But what if you play a musical instrument without touching it? Are you still able to play an instrument without having physical contact? Is this possible? Yes, it is! The musical instrument played without physical contact.
Theremin Play Without Touching
A theremin is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the thereminist/player. The instrument's controlling section usually comprises two metal antennas that sense the relative position of the thereminist's hands and control oscillators for frequency with one hand, and amplitude/volume with the other.
The electric signals from the theremin amplified and sent to a loudspeaker. The sound of the instrument associated with sinister situations. Thus, the theremin has in movie soundtracks, theme songs, TV shows, concert music, and in popular music genres.
The invention of Theremin
The theremin was the product of Soviet government-sponsored research into proximity sensors. Invented by a young Russian physicist named Lev Sergeyevich Termen in October 1920 after the outbreak of the Russian Civil War.
Named after its inventor, Leon Theremin, who patented the device in 1928. During the 1930s, Lucie Bigelow Rosen with the theremin and together with her husband Walter Bigelow Rosen provided both financial and artistic support to the development and popularisation of the instrument.
How To Play Theremin?
We should play the theremin musical instrument without physical contact. The thereminist stands in front of the instrument and moves his or her hands near two metal antennas. The distance from one antenna determines frequency (pitch), and the distance from the other controls amplitude (volume).
We can play higher notes by moving the hand closer to the pitch antenna and louder notes by moving the hand away from the volume antenna. Most frequently, the right-hand controls the pitch, and the left controls the volume, although some performers reverse this arrangement.
Principles of Theremin
Some low-cost theremins use a conventional, knob operated volume control and have only the pitch antenna. While commonly called antennas, not for receiving or broadcasting radio waves, but acted as plates of capacitors. Important in articulation is the use of the volume control antenna.
Unlike touched instruments, where the halting play or damping a resonator in the traditional sense silences the instrument. If we move the pitch hand between notes, without first lowering the volume hand, the result is a "swooping" sound akin to a swanee whistle, or a glissando played on the violin.
Small flutters of the pitch hand can produce a vibrato effect. To produce distinct notes requires a pecking action with the volume hand to mute the volume while the pitch hand moves between positions.
Application of Theremin
Concert Music:
Concert composers have written for large-scale Theremin concerto for Chamber Orchestra "Eight Seasons" (2011), written for Carolina Eyck. Edgard Varese completed the composition of Equatorial for two Theremin Cellos and percussion in 1934. His work influenced the career of Frank Zappa, who subsequently composed classical-style music for electronic orchestra in his post-rock career.
Popular music:
Theremins and theremin-like sounds incorporated into popular music from the end of the 1940s and continued, with various degrees of popularity, to the present.
Film music:
Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the first to incorporate parts for the theremin in orchestral pieces. While the theremin not widely used in classical music performances, the instrument found outstanding success in many motion pictures, notably, A Spellbound, The Red House, The Lost Weekend.
The release of the film “Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey” in 1993, the instrument has enjoyed a resurgence in interest and has become more widely used by contemporary musicians.
Some musicians appreciate the expressiveness, novelty, and uniqueness of using an actual theremin. The film itself has garnered excellent reviews.
Television Music:
A mixture of instruments performed the Alexander Courage theme music composed for and used on the original series with vocals to get "unearthly" sound.
The White Castle American hamburger restaurant chain introduced a television advertisement centred on a live theremin performance by musician Jon Bernhardt of the band The Lothars. It is the only known example of a theremin performance being the focus of an advertisement.
Video games:
Theremin is featured on the soundtrack for the 2006 MMORPG and many more computer games.
Similar Instruments
Ondes Martenot:
The Ondes Martenot uses the principle of heterodyning oscillators, but has a keyboard and a slide controller and touch while playing.
Persephone:
The Persephone, an analogue fingerboard, synthesizer with CV and MIDI. The Persephone allows continuous variation of the frequency range from one to 10 octaves. The ribbon is pressure and position sensitive.
Electronde:
The Electronde, an early prototype of the theremin, invented in 1929 by Martin Taubman. It has an antenna for pitch control, a handheld switch for articulation and a foot pedal for volume control.
Terpsitone:
The terpsitone, also invented by Theremin, comprised a platform fitted with space-controlling antennas, through and around which a dancer would control the musical performance.
By most accounts, the instrument was nearly impossible to control. Of the three instruments built, only the last one, made in 1978 for Lydia Kavina, survives today.
Otamatone:
The Otamatone by the Cube Works company, which played by sliding the fingers up and down a stem to control a three-level pitch sound.
Audiocubes:
The Audiocubes by Percussa are light-emitting smart blocks that have four sensors on each side (optical theremin). The sensors measure the distance to your hands to control an effect or sound.
Haken Continuum Fingerboard:
The Haken Continuum Fingerboard uses a continuous, flat playing surface along which the player slides his fingers to create the desired pitch and timbre values. Describable as "a continuous pitch controller that resembles a keyboard, but has no keys."
Musical Saw:
A musical saw/singing saw is the application of a handsaw as a musical instrument. The sound creates an ethereal tone, very similar to the theremin. We classify the musical saw as a friction idiophone with direct friction under the Hornbostel-Sachs system of musical instrument classification.
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Reviewed by Goldsmth
on
September 11, 2020
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