theremin

{{See also|Leon Theremin}}

The theremin was the product of Soviet government-sponsored research into proximity sensors. The instrument was invented in October 1920 by the Russian physicist Lev Sergeyevich Termen, known in the West as Leon Theremin.{{Cite book |last=Glinsky |first=Albert |title=Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage |location=Urbana, Illinois | publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-252-02582-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/thereminethermus00glin/page/26 26] |url=https://archive.org/details/thereminethermus00glin |url-access=registration |ref= Glinsky}}{{YouTube|w5qf9O6c20o|Leon Theremin playing his own instrument}} After a lengthy tour of Europe, during which time he demonstrated his invention to packed houses, Theremin moved to the United States, where he patented his invention in 1928.{{US patent |1661058|US1661058}} Subsequently, Theremin granted commercial production rights to RCA.

Although the RCA Thereminvox (released immediately following the Stock Market Crash of 1929) was not a commercial success, it fascinated audiences in America and abroad. Clara Rockmore, a well-known thereminist, toured to wide acclaim, performing a classical repertoire in concert halls around the United States, often sharing the bill with Paul Robeson. Joseph Whiteley (1894–1984) performed under the stage name Musaire and his 1930 RCA Theremin can be seen, played and heard at the Musical Museum, Brentford, England.{{Cite web |title=MMCatalogue (All) |url=https://www.musicalmuseum.co.uk/mmcatalogue |access-date=2024-08-08 |website=The Musical Museum |language=en}}

During the 1930s, Lucie Bigelow Rosen was also taken 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.Glinsky pp. 127–128{{cite web|url=http://www.thereminvox.com/|title=The Theremin|date=May 9, 2007|publisher=Thereminvox|access-date=2010-07-13|quote=financially supported Léon Theremin's work}}

In 1938, Theremin left the United States, though the circumstances related to his departure are in dispute. Many accounts claim he was taken from his New York City apartment by NKVD agents (preceding the KGB),[https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A520831 Tell Me More, BBC, h2g2 project, Undated].Accessed:05-20-2008. taken back to the Soviet Union and made to work in a sharashka laboratory prison camp at Magadan, Siberia. He reappeared 30 years later. In his 2000 biography of the inventor, Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage, Albert Glinsky suggested he had fled to escape crushing personal debts, and was then caught up in Stalin's political purges. In any case, Theremin did not return to the United States until 1991.Glinsky pp. 185–187, 329

File:Moog Theremin Bausatz.jpg theremin, in kit form]]

After a flurry of interest in America following the end of the Second World War, the theremin soon fell into disuse with serious musicians, mainly because newer electronic instruments were introduced that were easier to play. However, a niche interest in the theremin persisted, mostly among electronics enthusiasts and kit-building hobbyists. One of these electronics enthusiasts, Robert Moog, began building theremins in the 1950s, while he was a high-school student. Moog subsequently published a number of articles about building theremins, and sold theremin kits that were intended to be assembled by the customer. Moog credited what he learned from the experience as leading directly to his groundbreaking synthesizer, the Moog. (Around 1955, a colleague of Moog's, electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott, purchased one of Moog's theremin subassemblies to incorporate into a new invention, the Clavivox, which was intended to be an easy-to-use keyboard theremin.){{cite book|last=Glinsky |first=Albert |title=Switched On: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York City, New York, US |date=2022 |isbn=9780197642078 |pages=26–33}}[http://raymondscott.net/features/moog/ 1993 interview with Robert Moog posted at RaymondScott.net] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311020751/http://raymondscott.net/features/moog/ |date=2016-03-11 }}

Since 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. Even though many theremin sounds can be approximated on many modern synthesizers, some musicians continue to appreciate the expressiveness, novelty, and uniqueness of using an actual theremin. The film itself has received positive reviews.[http://www.mrqe.com/movies?q=Theremin MRQE – Movie Review Query Engine – Theremin] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918144710/http://www.mrqe.com/movies?q=Theremin |date=2009-09-18 }}, see also the rare 100% score at [http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/theremin_an_electronic_odyssey/ Rotten Tomatoes] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071210033322/http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/theremin_an_electronic_odyssey/ |date=2007-12-10 }}

