Well, friends, to be honest I wasn't sure what to blog about today. I had several rather uninspired ideas that were met with dead ends and I was feeling a little blue. So, in a desperate attempt, I turned to my unfailing friend google... and the rest was history. So without further ado, let me introduce my new fascination, the theremin.
A theremin, you say, what's that? I know it sounds like unpleasant tasting medicine, but the theremin is in fact an instrument played entirely without contact from the player. Huh? The instrument is constructed from two antennas that sense the position of the player's hands and send electrical signals to the amplifier (Thank you wikipedia). The player controls volume with his or her right hand, raising the right hand to increase volume and vice versa. The left hand controls frequency.
The Theremin was first introduced by the Russians (who else) in the 1920s. Though people were fascinated with this alien instrument (that produced an even more alien sound, which I will discuss later), the theremin has always remained on the outskirts of music society. Overlooked in favor of easier electronic instruments, the theremin has nevertheless maintained a small niche of devoted fans. The theremin has also been used in many soundtracks, including "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "The Ten Commandments" and "Ghostbusters."
The theremin produces a very eerie sound, mostly because a theremin "generates tones of any pitch throughout its entire range, including those that lie between the conventional notes" (Wikipedia.org). Furthermore, the player can only correct a sound once the sound is produced, being unable to rely on things like tension or fingerboards to ensure a specific note. This uncertainty makes the theremin a very fluid instrument. Pitch is determined through the proximity of the player's hand to the antennae, although some expert players have used a technique called aerial fingering, a technique that employs specific hand and finger positions that allow the player to change notes more quickly and with greater accuracy. The theremin is also interesting because the player must play the notes as well as the rests, using their right hand to control the volume.
All in all, I find the theremin a completely bizarre and amazing instrument. I even went so far as to look up how to build my own on the internet. It seems a little out of my reach, but if anyone has a lot of spare time on their hands and some extra high voltage equipment lying around, check out this site list for theremin building information.
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