vladimir Konstantinovich Lebedinskiy had explained to Theremin the then interesting dispute over Ioffe's work on the electron. On 1913 May 9 Theremin and his cousin attended Ioffe's dissertation defense. Ioffe's subject was on the elementary photoelectric effect, the magnetic field of cathode rays and related investigations. In 1970 Theremin wrote that Ioffe talked of electrons, the photoelectric effect and magnetic fields as parts of an objective reality that surrounds us everyday, unlike others that talked more of somewhat abstract formula and symbols. Theremin wrote that he found this explanation revelatory and that it fit a scientific – not abstract – view of the world, different scales of magnitude, and matter. From then on Theremin endeavoured to study the Microcosm, in the same way he had studied the Macrocosm with his hand-built telescope.

World War I and Russian Civil War

Despite Theremin being only in his second academic year, the deanery of the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy recommended him to go to the Nikolayevska Military Engineering School in Petrograd (renamed from Saint Petersburg), which usually only accepted students in their fourth year. Theremin recalled Ioffe reassured him that the war would not last long and that military experience would be useful for scientific applications.

Beginning his military service in 1916, Theremin finished the Military Engineering School in six months, progressed through the Graduate Electronic School for Officers, and attained the military radio-engineer diploma in the same year. In the course of the next three and a half years he oversaw the construction of a radio station in Saratov to connect the Volga area with Moscow, graduated from Petrograd University, became deputy leader of the new Military Radiotechnical Laboratory in Moscow, and finished as the broadcast supervisor of the radio transmitter at Tsarskoye Selo near Petrograd (then renamed Detskoye Selo).

Theremin recalled that on an evening when his hopes of overcoming these obstructing experts reached a low ebb, Abram Fedorovich Ioffe telephoned him.

Under Ioffe

The day after Ioffe's invitation Theremin started at the institute. He worked in diverse fields: applying the Laue effect to the new field of X-ray analysis of crystals; using hypnosis to improve measurement-reading accuracy; working with Ivan Pavlov's laboratory; and using gas-filled lamps as measuring devices. He built a high frequency oscillator to measure the dielectric constant of gases with high precision; Ioffe then urged him to look for other applications using this method, and shortly made the first motion detector for use as a "radio watchman".

While adapting the dielectric device by adding circuitry to generate an audio tone, Theremin noticed the pitch changed when his hand moved around. In October 1920 he first demonstrated this to Ioffe who called in other professors and students to hear. He named it the "etherphone";, and later as the "theremin" in the United States.

On May 24, 1924 Theremin married 20-year old Katia Pavlovna Konstantinova, and they lived together in his parents' apartment on Marat street.

In 1925 Theremin went to Germany to sell both the radio watchman and Termenvox patents to the German firm Goldberg and Sons. According to Glinsky this was the Soviet's "decoy for capitalists" to obtain both Western profits from sales and technical knowledge.

During this time Theremin was also working on a wireless television with 16 scan lines in 1925, improving to 32 scan lines and then 64 using interlacing in 1926, and he demonstrated moving, if blurry, images on June 7, 1927. – during which he demonstrated his invention to full audiences, Theremin found his way to the United States, arriving December 30, 1927 with his first wife Katia. He performed the theremin with the New York Philharmonic in 1928. He patented his invention in the United States in 1928 and subsequently granted commercial production rights to RCA.

Theremin set up a laboratory in New York in the 1930s, where he developed the theremin and experimented with other electronic musical instruments and other inventions. These included the Rhythmicon, commissioned by the American composer and theorist Henry Cowell.

In 1930, ten thereminists performed on stage at Carnegie Hall. Two years later, Theremin conducted the first-ever electronic orchestra, featuring the theremin and other electronic instruments including a "fingerboard" theremin which resembled a cello in use.

Theremin's mentors during this time were some of society's foremost scientists, composers, and musical theorists, including composer Joseph Schillinger and physicist (and amateur violinist) Albert Einstein. At this time, Theremin worked closely with fellow Russian émigré and theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore.

Theremin was interested in a role for the theremin in dance music. He developed performance locations that could automatically react to dancers' movements with varied patterns of sound and light. After the Soviet consulate had apparently demanded he divorce Katia and while working with the American Negro Ballet, the inventor fell in love with and married the young prima ballerina Lavinia Williams.