Both theremin instruments and kits are available. The Open Theremin, an open hardware and open software project, was developed by Swiss microengineer Urz Gaudenz, using the original heterodyne oscillator architecture for a good playing experience,{{cite web|title=Sound and Oscillators|url=http://www.gaudi.ch/OpenTheremin/index.php/home/sound-and-oscillators|publisher= GaudiLabs |date=2018-05-17|access-date=2019-10-13}} combined with Arduino. Using a few extra components, a MIDI interface can be added to the Open Theremin, enabling a player to use their theremin to control different instrument sounds.{{cite web |last1=GaudiLabs |title=MIDI Interface |url=https://www.gaudi.ch/OpenTheremin/index.php/opentheremin-v4/midi-interface |website=OpenTheremin |access-date=4 August 2022}}

The theremin's singular operation method has been praised for providing an accessible route to music-making for people with disabilities.{{cite thesis |id={{ProQuest|304003165}} |last1=Glinsky |first1=Albert Vincent |date=1992 |title=The Theremin in the emergence of electronic music }}{{page needed|date=September 2023}}

File:Block diagram Theremin.svg

The theremin is distinguished among musical instruments in that it is played without physical contact. The thereminist stands in front of the instrument and moves their hands in the proximity of two metal antennas. While commonly called antennas, they are not used as radio antennae for receiving or broadcasting radio waves, but rather act as plates of capacitors. The distance from one antenna determines frequency (pitch), and the distance from the other controls amplitude (volume). Higher notes are played by moving the hand closer to the pitch antenna. Louder notes are played 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. Some low-cost theremins use a conventional, knob-operated volume control and have only the pitch antenna.

The theremin uses the heterodyne principle to generate an audio signal. The instrument's pitch circuitry includes two radio frequency oscillators set below 500 kHz to minimize radio interference. One oscillator operates at a fixed frequency. The frequency of the other oscillator is almost identical, and is controlled by the performer's distance from the pitch control antenna.

The performer's hand has significant body capacitance, and thus can be treated as the grounded plate of a variable capacitor in an L-C (inductance-capacitance) circuit, which is part of the oscillator and determines its frequency. In the simplest designs, the antenna is directly coupled to the tuned circuit of the oscillator and the 'pitch field', that is the change of note with distance, is highly nonlinear, as the capacitance change with distance is far greater near the antenna. In such systems, when the antenna is removed, the oscillator moves up in frequency.

To partly linearise the pitch field, the antenna may be wired in series with an inductor to form a series tuned circuit, resonating with the parallel combination of the antenna's intrinsic capacitance and the capacitance of the player's hand in proximity to the antenna. This series tuned circuit is then connected in parallel with the parallel tuned circuit of the variable pitch oscillator. With the antenna circuit disconnected, the oscillator is tuned to a frequency slightly higher than the stand-alone resonant frequency of the antenna circuit. At that frequency, the antenna and its linearisation coil present an inductive impedance; and when connected, behaves as an inductor in parallel with the oscillator. Thus, connecting the antenna and linearising coil raises the oscillation frequency. Close to the resonant frequency of the antenna circuit, the effective inductance is small, and the effect on the oscillator is greatest; farther from it, the effective inductance is larger, and fractional change on the oscillator is reduced.

When the hand is distant from the antenna, the resonant frequency of the antenna series circuit is at its highest; i.e., it is closest to the free running frequency of the oscillator, and small changes in antenna capacitance have greatest effect. Under this condition, the effective inductance in the tank circuit is at its minimum and the oscillation frequency is at its maximum. The steepening rate of change of shunt impedance with hand position compensates for the reduced influence of the hand being further away. With careful tuning, a near linear region of pitch field can be created over the central two or three octaves of operation. Using optimized pitch field linearisation, circuits can be made where a change in capacitance between the performer and the instrument in the order of 0.01 picofarads produces a full octave of frequency shift.{{cite web|url=http://www.channelroadamps.com/articles/theremin/|title=Channel Road Amplification: Vacuum Tube Theremin|website=channelroadamps.com}}

The mixer produces the audio-range difference between the frequencies of the two oscillators at each moment, which is the tone that is then wave shaped and amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.

To control volume, the performer's other hand acts as the grounded plate of another variable capacitor. As in the tone circuit, the distance between the performer's hand and the volume control antenna determines the capacitance and hence natural resonant frequency of an LC circuit inductively coupled to another fixed LC oscillator circuit operating at a slightly higher resonant frequency. When a hand approaches the antenna, the natural frequency of that circuit is lowered by the extra capacitance, which detunes the oscillator and lowers its resonant plate current.

