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Invented in 1927, Leon Theremin’s eponymous Theremin was a device far ahead of its time. The the- remin was the first ever electronic musical instrument, and (until very recently) the only one played without physical contact with its performer. It uses the capacitance between the performer’s hands and two antenna-like metal rods attached to opposite sides of the device to determine the pitch and ampli- tude of the sound it creates. Thus, by moving their right hand close to the pitch antenna and their left hand far away from the amplitude antenna, a performer would produce a loud high-pitched tone. Be- cause it responds to extremely subtle changes in hand position, the theremin can be an extremely re- sponsive and expressive musical device. More importantly, it set off a hundred years of musical and technological development.

Because of the simplicity of its use, the theremin is extremely easy to learn (but difficult to master). It’s almost always played by ear, and a player does not need to learn a complicated set of finger positions before starting out: they need only a decent sense of pitch and some hand-eye coördination. Theremin virtuoso Pamela Kurstin wrote in an essay for “Arcana III” that not only is perfect pitch not required for theremin playing, but that perfect pitch would serve as a distraction and make it in fact more diffi- cult to play. Leon Theremin’s niece, virtuoso Lydia Kavina wrote for “Leonardo Music Journal” that, “Some people think extraordinary abilities are needed to play the theremin. This is not the case. The only prerequisites are a good ear for music, good coordination, and the ability to concentrate” (Kavina, 54).

Quite few musical instruments have emerged which combine the synthesis and expressiveness of the theremin. Invented in 1928, the Ondes Martenot, shares the theremin’s subtle microtonal control, but it used a physical control interface: the performer would wear a ring on one hand, and the sound pro- duced would be determined by the ring’s position over an inscribed keyboard. Similarly, the electro- theremin used a stylus which a player would touch against a conductive band rather than the original theremin’s air fields.

Only extremely recently have other sound inventors caught up with Leon Theremin. Inexpensive de- vices like the Nintendo Wii remote and Microsoft Kinect bring the power of motion sensing to the masses. With devices like these, music programmers have been able to implement theremin-like ges- tural control interfaces without the theremin’s antennae. Similarly, computer technology allows a the- remin no be employed as a motion sensor for use in non-sonic arts: by analyzing the signal it pro- duces, one can deduce where people are standing in a room, for example, and then use that information to control some other function of a piece. Interestingly, while the theremin was invented in the 20s, these other devices have only begun to emerge in the last fifteen years.

In 1994, Steven M. Martin’s documentary “Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey” was released to enthusi- astic acclaim. The movie was a profile of the inventor, and featured interviews with Leon Theremin himself, Bob Moog, Brian Wilson, and theremin virtuosos Clara Rockmore and Lydia Kavina, among others. Since the film’s release, the theremin has experienced a resurgence of popularity in contempo- rary music. Theremins have been directly employed in the past fifteen years by groups as diverse as Nine Inch Nails, Tom Waits, Pixies, Keane, and Aimee Mann. While the theremin has enjoyed great popularity and influence recently, it certainly did not spend the preceding seventy years in neglect.

Leon intended the theremin as a traditional musical instrument, and as a cellist himself, he tried to position the theremin as a cello-like instrument, complete with strong vibrato and classical repertoire. It was not until musicians started using theremins nontraditionally that it really started to show its po- tential. In 1937, John Cage stated that, “When Theremin provided an instrument with genuinely new possibilities, Thereminists did their utmost to make the instrument sound like some old instrument, giving it a sickeningly sweet vibrato, and performing upon it, with difficulty, masterpieces from the past” (Wierzbicki, 128). In the following year, Theremin was kidnapped from his New York brown- stone appartment by the KGB and taken back to Russia. He was considered dead for decades (Vowell, 71). Still, it took another thirty years for the theremin to make its appearance in popular music.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the theremin had a surge of popularity in the field of film scoring. The ethe- real, wavering tones it generated created an ideal backdrop for the booming science fiction genre. Its use in films such as “The Day The Earth Stood Still” permanently tied its eerie timbre to alien invasion. James Wierzbicki wrote in “The Journal of Popular Film and Television” that, “the instrument was not just a component of the studio orchestra but, in effect, the diegetic ‘voice’ of the alien entities” (Wierzbicki, 125). Through this era, the sounds of the theremin gained a nostalgic quality that later users of the instrument use effectively to evoke abnormal presence or a feeling of creepiness.

The theremin was a precursor to all electronic synthesizers. It was by building theremins as a child that synthesis pioneer Bob Moog learned the ins and outs of sound construction. Profoundly influenced by Theremin’s work, Moog has been the principal commercial maker of theremins since 1954 (Interview with Robert Moog). Moog’s Etherwave theremin, still produced today, is widely considered the epit- ome of theremin construction. By the inclusion of two additional knobs for timbral control, Etherwave theremins allow for a greater degree of tonal variance than your average theremin.

Beginning in the late 1960s, musical groups leaning towards the avant-garde, such as Pink Floyd, Cap- tain Beefheart, and the Beach Boys used the theremin on their albums. The theremin’s use in music was no longer limited to soundtracks and classical pieces, but brought into the realm of pop music by enterprising creators.

The theremin was a hugely innovative machine, far ahead of its time. In the eighty-five years since its invention, it’s been an outlier, used for classical music, film, and later pop music, but always as a musi- cal other, called into play because of its difference from the mode. Only extremely recently have inven- tors besides Leon Theremin himself created anything like it, and even after this many years, theremins feel novel and futuristic. The theremin is a device far ahead of its  time.

References

• Galeyev, Bulat. “In Memoriam: Leon Sergeyevich Theremin.” Leonardo 27.2 (1994): 91-98. Art Full Text. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.

• Kavina, Lydia, and Elizabeth Parcells. “My Experience With The Theremin.” Leonardo Music Journal 6 (1996): 51-55. JSTOR. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.

• The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). Dir. Robert Wise. Perf. Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe. 20th Century Fox, 1951. Film.

• Theremin - An Electronic Odyssey (1993). Dir. Steven M. Martin. Perf. Leon Theremin, Robert Moog, Clara Rockmore. MGM, 1994. VHS.

• Vowell, Sarah. “Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey.” Art Papers 18 (1994): 70-71. Art Full Text. Web. 28 Oct. 2012.

• Wierzbicki, James. “Weird Vibrations: How the Theremin Gave Musical Voice to Hollywood’s Extraterres- trial “Others”.” Journal of Popular Film and Television 30.3 (2002): 125-135. Art Full Text. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.

• Zorn, John. Arcana III : Musicians on Music. New York: Hips Road, 2008. Print.