Return to the Soviet Union

Theremin abruptly returned to the Soviet Union in 1938. At the time, the reasons for his return were unclear; some claimed that he was simply homesick, while others believed that he had been kidnapped by Soviet officials. Beryl Campbell, one of Theremin's dancers, said his wife Lavinia "called to say that he had been kidnapped from his studio" and that "some Russians had come in" and that she felt that he was going to be spirited out of the country.

Many years later, it was revealed that Theremin had returned to his native land due to tax and financial difficulties in the United States. However, Theremin himself told Bulat Galeyev that he decided to leave himself because he was anxious about the approaching war. Shortly after he returned he was imprisoned in the Butyrka prison and later sent to work in the Kolyma gold mines. Although rumors of his execution were widely circulated and published, Theremin was, in fact, put to work in a sharashka (a secret laboratory in the Gulag camp system), together with Andrei Tupolev, Sergei Korolev, and other well-known scientists and engineers. Lavrentiy Beria, the head of the secret police organization NKVD (the predecessor of the KGB), used the Buran device to spy on the U.S., British, and French embassies in Moscow.

Later life

After his "release" from the sharashka in 1947, Theremin volunteered to remain working with the KGB until 1966. for 10 years where he taught and built theremins, electronic cellos and some terpsitones (another invention of Theremin). the Conservatory's Managing Director declared that "electricity is not good for music; electricity is to be used for electrocution" and had his instruments removed from the Conservatory.

In the 1970s, Léon Theremin began training his nine-year-old grand-niece Lydia Kavina on the theremin. Kavina was to be Theremin's last protégé. Today, Kavina is considered one of the most advanced and famous thereminists in the world.

After 51 years in the Soviet Union Theremin started travelling, first visiting France in June 1989

Documentary film

Léon Theremin is the subject of the feature length documentary film, , written, directed, and produced by Steven M. Martin. The film won the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994, a Golden Gate Award at The San Francisco Film Festival, was nominated for both an International Emmy and a British Academy Award, and has been presented both at the National Gallery in Washington and by invitation from the Russian Ministry of Culture at Dom Kino in Saint Petersburg, and is released in America through MGM. The film features thereminist Clara Rockmore as well as electronic instrument pioneer Robert Moog, Nicolas Slonimsky, The Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, and Theremin himself.

Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey is widely regarded as being responsible for sparking a resurgence of interest in both Theremin and his work. After the film's release Robert Moog, a long time champion of Theremin's work who also appeared in the film, resumed manufacturing theremin instruments. Thousands are now sold annually around the world.

Some of Theremin's inventions

Theremin – the classic Theremin (1920)

Burglar alarm, or "Signalling Apparatus" which used the Theremin effect (1920s)

Electromechanical television – Nipkow disk with mirrors instead of slots (ca. 1925)

Terpsitone – platform that converts dance movements into tones (1932)

Theremin cello – an electronic cello with no strings and no bow, using a plastic fingerboard, a handle for volume and two knobs for sound shaping (ca. 1930)

Theremin keyboard – a piano-like device (ca. 1930)

Rhythmicon – world's first drum machine (1931)

The Buran eavesdropping device (1947 or earlier)

The Great Seal bug, also known as "The Thing" – one of the first passive covert listening devices; first used by the USSR for spying (1945 or earlier)

See also

Raymond Scott

Robert Moog

Bruce Haack

Brian Wilson

Spharophon, a Theremin-like instrument made by Jörg Mager around 1921

Maurice Martenot, inventor of the Ondes Martenot, a keyboard-based instrument using the heterodyning method

Footnotes

Notes

References

Linked from LMJ 6 copied here Sections translated by Felix Eder from the Russian originals in:

External links

Portals and general information

Andrey Smirnov - theremin sensors workshop (selected demonstrations of Theremin sensors and laser bugging.) Retrieved 2009-09-11

Theremin Centre, Moscow, holds Lev Sergeivitch Termen archives (Russian only)

Further information

Lev Sergeivitch Termen: The Inventor of The Great Seal Bug, aka The Thing

Lev Sergeivitch Termen: The Inventor of the theremin. (4 page history dated February 6, 2001)

