[Magdalen] (ever heard of the) THEREMIN - Over The Rainbow (on YouTube)

[Romain Kang]

Sorry for the late reply -- I don't dive into my Magdalen folder very
often these days.  This thread caught my eye because I got to see Dennis
James (better known for his work with glass armonica and theatre organs)
do one of his musical show-and-tell presentations with the theremin,
around 20 years ago.

Dennis collects all kinds of musical oddities, and found the theremin
to be a particular challenge, since it's controlled by movements in the
air with no tangible feedback, only the sound.  He worked with it for
about 10 years before he knew he could play it in public; the litmus
was whether friends didn't explode with laughter at his endeavors.
Dennis owned an original based on tubes (or "valves" as Roger said),
but used the Moog version based on solid-state electronics because it
was far more predictable.

On Thu, Dec 04, 2014 at 05:07:16PM -0500, ME Michaud wrote:
> The Theremin I saw was much larger than the one in the video.
> But the same "Norwegian wood" style cabinet. It looked old,
> but not antique. Rather like a Cambridge-style television cabinet
> circa 1940.

The inventor, Leon Theremin, was a colorful character who spent years
in the US before returning to the Soviet Union and doing some advanced
electronics work for them, including a wirelessly powered eavesdropping
device that was a "gift" to the US Embassy in Moscow.

> The Thereminist was a woman, maybe in her early
> sixties, very professional in her musicianship, very humble in
> her explanations and demonstrations to the students.

I wonder whether that was Clara Rockmore, who may have been the
most accomplished theremin player of the 20th century?

On Thu, Dec 04, 2014 at 05:06:33PM -0500, James Handsfield wrote:
> You can hear one on the Beach Boys record ?Good Vibrations.?

This turns out to be the "Electro-Theremin" which used a "slider" control
overlaid on keyboard diagram which probably made it much easier to play.

On Thu, Dec 04, 2014 at 07:47:16PM -0500, Robert Rea wrote:
> But then there's the Turangalila Symphony of Olivier Messaien. His wife
> played the theremin.

This instrument was actually the "ondes martenot," equipped with a
keyboard and a "ribbon" control for the glissando effects.  I got to see
three of them at once when the San Francisco Opera presented Messaien's
"Saint Francois d'Assise."  My community orchestra performed Turangalila
in 2008 (maybe the only community orchestra to attempt it).  We couldn't
afford to hire the sole ondes martenot player in the region to join us,
so the resident electro-percussion wizard rigged his favorite instrument
combo to emulate the sound.  Superficially, it appears to be a cousin
of the Electro-Theremin, but I'd guess any similarities are merely
incidental.

Cheers,
Romain