In the earliest theremins, the radio frequency plate current of the oscillator is picked up by another winding and used to power the filament of another diode-connected triode, which thus acts as a variable conductance element changing the output amplitude.{{cite web |title=RCA Theremin circuit diagram |url=http://www.pavekmuseum.org/theremin/theop.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417112911/http://www.pavekmuseum.org/theremin/theop.html |archive-date=2022-04-17 |website=Pavek Museum of Broadcasting}} The harmonic timbre of the output, not being a pure tone, was an important feature of the theremin.{{cite web|title=How is the Electro-Theremin different from the traditional theremin?|url=http://www.electrotheremin.com/etfaq.htm }} Theremin's original design included audio frequency series/parallel LC formant filters as well as a 3-winding variable-saturation transformer to control or induce harmonics in the audio output.

Modern circuit designs often simplify this circuit and avoid the complexity of two heterodyne oscillators by having a single pitch oscillator, akin to the original theremin's volume circuit. This approach is usually less stable and cannot generate the low frequencies that a heterodyne oscillator can. Better designs (e.g., Moog, Theremax) may use two pairs of heterodyne oscillators, for both pitch and volume.{{cite news|last=Vennard |first=Martin |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17340257 |title=Leon Theremin: The man and the music machine |publisher=BBC News|date=1929-03-12 |access-date=2012-03-13}}

File:Robotic Theremin.jpg

Important in theremin articulation is the use of the volume control antenna. Unlike touched instruments, where simply halting play or damping a resonator in the traditional sense silences the instrument, the thereminist must "play the rests, as well as the notes", as Clara Rockmore observed.{{cite web|last=Moog |first=Bob |url=http://www.thereminvox.com/article/articleview/21/1/22/ |title=Theremin Vox – In Clara's Words |publisher=Thereminvox.com |date=2002-10-26 |access-date=2012-03-13}}

If the pitch hand is moved 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 be used to 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.

Thereminists such as Carolina Eyck use a fixed arm position per octave, and use fixed positions of the fingers to create the notes within the octave, allowing very fast transitions between adjacent notes.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n-o71RUrQw How to play a scale on the theremin | Carolina talks Theremin]

Although volume technique is less developed than pitch technique, some thereminists have worked to extend it, especially Pamelia Kurstin with her "walking bass" technique{{Cite web |last=Kurstin |first=Pamelia |date=February 2002 |title=The untouchable music of the theremin |url=https://www.ted.com/talks/pamelia_kurstin_the_untouchable_music_of_the_theremin |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=TED}} and Rupert Chappelle.

The critic Harold C. Schonberg described the sound of the theremin as "[a] cello lost in a dense fog, crying because it does not know how to get home."{{Cite news |last=Grimes |first=William |date=November 9, 1993 |title=Leon Theremin, Musical Inventor, Is Dead at 97 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/09/obituaries/leon-theremin-musical-inventor-is-dead-at-97.html |access-date=July 19, 2015}}

File:Theremin in Musical Instrument Museum.jpg AR-1264 Theremin in Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix, Arizona]]

The first orchestral composition written for theremin was Andrei Pashchenko's Symphonic Mystery, which premiered in 1924.{{cite web |title=Good Vibrations: The Story of the Theremin . |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/goodvibrations.shtml |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |access-date=1 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220501151138/https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/goodvibrations.shtml |archive-date=1 May 2022 |url-status=dead}} However, most of the sheet music was lost after its second performance.{{cite web |title= |script-title=ru:Сегодня нужно становиться "человеками эпохи Возрождения" |url=https://whitehall.spbstu.ru/media/news/culture/segodnya-nuzhno-stanovitsya-chelovekami-epokhi-vozrozhdeniya/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220501151814/https://whitehall.spbstu.ru/media/news/culture/segodnya-nuzhno-stanovitsya-chelovekami-epokhi-vozrozhdeniya/ |archive-date=1 May 2022 |access-date=1 May 2022 |website=белый Зал |publisher=Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University |language=ru}}