An Introduction to Leon Theremin. (five paragraph introduction)

A Theremin Bibliography (List of publications and films about the man and the instrument)

Theremin International Resource Directory compiled by Matthias Sauer for Leonardo/ISAST

An encounter with Léon Theremin. (1991 video of Theremin in Moscow with Paul)

Inventor of the Week Archive – Leon Theremin (1896–1993) (one page brief biography)

Lev Sergeyevich Termen (1896–1993) (in French, 4 paragraph summary in context of early electronic music)

History of the theremin from Moog Music (one page)

from The History Channel (Moog talks about Theremin's work on television, bugging)

"Between “Bad Things” and Good Vibrations: Leon Theremin and his T-Vox". Natascha Drubek-Meyer, ARTMargins – long article with citations

Léon Theremin's mentor Joseph Schillinger

Design and Implementation of the 1st Theremin Concert for Aliens

Audio and Video

Peter Theremin plays thereminvox

Andrey Smirnov :: downloads (film from 1954, 2007; demonstrations of inventions at the Moscow State Conservatory)

playing "Ne brani menya rodnaya" by Aleksandr Dubuque in the 1950s (needs Flash)

Category:1896 births Category:1993 deaths Category:Russian inventors Category:American people of Russian descent Category:American inventors of Russian descent Category:Soviet engineers Category:Soviet scientists Category:Sharashka inmates Category:Theremin players Category:Inventors of musical instruments Category:People from Saint Petersburg Category:Stalin Prize winners

Clara Rockmore (March 9, 1911May 10, 1998) was a virtuoso performer of the theremin, an electronic musical instrument.

Biography

Born as Clara Reisenberg in (present-day) Vilnius, Lithuania, Rockmore was a child prodigy on the violin and entered the Imperial conservatory of Saint Petersburg at the age of five. She studied violin under the virtuoso Leopold Auer, and remains to this day the youngest student ever to be admitted to the institution. Unfortunately, bone problems due to childhood malnutrition forced her to abandon violin performance past her teen years. That however led her to discover the newborn electronic instrument and become the most renowned female player of the theremin.

Rockmore had several gifts that enabled her to play the theremin so well. Her classical training gave her an advantage over the many theremin performers who lacked this background. She possessed absolute pitch from birth, helpful in playing an instrument that generates tones of any pitch throughout its entire range, including those that lie between the conventional notes. She had extremely precise, rapid control of her movements, important in playing an instrument that depends on the performer's motion and proximity rather than touch. She also had the advantage of working directly with Léon Theremin from the early days of the instrument's commercial development in the United States.

Rockmore, as the mature musician she was, saw the limitations of the original instrument and helped to develop the instrument to fulfill her needs, making several suggestions to improve the theremin as a performing instrument. Such suggestions, like a faster volume antenna, wider musical range, and control over the instrument's tone colour were incorporated by the inventor in later versions. She had a special theremin tailored by Léon Theremin himself to meet her unique requirements.

She developed a whole technique for playing the instrument, including a fingering system, which allowed her to accurately perform fast passages and large note leaps without the much known portamento on theremin.

Her older sister was the concert pianist Nadia Reisenberg.

She died in New York City on May 10, 1998, aged 87.

Albums

Film and video

References

Notes

External links

The Official Nadia Reisenberg Clara Rockmore Foundation Website

A Short Photo-biography of Clara Rockmore

In Clara's Words - An interview Clara Rockmore gave to Bob Moog in 1977.

In Clara’s Home – Her Last Years, and the Summer of 1997 - An essay, written by Steve J. Sherman, Clara Rockmore's great-nephew and Nadia Reisenberg's grandson, providing an in-depth account of Clara Rockmore’s life during her last decade, up until her death in 1998.

A MySpace page devoted to Clara Rockmore

Nadia Reisenberg / Clara Rockmore Foundation

Streamable NPR "All Songs Considered" show featuring 'Summertime' performed by Clara Rockmore

Clara Rockmore at ThereminWorld

Category:1911 births Category:1998 deaths Category:American Jews Category:Electronic musicians Category:Jewish musicians Category:Lithuanian Jews Category:Theremin players Category:Saint Petersburg Conservatory alumni Category:People from New York City Category:People from Vilnius

Name	Carolina Eyck
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Born	December 26, 1987near Berlin, Germany
Died
Instrument	Theremin, Viola
Genre	Classical, Electronic, Contemporary
Occupation	musician, composer, author
Years active
Url
Notable instruments	Robert Moog's Big Briar Theremin series 91A, Moog Music Etherwave Pro

Carolina Eyck born on December 26, 1987, is a German musician specialising in playing the Theremin, an electronic instrument. Her performances around the world have helped to promote the unusual music instrument.

