Theremin
Can you play music just by moving your hands in the air?
What is a Theremin?
The Theremin is an electronic instrument created in the 1920s and patented in 1928 in the US by the Russian inventor and musician Leon Theremin. The instrument has two antennas, one for pitch, and the other for volume. The musician moves his hands in the air closer and further away from the antennas, thus controlling the height and strength of the sound. It is the only musical instrument you can play without touching it.
The sound is smooth, flowing, and with a very electronic, eerie touch. The typical Sci-Fi-/Horror movie from the 50s type of touch. And it was actually extremely popular in the early sound motion picture days.. Hitchcock’s Spellbound, Robert Siodmak’s The spiral staircase, and Cecil B. DeMille’s The ten commandments are just a few of the many films that included the Theremin in their soundtrack.
The tech-talk
The Theremin generates electromagnetic fields around two antennas. One is standing up, controlling the pitch, and the other one placed horizontally in a u-shaped bow at the side of the instrument, controlling the volume.
Two oscillators are connected to the pitch antenna, one with a slightly variable frequency and one with a fixed frequency. The two signals are mixed, and the frequency from one antenna is subtracted from that of the other, through a process called heterodyning. The hand and body of the musician act as the earth in the electromagnetic field. It interferes with the frequency of the variable oscillator, and changes the pitch.
The volume antenna works in a similar way.
Have you ever desperately tried to adjust the antenna of an old radio or a tv, only to discover that when you hold your hand around the antenna the sound/picture is ok, but when you move it away, it gets all distorted? That’s the principle we are talking about.
Can you really play music on a thing like that?
Of course, you can. But… And that’s something to consider before starting a career… It’s regarded by many as the most difficult instrument in the world.
You move your hands closer and further away from the two antennas. The closer the hand is to the pitch antenna, the higher the tone. The closer the hand is to the volume antenna, the weaker the tone. That means that you will need a lot of precision training to get the distance right. It doesn’t have frets that are tuned in semitones, like the guitar. It doesn’t even have strings that you can look at and feel, to determine where to put down your finger, like the violin.
The difficulty in playing and the rather limited repertoire have produced very few who truly mastered playing the Theremin. Many have tried but few have succeeded.
The most famous Thereminist is without a doubt Clara Rockmore from Lithuania. She was a professional violinist with innate absolute pitch (She knew the exact frequency of a tone just by listening to it without having to confront it to an instrument.). That probably helped her a lot when reaching for the perfectly tuned note.
It was the world’s first truly electronic musical instrument
I’ve already mentioned the usage of the Theremin sound in the film industry. Its strange and futuristic color made it an attractive partner in all movie production from the thirties and onwards.
The portamento-type gliding pitch and the typically spacy sound was something brand new in the music industry. Today, with all our computerized music, maybe it is difficult to understand, but in the thirties, forties, and fifties the instrument was sensational. It was a completely new approach to sound making and it gained a lot of attention.
- The Beach Boys used it in their smash hit “good vibrations”
- Pink Floyd used it on the song “The Great Gig In The Sky” from the album Dark side of the Moon
- Led Zeppelin used it on Whole Lotta Love from the album Led Zeppelin II. Although this was a modified version. Jimmy Page only controlled the pitch, not the volume.
- … And many more.
These are somewhat old songs, and it’s logical. The Theremin was the first and only electrical sound source apart from more conventional electronic pieces like the Hammond organ. The Theremin’s typical synthesizer-ish sound had no competition until Robert Moog started creating his Moog-synthesizers in the 60s. From then on, the Theremin’s attraction diminished.
Fun fact:
Robert Moog was fascinated by the Theremin. His own development of the Moog synthesizer was very much based upon the Russian invention. The whole Moog industry actually started out as a retail for Theremin kits. Today Moog’s biggest selling products are Theremins in various shapes.
A short history
After the Russian revolution and the following Russian wars at the beginning of 1900, the newborn Soviet Union invested a lot of money and human capital into various scientific projects. Many of these aimed at developing various new weapon techniques, as well as ways to spy on foreign and domestic enemies. One of these fields was proximity sensors, gadgets that can sense people and objects without any type of physical contact.
