The Theremin is almost 100-years-old

boing
1

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/09/19/the-theremin-is-almost-100-yea.html

…

6 Likes
2

Beach Boy Brian Wilson doped up, describing Theremins (as he used in Good Vibrations):

Other fine uses of a Theremin:

and of course

EDIT: I stand corrected, the Star Trek noise is a soprano!

7 Likes
3

Caravan Palace I believe is using the Theremin in parts of this song. I like the video as well.

4 Likes
4

Leon Theremin was pretty interesting guy. Designer of The Great Seal bug the Soviets installed in the US embassy in Moscow, married for a while to American dancer Lavinia Williams, guest of Stalin for a while.

5 Likes
5

At the risk of being that guy, the Star Trek theme is prob inspired by Theremin, but the melody is sung by a soprano.

4 Likes
6

I’ve always wanted to make my own theremin, but my depression and chronic fatigue always stops me.

Yes, I know it would be easier to buy one, but it is the making that interests me.

7 Likes
7

Sorry for the bad video, but it’s the only one I could find of Bill Bailey’s Jellyfish

4 Likes
8

as a young electronics enthusiast, I made several. Never intentionally, though

12 Likes
9

CRAP MUSIC JOKE ALERT

…well, I bought this Theremin 5 years ago
…I havent touched it yet…

-ducks-

23 Likes
10

[Whispered… Actually, the headline should not have hyphens. They hyphens would be if “100 years old” were an adjective, such as “these are 100-year-old eggs”. If it is “The eggs are 100 years old”, you don’t use the hyphens.]

7 Likes
11

Complete with magic smoke?

2 Likes
12

Theremin was also instrumental (ahem) in one of the great coups of Soviet espionage. On his return to the USSR, he was arrested, tried and sentenced to a Labour Camp where he was told to create ‘The Thing’.

This was a bug based on the same principles as the theremin which was hidden in a huge wooden seal gifted by the Soviet Pioneer movement to Averell Harriman, the US ambassador to Moscow. It bugged his conversations for seven years:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csz2wn (50 Things That Made the Modern Economy from the BBC)

3 Likes
13

Right? I mean Bob Moog made an entire career out of building electronic instruments and started with building his own theremin!

When I visited the Moog factory, you kind of wait around the show room, and they have a theremin you can play with (it’s not easy to play, either). Then they start the tour with the theremin and how to play it. In the factory itself, they have these banners up, and the first one you see when you come in the door is of Leon Theremin himself.

8 Likes
14

it’s considered on of the harder instruments to master.

5 Likes
15

Ahh, the one’s that smoked usually made no melodic sounds, they were more percussive instruments. Multimedia, actually, if you include odour . I grew up on the cusp of vacuum tube to transistor transition, sometimes both in my projects, so there was plenty of scope. …and lights dimming for drama (that would usually bring my Dad down to the basement).

4 Likes
16

I’m absolutely shocked at the lack of mention that the Midsomer Murders theme song melody is done by Theremin. The show has been on for 20 years now.

4 Likes
17

This fascinating feature-length documentary film was released in 1993.

7 Likes
18

Listen to this. Just listen to it.

1 Like
19

The Theremin is almost 100-years-old

Helpful hyphen help: The 100-year-old theremin is almost 100 years old.

3 Likes
20

Yep.

My understanding is that very early in season one, the vocal portion was subtly doubled by some electronic instrument, but definitely not the theremin.

I think the best sci-fi use of the theremin was for The Day The Earth Stood Still.

2 Likes