Biography

German-born musician and composer Carolina Eyck is one of the world’s foremost theremin virtuosi. Having started playing piano at the age of five and violin at the age of six, Ms. Eyck studied theremin since she was seven years old with Lydia Kavina, the grand-niece of the instrument’s inventor, Leon Theremin. In 2002, at the age of fourteen, Ms. Eyck made her debut in the Berliner Philharmonie performing at the Konzerthaus Berlin the following year. Since then, Ms. Eyck has given concerts at the International Music Festival Bohuslav Martinů in Basel, the Davos Festival (Switzerland), with the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Ballet under John Neumeier, at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg (Austria), the National Art Museum Mexico City, Teatro Nacional Lisbon (Portugal), the Palace of Art Budapest (Hungary), and has presented further concerts in Poland, Luxembourg, Sweden, Great Britain, the United States of America and Pakistan. Ms. Eyck has collaborated with famous musicians and conductors e.g. Heinz Holliger, Robert Kolinsky, Gerhard Oppitz, the Keller Quartet, Andrey Boreyko, Michael Sanderling, Klauspeter Seibel, Berner Symphonie-Orchester, Philharmoniker Hamburg, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra (USA) and the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. In 2009, she was on tour in Japan with the Hamburg Ballet under John Neumeier, performing "the little mermaid" by Lera Auerbach. Since 2010 she is the artistic director of the Theremin Summer Academy in Colmar, France.

Awards

She was winner of the International Competition for Composers arranged by Radio/TV Berlin-Brandenburg in 2006. In the same year Ms. Eyck published her original theremin method book entitled, “The Art of Playing the Theremin”, and has since conducted workshops, lectures and Masterclasses in Germany, Sweden, Poland, Great Britain, the United States of America, Mexico and Japan. In 2010, Carolina Eyck received her Bachelor of music degree in viola at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm, Sweden.

Compositions

"Sciciani - Am wendischen Burgwall" Pictures for Accordion and Strings, world premiere on September 16, 2006 by the Cottbus Philharmonic Orchestra directed by GMD Reinhard Petersen, Soloist: Aidar Gainullin (Moskau) - Bajan

"CIANI - Am wendischen Burgwall" Pictures for Theremin and Orchestra, world premiere on February 4, 2007 by the orchestra of the Musikgymnasium Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (specialized high school for musicians) in the French Cathedral Berlin

"Syllableaves" Concerto for Theremin and Orchestra, world premiere on April 24, 2010 by the Gävle Symfoniorkester directed by Fredrik Burstedt at the Konzerthaus Gävle (Sweden)

"Sauselei" Duet for Viola and Voice (2010)

Discography

CD: Carolina Eyck plays works for Theremin, EAN 4 025118 308424, © 2008 SERVI Verlag, Berlin; Musicians: Giulietta Koch - Piano, Rebekka Markowski - Cello, Magdalena Meitzner - Vibraphone/Percussion and Wiebke Lichtwark - Harp

DVD: Heinz Holliger OBOE FANTASY, © 2008 medici arts/EuroArts/Swiss Television; comprises the FANTASIA by Bohuslav Martinů; Musicians: Heinz Holliger - Oboe, Robert Kolinsky - Piano, Carolina Eyck - Theremin and the Keller Quartett (András Keller, János Pilz, Zoltán Gál, Judit Szabó)

CD: Episodes von Dante's Dream (as a special guest), © 2009 Dante's Dream (Germany)

Books

Carolina Eyck: The Art of Playing the Theremin. SERVI Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-933-757-08-8

Carolina Eyck: Die Kunst des Thereminspiels. SERVI Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-933-757-07-X, EAN 4025 1187 0631 – German version

References

Category:1987 births Category:German women artists Category:Living people Category:Theremin players Category:Women classical composers