The young Lev Termen was recruited, and very soon the talented scientist had invented a device with which you could detect electromagnetic interference from a distance. Unfortunately, the distance was just a foot or two and completely useless as a spy device. Instead, a completely new musical instrument was born… The Theremin, named after the inventor.
In 1927, after having toured Europe and Russia, Termin moved to the USA, where he changed his name to Leon Theremin and patented his invention in 1928. In the following years, the instrument slowly conquered the western world, and Leon Theremin continued to develop his creation, as well as invent new things. He created the very first metal detectors for the Alcatraz prison, and he continued to work on his own television technology.
Leon Theremin was more of a visionary than a down-to-earth technician. And he was still a Soviet citizen and had frequent contacts with Russian agents.
The tragic fate of Leon Theremin
In 1938 he suddenly left the US to go back to the Soviet Union. His homecoming didn’t go as expected, though. The Russian authorities arrested him upon arrival and sent him to prison. Shortly thereafter he was put to work within the State financed research and development laboratories, the so-called Sharashka, as a convict.
Here he developed many “useful” devices.
In 1945 a wooden plaque of the Great Seal of the United States was presented to the Ambassador in Moscow. Inside it, Theremin had constructed a passive electronic bugging device… “The thing”. It was operational for 7 years inside the Embassy, until it was accidentally exposed in 1952.
In 1947, he was released from forced participation in espionage technology development but remained within the KGB until 1966 when he retired.
He was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1947.
Isn’t it dangerous with all that electricity?
No, it’s not. The frequency of around 500 kHz is very low. That kind of electromagnetic radiation is called non-ionizing and there has never been any confirmed alteration in cell structure caused by non-ionizing radiation. And you are holding your hands around the instrument, but reasonably far away from it.
It is probably much more hazardous to use a normal cell phone. A cell phone operates in the area of around 2 GHz. That’s four thousand times the frequency of a Theremin… And you hold it close to your head.
Special difficulties when playing the Theremin
Since there are no references whatsoever to where the notes are – you’re holding your hands in the air, playing depends entirely on your ear… What you hear. Having said that, it is extremely important to have a very good understanding of intonation. Just like when you sing, but singing is much more natural and innate. You play the Theremin with your hands, and your hands are not used to intonation in the same way your vocal cords are. Many Thereminists explain it as thinking of the note coming in from underneath, moving the hand inwards. Then stopping when the correct pitch is reached.
Another difficulty consists in the fact that it is your body’s position, in this case, your hands, that determines the pitch and volume. One, small motion, an uncontrolled breath, an itch on your back, a change in weight on your feet, could completely alter the whole intonation thing. Close to the antenna, the semi-notes are just a few millimeters apart. The musician needs to be able to stand perfectly still for a long time. To do that, you need a good posture and good understanding of it
The Theremin today
It is still in use. Thousands of people all over the world continue to struggle with its relentless difficulties. It’s an odd member of the orchestra, but it is unique in the way it is played, and it being able to move all over the tonal spectrum without limits. It also has some theatrical characteristics, as the performer moves the hands in a sensual, expressive way while the body is completely motionless.
The initial flat model has grown into various shapes. Many have invented new versions, and many improvements have been made over the years. New techniques make it easier to play today than it was a hundred years ago. It still is one of-, if the most difficult instrument to master of all.
Yes, utilizing the hands as ground in an electromagnetic field, you can play just moving them in the air around two antennas. The instrument is called Theremin.
sources
- How stuff works / How a Theremin Works
- Smithsonian Magazine / The Soviet Spy Who Invented the First Major Electronic Instrument
- TED / The untouchable music of the theremin
- PennState / History of Electroacoustic Music The Theremin
- US Food and Drug administration / Do Cell Phones Pose a Health Hazard?
- National Cancer Institute / Electromagnetic Fields and Cancer
- Wikipedia / Theremin