Other concert composers who have written for theremin include Bohuslav Martinů,{{Cite web|url=http://www.moderecords.com/catalog/076theremin.html|title=Lydia Kavina Music from the Ether|publisher=Mode Records|access-date=16 April 2010|archive-date=21 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121180658/http://www.moderecords.com/catalog/076theremin.html|url-status=dead}} Percy Grainger, Christian Wolff, Joseph Schillinger, Moritz Eggert,{{Cite web|url=http://www.discogs.com/Barbara-Buchholz-Lydia-Kavina-Kammerensemble-Neue-Musik-Berlin-Touch-Dont-Touch-Works-For-Theremin/release/1025250|title=Barbara Buchholz / Lydia Kavina / Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin – Touch! Don't Touch! – Works For Theremin|date=14 August 2006 |publisher=Discogs |access-date=16 April 2010}} Iraida Yusupova, Jorge Antunes, Vladimir Komarov, Anis Fuleihan,{{Cite web|url=http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Fuleihan-Anis.htm|title=Anis Fuleihan (Composer, Arranger)|date=2007-06-10|publisher=bach-cantatas.com|access-date=16 April 2010}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004SD1E |title=Ionisation: Thomas Arne, Ludwig van Beethoven, Edward Elgar, Anis Fuleihan, Edgard Varese, Arturo Toscanini, Henry J. Wood, Jean Sibelius, Leopold Stokowski, Nicolas Slonimsky, Wilhelm Furtwängler, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Clara Rockmore: Music |publisher=Amazon |access-date=2012-03-13}} and Fazıl Say.{{Cite web|url=http://www.carolinaeyck.com/pages/en/music/repertoire.php|title=Carolina Eyck|access-date=25 June 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120707030114/http://www.carolinaeyck.com/pages/en/music/repertoire.php|archive-date=7 July 2012}} Another large-scale theremin concerto is Kalevi Aho's Concerto for Theremin and Chamber Orchestra "Eight Seasons" (2011), written for Carolina Eyck.

Edgard Varèse completed the composition "Equatorial" for two theremin cellos and percussion in 1934. His work was a stated influence throughout the career of Frank Zappa,{{cite book |last1=Schröder |first1=Daniel |title=Frank Zappa – the Composer |publisher=Büchner-Verlag |year=2017 |isbn=9783941310865 |location=Marburg}} who also composed for theremin.{{cite journal |last1=Hayward |first1=Philip |title=Danger! Retro-Affectivity! The Cultural Career of the Theremin |journal=Convergence |date=1997 |volume=3 |issue=4 |page=42 |doi=10.1177/135485659700300405 |s2cid=144683752 |url=https://www.doi.org/10.1177/135485659700300405 |access-date=4 August 2022}}

Maverick composer Percy Grainger chose to use ensembles of four or six theremins (in preference to a string quartet) for his two earliest experimental Free Music compositions (1935–1937) because of the instrument's complete 'gliding' freedom of pitch.Gillies, Malcolm; Pear, David (2007–2011). [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/11596 'Grainger, Percy']. In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Retrieved 2011-09-21.{{Subscription required}}{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=Thomas P. |title=A source guide to the music of Percy Grainger |publisher=Pro-Am Music Resources |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-912483-56-6 |location=White Plains |chapter=Chapter 4: Program notes |chapter-url=http://www.percygrainger.org/prognot4.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812160926/http://www.percygrainger.org/prognot4.htm |archive-date=2020-08-12 |url-status=dead}}

Musician Jean-Michel Jarre used the instrument in his concerts Oxygène in Moscow in 1997 and Space of Freedom{{Cite web |url=http://www.jeanmicheljarre.com/live-o-graphy/gdansk-2005 |title=Gdansk – 2005 |publisher=Jeanmicheljarre.com |date=2009-05-20 |access-date=2012-03-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224102550/http://www.jeanmicheljarre.com/live-o-graphy/gdansk-2005 |archive-date=2012-02-24 }} in Gdańsk in 2005, providing also a short history of Leon Theremin's life.

The five-piece Spaghetti Western Orchestra use a theremin as a replacement for Edda Dell'Orso's vocals in their interpretation of Ennio Morricone's "Once Upon a Time in the West".{{Cite web|title=BBC Proms Review: Spaghetti Western Orchestra|url=http://www.i-flicks.net/blog/49-features/2686-bbc-proms-review-spaghetti-western-orchestra|publisher=i-flicks.net|access-date=14 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121028194909/http://www.i-flicks.net/blog/49-features/2686-bbc-proms-review-spaghetti-western-orchestra|archive-date=2012-10-28|url-status=dead}}

Other notable contemporary theremin players include Pamelia Kurstin,{{Cite web|title=Pamela Kurstin Biography|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/pamelia-kurstin-mn0000956094/credits|publisher=AllMusic|access-date=14 February 2017}} Peter Theremin, Natasha Theremin, Katica Illényi.{{Cite web|last1=Katica Illenyi|title=All-Metal-Stars|url=http://www.vivaldimetalproject.com/katica-illenyi-theremin/|publisher=Vivaldi Metal Project|access-date=14 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215021446/http://www.vivaldimetalproject.com/katica-illenyi-theremin/|archive-date=2017-02-15|url-status=dead}} and Lydia Kavina,{{Cite web|title=Lydia Kavina Biography|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/lydia-kavina-mn0000028785|access-date=14 February 2017|publisher=AllMusic}} Dutch classical musician Thorwald Jørgensen has been described as "one of the most important exponents of classical music on the theremin".{{Cite web|url=http://radio.uchile.cl/2014/11/06/el-instrumento-que-no-se-toca-tiene-su-propio-festival-en-gam|title=El instrumento que no se toca tiene su propio festival en GAM|publisher=Diario Uchile|language=es|date=6 November 2014|access-date=2 April 2015}}

