Zanthorus
5th November 2010, 20:40
Given it's spectacular history, I think we need more love for the Theremin on this site.
The inventor of the theremin, Léon Theremin, was the broadcast supervisor of a radio transmitter near Petrograd during the Russian Civil War. He was forced to evacuate to the city itself in 1919 as the White army approached. In 1920 he began working at the Physical Technical Institute in Petrograd, and whilst there he built a motion sensor which acted as a burglar alarm. While experimenting with the sensor, he discovered that when he moved his hand closer and further away the pitch changed. In November 1920 the first concert was given. One of the worlds first electronic instruments, soon Lenin himself was learning to play this magical device.
Theremin was also something of a help for the Soviet Union during the cold war. In 1938 he returned to the Soviet Union from America after experiencing tax difficulties and was put to work in the Gulag. While there he invented an eavesdropping device which was used by the NKVD to spy on the British, American and French embassies in Moscow.
Here is Theremin himself playing the instrument:
w5qf9O6c20o
Here is the Theremin being played in Bernard Herrmann's score for the classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still:
rYbHpXca7U0
The inventor of the theremin, Léon Theremin, was the broadcast supervisor of a radio transmitter near Petrograd during the Russian Civil War. He was forced to evacuate to the city itself in 1919 as the White army approached. In 1920 he began working at the Physical Technical Institute in Petrograd, and whilst there he built a motion sensor which acted as a burglar alarm. While experimenting with the sensor, he discovered that when he moved his hand closer and further away the pitch changed. In November 1920 the first concert was given. One of the worlds first electronic instruments, soon Lenin himself was learning to play this magical device.
Theremin was also something of a help for the Soviet Union during the cold war. In 1938 he returned to the Soviet Union from America after experiencing tax difficulties and was put to work in the Gulag. While there he invented an eavesdropping device which was used by the NKVD to spy on the British, American and French embassies in Moscow.
Here is Theremin himself playing the instrument:
w5qf9O6c20o
Here is the Theremin being played in Bernard Herrmann's score for the classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still:
rYbHpXca7U0