The Spooky Sounds of the Theremin
The musical instrument synonymous with creatures of the night, haunted houses and science fiction comes under the spotlight for Halloween.
Leon Theremin performing a trio for theremin, voice and piano, c. 1924.
- Theremin Nic McGowan
- Kirsten meets a local player and founds our more about the music of the ether. (duration: 10′36″)
from (31 Oct 2009) - Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3
- Theremin kitset making
- Shannon McKenna and Kirsten put together their own theremin. (duration: 11′59″)
from (31 Oct 2009) - Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3
- The Spooky Sounds of the Theremin
- The full version of this programme, which includes the audio already listed above. (duration: 22′30″)
from (31 Oct 2009) - Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3
- Lydia Kavina
- One of the world's leading Theremin players - Lydia Kavina - is in Hamilton to play a concert and present a workshop for the Spark festival. Lydia's grandfather's cousin was Leon Theremin, who invented the instrument. Lydia Kavina told Music 101 host Kirsten Johnstone about her introduction to this music from the ether. 20 August 2011. (duration: 18′24″)
from (20 Aug 2011) - Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3
Would we know what ghosts sounded like if it wasn’t for the theremin?
How about flying saucers?
This weird and wonderful instrument was invented in 1920 by a young Russian physicist named Leon Theremin, who also invented the motion detector, and helped with early experiments with television.
He was making improvements to valve radios when he found that he preferred the sound of the radio itself - the sounds made by the electromagnetic circuits reacting with the human body - to what was being broadcast on the airwaves.
Word of this strange ‘instrument played out of the ether’ spread, and Theremin was called to give Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin lessons. He was so impressed that he commissioned six hundred Theremins to be made and distributed throughout the Soviet Union, and sent its inventor around the world in the late 20s to show off the revolutionary new instrument.
Eventually Leon Theremin set up shop in New York, where he patented the theremin, picked up a manufacturing deal with RCA, and played in glamorous circles of NY society. He tutored and courted another young Russian émigré Clara Rockmore - a child prodigy on the violin who’d been struck with RSI - the theremin must’ve come as a relief to her as the only instrument which can be played without touching it….. and she had high hopes that it would be taken seriously as an orchestral instrument…
In 1938, in the dead of the night, theremin disappeared. It’s a story fraught with mystery and conflicting theories- some say he was taken by the NKVD - a predecessor of the KGB - some say he skipped the country to avoid a huge tax bill, and others say he was nervous about World War II looming…
It was later revealed that he was put to work in a secret Russian laboratory, where he invented the Bug, and The Thing - a listening device which was embedded in a carved wooden plaque presented by Soviet school children to a United States Ambassador as a "gesture of friendship" in 1945. This provided great information during the first seven years of the cold war, until it was discovered in 1952…
Meanwhile, back in America, Hollywood was becoming quite fond of the theremin - it had prominent roles in the soundtracks for Spellbound, The Day the Earth Stood Still, It came from Outer Space - forever typecasting the theremin to spooky and spacey roles.
It made it’s way into pop music too - Brian Wilson famously used the sound of the theremin for Good Vibrations (trivia for the nerds though - that’s not actually a theremin, it’s an electro theremin, which works on a slider rather than in the air….) Pink Floyd used one for some of their trippier bits, Led Zepplin rocked it out with Whole Lotta Love, and trip hoppers Portishead used it to define their spooky sound in the mid '90s. These days it’s quite common to see indie rock, or free jazz/noise performers onstage with a theremin, hands madly gesticulating toward the aerial.
See pics of Kirsten Johnstone and Shannon McKenna making a theremin.
This professional player shows us how it's done...
and then Jon Spencer shows how NOT to play the Theremin....
The Moog Theremin
The Moog Theremin
Nic McGowan playing the Moog Theremin.
Kirsten Johnstone asks the hard questions.
Cult horror movie actor Bela Legosi, playing the theremin in Dracula.