Theremin

1) Professor Leon Theremin, or Lev Termen, was a Russian inventor in the early 1900s. He was born in Western Russian in 1896. When he was just 21 years old Theremin invented what is arguably the single most important device in the development of electronic music, The Theremin. After inventing this device he emigrated to the USA in 1927 and patented his electronic music device the next year, and through a contract with RCA began selling his Theremins. Throughout the 1920s and 30s Theremin continued to develop his motion sensitive music inventions until 1938 when he disappeared under unclear circumstances. There are a variety of stories about his disappearance, and what he spent the next several decades of his life doing, but the most popular seems to be that he was kidnapped by Russian secret service and taken back to the USSR where he may have spent time in soviet work camps as well as time working as an audio analyst for the KGB. Leon died in November of 1993.
2) Theremin's first and most important innovation is his electronic instrument, the Theremin. This device works by having two antennas, which by using an electromagnetic field and the proximity of a conductive membrane( i.e human hands), change the amplitude and frequency of the instrument. Theremin also used this technology to develop motion sensitive alarms, which he used in babies cribs as well as in the New York maximum security prison, Sing Sing.
3)Leon Theremin's life was changed by a multitude of factors, many of which he had no control over. Probably the most important event of his life was the day he was working on radio circuitry and heard a noise coming from the radio which he eventually learned to manipulate, thus leading to his creation of the Theremin. The next important event was his move to the United States in 1927. It was then that his device began to gain popularity and where he met Clara Rockmore, who became the premier performer of his instrument. The third most significant event was his kidnapping and return to Russia. While it is unclear under what circumstances he went back, it is clear that he was a great inventor and the scope of what he may have created had he been able to stay in the United States is astronomical. Theremin had many other significant events in his life, including meeting and reciving a award from Joseph Stalin, and playing the Theremin for Albert Einstein and his wife, but these three events had the most profound impact on his life.
4) When it comes to the impact of Theremins work on the history of electronic music I think Robert Moog said it best when he said "Leon did more than any one other person [to further electronic music]". Theremin created the first electronic music synthesis machine, and while it may not have maintained its popularity as well as the sythesizer or keyboard, without it, it can be argued, those other instruments would not have been created.
5) If I were Leon Theremin I would have spent more time refining the timbre of his instrument as well as developing a more user friendly interface for performing on it. There is a certain amount of novelty associated with the name Theremin, and without this I think he could have been even more successful. The theremin is almost impossible to play accurately given that the only means of controlling it are the proximity of the players hands. I would have spent a significant amount of time trying to develop a more consistent way to perform, which probably would have eventually led me towards the use of a keyboard, much in the same direction as Robert Moog took Theremin's initial designs. Secondly i would have tried to develop a way to change that timbre of the instrument, thus making it more versatile and increasing its usefulness in commercial endeavors.
6) If I could spend 3 months working with Theremin I would choose to work with him right around the time he came to America. I would have spent this time working on the theremin, and trying to develop it into a more versatile instrument, rather than work on a full body version of the machine, a device that was ultimately a complete failure. I think i would have tried to bring in more musicians from the day and get there input on the device, in an attempt to make it more musical. I also would have convinced Leon to get composers to write music specifically for the Theremin, instead of just performing violin music with it.

Writings on the early days

People worth knowing:

Edgar Varese(1883-1965)
-Poeme Electronique(1958)
Melvin Kranzberg
-Necesity in the mother of invention
Philip Reis(1834-74)
-Reis Telephone
Elisha Grey(1835-1901)
-Musical telegraph
Herman Von Helmholtz(1821-94)
-Science of perception, chimes, "ON the sensations of tone"
Thaddeus Cahill(1867-1934)
-Dynamophone or telharmonium, first synth
Feruccio Busoni(1866-1924)
-"Sketch of the new aesthetic of music", pushed tech in music comp
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti(1876-1944)
- "The futurist manifesto"
Francesco Balilla Pratella(1880-1955)
-Wrote futurists manifesto on music
Luigi Russolo(1885-1947)
-"The art of noise"(1913)
-low info high redundency sound.
-first live noise concerts
Lee De Forest(1873-1961)
-Audtion vacuum tube/ audition piano
Leon Thermin(1896-1993)
-Invented thermin
Robert Moog(1934-2005)
-Moog
Maurice Martenot(1898- 1980)
-ondes martenot
Jorg Mager(1880-1939)
-spharophon
Laurens Hammond(1895-1973)
-hammond organ, used tone wheel
Dr. Friedrich trautwien(1888-1956)
-Electic string inst.
E. Leon Scott
-early phonograph
T. Edison(1847-1931)
-phonograph, lightbulb...
Emile Berliner(1851-1929)
-Disc recording(gramophone)
Valdmar Poulsen(1869-1942)
-Magnetic tape recorder
Fritz Pfleumer(1881-1945)
-Magnetophone. Invented celluloid tape coated in iron oxide for recording.
Henry Cowell(1897-1965)
-rhythmicon, early drum machine
John Cage(1912-92)
-Composer

Themes of the chapter:

Marriage of tech and music: Music and technology, while they may not work together perfectly, the combination of the two is inexcapable, and technological advancements often drive new types of music. Invention leads to new mediums.

6 sounds of Russolo:
1.Roars thunderings explotion hissing bangs boom
2. whistleing hising puffing
3. whispers murmers muttering gurgling
4. screaching creaking crackling
5. beating on materials
6. Voices of animals and people.

Summery:

It all started with the telegraph. Elisha Grey realized that the telegraph could be modified to create a music creating machine. After that tone wheels were invented by cahill, and from there it was just a matter of time till we electronic instruments were a viable and widely used medium. De Forest's invention of the vacuum tube made it possible to amplify the sound from these instruments without enormous power supplies, eventually leading to consumer use of electric instruments. In the early days electronic instruments could take up entire buildings, and still have amplitude problems, ie the teleharmonium. Vacuum tubes solved that problem. Between the invention of such exciting instruments such as the thermin and the ondes martenot, to the development of ways to record music, the late 1800s and early 1900s contained some of the most important innovations in all of music history.