In 2019 in Kobe, Japan, the Matryomin ensemble, a group of 289 theremin players that included Natasha Theremin, Masha Theremin and Peter Theremin, the daughter, granddaughter and great-grandson of the inventor, achieved a Guinness world record as the largest ensemble of the instrument. The name Matryomin is a portmanteau by its inventor of the words matryoshka and theremin.{{cite book |last=Nakamura |first=Kayoko |title=Electronic Rhapsody: Theremin and Matryomin |publisher=CUNY Academic Works |page=5 |year=2018 |location=New York |url=https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/261 |access-date=2024-03-26}} The theremin concerto "Dancefloor With Pulsing" by the French composer Regis Campo was written for Carolina Eyck and premiered with the Brussels Philharmonic in 2018.{{Cite web |title=Brussels Philharmonic plays Zorn, Zappa, Campo & Constant (Openingsconcert) |url=https://www.arsmusica.be/nl/events/brussels-philharmonic-plays-zorn-zappa-campo-constant-openingsconcert/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410104319/https://www.arsmusica.be/nl/events/brussels-philharmonic-plays-zorn-zappa-campo-constant-openingsconcert/ |archive-date=April 10, 2021 |accessdate=May 31, 2019 |website=A. R. S. Musica}}

Theremins and theremin-like sounds started to be incorporated into popular music from the end of the 1940s (with a series of Samuel Hoffman/Harry Revel collaborations)Music out of the Moon, Harry Revel, conducted by Les Baxter, Capitol Records Nr. T390, released 1947 and has continued, with various degrees of popularity, to the present.

Lothar and the Hand People were the first rock band known to perform live with a theremin in November 1965. In fact, Lothar was the name they gave to their Moog theremin.{{Cite journal|last=Hayward|first=Philip|date=December 1997|title=Danger! Retro-Affectivity!: The Cultural Career of the Theremin|journal=Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies|volume=3|issue=4|pages=28–53|doi=10.1177/135485659700300405|s2cid=144683752}}

The Beach Boys' 1966 single "Good Vibrations"—though it does not technically contain a theremin—is the most frequently cited example of the instrument in pop music. The song actually features a similar-sounding instrument invented by Paul Tanner called an Electro-Theremin.{{sfn|Brend|2005|p=16}} Upon release, the single prompted an unexpected revival in theremins and increased the awareness of analog synthesizers.{{sfn|Pinch|Trocco|2009|pp=102–103}} In response to requests by the band, Moog Music began producing its own brand of ribbon-controlled instruments which would mimic the sound of a theremin.{{sfn|Pinch|Trocco|2009|pp=102–3}}

Frank Zappa also included the theremin on the albums Freak Out! (1966) and We're Only in It for the Money (1967).

Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin used a variation of the theremin (pitch antenna only) during performances of "Whole Lotta Love" and "No Quarter" throughout the performance history of Led Zeppelin, an extended multi-instrumental solo featuring theremin and bowed guitar in 1977, as well as the soundtrack for Death Wish II, released in 1982.{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/780211 |website=metmuseum.org|title=Sonic Wave|year=2022|author=Metropolitan Museum of Art|access-date=10 October 2022}}

Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones also used the instrument on the group's 1967 albums Between the Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request.[http://online.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys498pom/Student_Projects/Spring01/JMehl/Jared_Mehl_Theremin1.pdf A Simple Theremin Project] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100821203958/http://online.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys498pom/Student_Projects/Spring01/JMehl/Jared_Mehl_Theremin1.pdf |date=2010-08-21 }}. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Tesla guitarist Frank Hannon used a theremin in the band's song "Edison's Medicine" from the 1991 album Psychotic Supper.{{Cite web|url=http://www.soundslikeburns.com/New_Items/zep.html|title = Burns Zep Theremin}} Hannon is also seen using the instrument in the song's music video at the 2:40 mark.Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/-2zwBRa0YhA Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20100612184044/http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=-2zwBRa0YhA Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2zwBRa0YhA| title = Tesla – Edison's Medicine | via=YouTube| date = 16 June 2009 }}{{cbignore}}

