It was late August in the Russian empire. The start of the short-lived autumn days were not far. The city of St. Petersburg was winding down from the summer's celebrations. Not everyone in the city, however, was stress free. A small family of French ancestry was eagerly anticipating a new arrival. On August 27, 1896- Lev Sergeyevich Termen was born. I know, you're probably thinking who is Lev Sergeyevich Termen. Well, you would know him as Leon Theremin. No? still not ringing a bell? World famous inventor (well, world is kind of relative), Russian Spy, musician... inventor of the predecessor of RFID bar codes that your grocer scans to ring you up....He was the guy who invented the surveillance bugs that the russians used in a U.S. seal to gather information during the cold war, and improved on the first t.v. back in 1926....C'mon! He was a mentor for composer and music theorist -Joseph Schillinger...anything???? no? He even mentored the smartest man in the 20th century - Albert Einstein!!!!!! really?!?! Leon Theremin?!?!?!?!??! OK, well anyways - The guy is a genius. He was doing experiments with high frequency circuits by 13 - shocking friends, family and professors with performances which showcased electronic visual effects that he had discovered. He even constructed a miniature Tesla Coil while he was still a student ... All without the help of Youtube or Google, or even floppy disks (if you don't know what a floppy disk is...its like a compact disk - but more obsolete).
In 1920, he attempted to invent a proximity detector which used the emission of radio frequency to do something or other...Much to his dismay, and later his delight... He discovered that he has invented one of the worlds first electronic instruments. It is also the worlds first "no touch instrument"...that's right, you play this instrument without touching it. It uses two antennae. One controls the pitch in by detecting and relating the proximity of the right hand to the antennae (it goes from boy voice to girl voice the closer your hand gets to the antennae). The other acts the same way, only with volume instead of pitch (and left hand instead of the right).
Well he can show you....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5qf9O6c20o&feature=related
He took this invention to Stalin - Who immediately fell in love with it, bought hundreds and gave them to his officials to learn, and thus the story of the theremin was born.
It has made some mainstream appearances ...used in a variety of genres and in film to accent a feeling of creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy.
maybe you've seen this movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu5pjj1KzK8&feature=related
too obscure? well then maybe you recognize this song....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qo9wGDQ5_g&feature=related
And here's another professional Thereminist, who I happened to catch performing with the National Symphony Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC2gZMNkyJo
It's an instrument the evokes strong feelings in all directions. Some words and phrases used to describe it are - Eerie, Ethereal, Heavenly, 'An electronic cat breeding', 'robot screaming', crazy, sensual, annoying, graceful, elegant, electric excrement - but everyone can agree on one thing - It's a pretty damned interesting thing.
So, I, being the average American with no concept for personal limitations, no concern for my lack of education regarding radio frequency or the inner workings of electronic components and a vibrant passion for accepting challenges that no-one in their right mind would ever think I could accomplish - decided to build a theremin....from scratch.....Dear God, what am I doing?
This is Perry Wheldunin Rayer
saying - thanks for peeping in.
Stay tuned for installment II
"Perry finally learns all of the E.R.'s Nurse's names..."
Wow...well, I think you could do it - but you've read what my other thoughts consist of...so theres that.
ReplyDeletePretty mad erotic not having to touch it and yet you can make it hum, whine and whimper like that. I think I remember Jimmy Page conducting a theramin once. I never realized that's what it was until now. And still not certain if that was what it was. Don't know what I'm gonna do with this newfound knowledge Mr. Rayer, but I wanna get my hands not on that when you finish building yours.
ReplyDelete