The Lothars are a Boston-area band formed in early 1997 whose CDs have featured as many as four theremins played at once – a first for pop music.{{Cite news

| last=Pomerantz

| first=Dorothy

| author-link=Dorothy Pomerantz

| title=The Lothars revive the spooky sounds of the theremin

| newspaper=Somerville Journal

| date=September 17, 1998}}

Glinsky p.341

Although credited with a {{sic|"Thereman"}} on the track "Mysterons" from the album Dummy, Portishead actually used a monophonic synthesizer to achieve theremin-like effects, as confirmed by Adrian Utley, who is credited as playing the instrument;{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Jonathan |date=June 1995 |title=Adrian Utley: Portishead Sound Shaper |url=https://www.soundonsound.com/people/adrian-utley-portishead-sound-shaper |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=Sound on Sound}} on the songs "Half Day Closing", "Humming", "The Rip", and "Machine Gun" he has actually used a custom-made theremin.{{cite web |date=2008-04-01 |title=Auction of No 1 Electronics theremin, A. Utley. |url=http://www.spheremusic.com/Bargaindtl.asp?Item=5859print=yes |access-date=2018-08-18 |publisher=spheremusic.com}}{{Dead link|date=December 2023}}

Page McConnell, keyboardist of the American rock band Phish, plays the theremin on rare occasions. His last notable performance was on 6 August 2017, the final evening of the band's 13-night residency at Madison Square Garden.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-live-reviews/phishs-bakers-dozen-residency-breaking-down-all-13-blissful-nights-197436/|title=Phish's 'Baker's Dozen' Residency: Breaking Down All 13 Blissful Nights|last=Jarnow|first=Jesse|date=2017-08-07|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-27}}

When Simon and Garfunkel performed their song "The Boxer" during a concert at Madison Square Garden in December 2003, they utilized a theremin. The original recording of the song had featured a steel guitar and a piccolo trumpet in unison in the solo interlude, but for this performance, thereminist Rob Schwimmer played the solo.Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/pMrYvFTfIGI Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131214212044/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMrYvFTfIGI Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMrYvFTfIGI&ab_channel=MarcMacLellan| title = Simon & Garfunkel – The Boxer (from Old Friends) | via=YouTube| date = 14 December 2012 }}{{cbignore}}

Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the first to incorporate parts for the theremin in orchestral pieces, including a use in his score for the film {{transliteration|ru|Odna}} ({{langx|ru|Одна}}, 1931, Leonid Trauberg and Grigori Kozintsev). While the theremin was not widely used in classical music performances, the instrument found great success in many motion pictures, notably, Spellbound, The Red House, The Lost Weekend (all three of which were written by Miklós Rózsa, the composer who pioneered the use of the instrument in Hollywood scores), The Spiral Staircase, Rocketship X-M, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Thing from Another World, Castle in the Air, and The Ten Commandments.{{cite web|last=Brend|first=Mark|title=The Sound of Early Sci-Fi: Samuel Hoffman's Theremin|url=https://reverb.com/news/the-sound-of-early-sci-fi-samuel-hoffmans-theremin|website=Reverb|date=16 June 2021|access-date=19 March 2024}} The theremin is played and identified as such in the Jerry Lewis movie The Delicate Delinquent. The theremin is prominent in the score for the 1956 short film A Short Vision,{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkhNED3-mnI | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211031/BkhNED3-mnI| archive-date=2021-10-31 | url-status=live|title=A Short Vision |via=YouTube | date=19 May 2009}}{{cbignore}} which was aired on The Ed Sullivan Show the same year that it was used by the Hungarian composer Mátyás Seiber. More recent appearances in film scores include Monster House, Ed Wood, The Machinist{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361862/fullcredits |title=Full cast and crew for Maquinista, El |access-date=2007-09-01 |publisher=IMDb }} and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10687506/fullcredits |title=Full cast and crew for The Electrical Life of Louis Wain |access-date=2023-02-20 |publisher=IMDb }} (2021), (last three featuring Lydia Kavina), as well as First Man (2018).

A theremin was not used for the soundtrack of Forbidden Planet, for which Bebe and Louis Barron built disposable oscillator circuits and a ring modulator to create the electronic tonalities used in the film.{{cite web

| title = Forbidden Planet

| publisher = MovieDiva

| url = http://www.moviediva.com/MD_root/reviewpages/MDForbiddenPlanet.htm

| access-date = 2006-08-16

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061115092327/http://www.moviediva.com/MD_root/reviewpages/MDForbiddenPlanet.htm

| archive-date = 2006-11-15

| url-status = dead

}}Notes about film soundtrack and CD, [http://www.moviegrooves.com/shop/forbiddenplanetsoundtrack.htm MovieGrooves-FP] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090925031539/http://www.moviegrooves.com/shop/forbiddenplanetsoundtrack.htm |date=2009-09-25 }}

Los Angeles–based thereminist Charles Richard Lester is featured on the soundtrack of Monster House{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385880/|title=Monster House (2006)|author=cokerbl|date=21 July 2006|publisher=IMDb}} and has performed the US premiere of Gavriil Popov's 1932 score for Komsomol – Patron of Electrification with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen in 2007.{{cite web |url=http://www.laphil.com/music/piece_detail.cfm?id=2377 |title=L. A. Philharmonic concert details |publisher=Laphil.com |access-date=2012-03-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090917010157/http://www.laphil.com/music/piece_detail.cfm?id=2377 |archive-date=2009-09-17 |url-status=dead }}

In Lenny Abrahamson's 2014 film, Frank, Clara, the character played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, plays the theremin in a band named Soronprfbs.Lane, Anthony, [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/25/hide-seek "Hide and Seek"], The New Yorker, August 25, 2014.

Charlie Rosen, orchestrator of the Broadway musical Be More Chill, credits the show as being the first on Broadway to have a theremin in its band.Ruthie Feinberg, [https://www.playbill.com/article/4-secrets-you-never-knew-about-broadways-be-more-chill "4 Secrets You Never Knew About Broadway's Be More Chill"], Playbill, March 11, 2019.

• In May 2007, the White Castle American hamburger restaurant chain introduced a television advertisement{{YouTube | id=JlmxvkfpHhQ | title=White Castle Ad on YouTube}} centered around 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.{{Cite news |last=Laban |first=Linda |title=The geek who captured the Castle |newspaper=The Boston Globe |pages=C4, C8 |date=May 7, 2007 |url=http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2007/05/07/the_geek_who_captured_the_castle/}}
• Celia Sheen plays the theremin in the Midsomer Murders series.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/03/08/clara-rockmore-the-story-of-the-theremin-virtuoso-who-inspired-l/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/03/08/clara-rockmore-the-story-of-the-theremin-virtuoso-who-inspired-l/ |archive-date=2022-01-11 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Clara Rockmore: Story of the theremin virtuoso who inspired Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones|first=Cara|last=McGoogan|date=8 March 2016|work=The Daily Telegraph}}{{cbignore}}
• In October 2008, comedian, musician, and theremin enthusiast Bill Bailey played a theremin during his performance of Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, which has subsequently been televised. He had previously also written an article,{{cite news|author=Bill Bailey |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2004/oct/15/4 |title=Bill Bailey's Weird Science Guardian article, Oct 2004 |newspaper=The Guardian |date= 2004-10-18|access-date=2012-03-13}} presented a radio show{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/goodvibrations.shtml |title=Good Vibrations: The Story of the Theremin, Oct 2004 |publisher=BBC |date=2004-10-21 |access-date=2012-03-13}} and incorporated the theremin in some of his televised comedy tours.
• Charlie Draper plays the theremin in the soundtrack (written by Natalie Holt) for TV series Loki on Disney+.{{cite magazine |last=Davids |first=Brian |date=2021-06-09 |title='Loki' Director Kate Herron on Shooting New 'Avengers: Endgame'-Era Footage |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/loki-avengers-endgame-marvel-disney-1234965274/ |magazine=The Hollywood Reporter |publisher=Lynne Segall |access-date=2021-06-16 }}{{Cite tweet |first=Charlie |last=Draper |user=charlietheremin |number=1402522822921043968 |title=I'm proud to reveal my #theremin features in @filmmusicholt's stunning soundtrack to #Loki by @iamkateherron and @michaelwaldron. NH's combo of orchestra, electronics, clocks, and Norse instruments is just perfect for our god of mischief's run-in with the time police!}}{{Cite tweet |first=Natalie |last=Holt |user=filmmusicholt |number=1713683384831037824 |title=Time warping #Loki to the 70's… who knew that a Disco lead line would be so perfect on Theremin? @charlietheremin = bringing his incredible sound world to scores …also Spanish road trips 💚}}

• A theremin-inspired tune serves as the theme for the Edison family in the NES port of Maniac Mansion{{cite web |last=Fassel |first=Preston |url=https://www.fangoria.com/original/8-bit-terror-maniac-mansion |url-access=subscription |title=8-Bit Terror: 'Maniac Mansion' |website=Fangoria |date=2019-12-23 |access-date=2020-05-08 |archive-date=2020-02-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220021128/https://www.fangoria.com/original/8-bit-terror-maniac-mansion |url-status=dead }}
• Lydia Kavina's solo theremin is featured on the soundtrack for the 2006 MMORPG computer game Soul of the Ultimate Nation, composed by Howard Shore.{{cite web|last=Conditt |first=Jessica |url=http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/ode-to-joystick/68875/ |title=Ode to Joystick |publisher=GameDaily |date=2012-03-08 |access-date=2012-03-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090914032647/http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/ode-to-joystick/68875/ |archive-date=September 14, 2009 }}

{{Further|Teen Age Message}}

File:Teen Age Message 7 of 8.jpg]]

The First Theremin Concert for Extraterrestrials was the world's first musical METI broadcast dispatched from the Evpatoria deep-space communications complex in Crimea,{{cite journal |last1=Zaitsev |first1=A. L. |title=The first musical interstellar radio message |journal=Journal of Communications Technology and Electronics |date=September 2008 |volume=53 |issue=9 |pages=1107–1113 |id={{ProQuest|196352680}} |doi=10.1134/S106422690809012X |s2cid=119435654 }} and was sent seven years before NASA's Across the Universe message. Seven different melodies were transmitted from audio-cassette recordings of the theremin being played by Lydia Kavina, Yana Aksenova, and Anton Kerchenko, all from the Moscow Theremin Center. These seven melodies were:

1. "Egress alone I to the Ride" by E. Shashina
2. The finale of the 9th Symphony by Beethoven
3. The Four Seasons: Spring, "Allegro" by Vivaldi
4. "The Swan" by Saint-Saens
5. "Vocalise" by Rachmaninoff
6. "Summertime" by Gershwin
7. Russian folk song "Kalinka-Malinka"

They were played in succession six times over the span of three days from August–September 2001 during the transmission of Teen Age Message, an interstellar radio message.

File:Craft x Tech exhibition at V&A 2024 - 13.jpg museum Prince Consort Gallery, pictured in September 2024.{{Cite web |title=Craft x Tech Tohoku Project, Prince Consort Gallery, V&A South Kensington |url=https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/lEewgBJ93P/ldf-craft-x-tech-sept-2024 |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=Victoria and Albert Museum |language=en}}]]

• The Ondes Martenot, 1928, also uses the principle of heterodyning oscillators, but has a keyboard as well as a slide controller and is touched while playing.{{cite web|url=http://www.thomasbloch.net/en_ondes-martenot.html|title=ONDES MARTENOT **** THOMAS BLOCH – the instrument : videos, pictures, works, facts...|last=Bloch|first=Thomas|author-link=Thomas Bloch|access-date=11 March 2010}}
• The Electronde, invented in 1929 by Martin Taubman, has an antenna for pitch control, a handheld switch for articulation and a foot pedal for volume control.[http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=11280 Taubman demonstrates his Electronde. Stills and a downloadable video at British Pathe news archive]. 1938-12-12.
• The Croix Sonore (Sonorous Cross), is based on the theremin. It was developed by Russian composer Nicolas Obouchov in France, after he saw Lev Theremin demonstrate the theremin in 1924.
• The terpsitone, also invented by Theremin, consisted of 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.
• The Z.Vex Effects Fuzz Probe, Wah Probe and Tremolo Probe, using a theremin to control said effects. The Fuzz Probe can be used as a theremin, as it can through feedback oscillation create tones of any pitch.
• The MC-505 by Roland by being able to use the integrated D-Beam-sensor like a theremin.
• 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.{{cite web| title = Create Optical Theremin using Percussa AudioCubes| url = http://land.percussa.com/create-optical-theremin-using-audiocubes/| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121014200447/http://land.percussa.com/create-optical-theremin-using-audiocubes/| archive-date = 2012-10-14}}
• A three radio theremin (Super Theremin, {{lang|ja|スーパーテレミン}}) invented by Tomoya Yamamoto ({{lang|ja|山本智矢}}), composed of three independent radio sets. Radio set #1 is to listen and to record the signal at around 1600{{nbsp}}kHz. Radio set #2 is tuned at 1145{{nbsp}}kHz so that its local oscillator of around 1600{{nbsp}}kHz is to be received by radio set #1. Radio set #3 is also tuned at 1145{{nbsp}}kHz so that its local oscillator may produce the beat with radio set #2. The operator's hand movement around the bar antenna of radio set #3 may affect the local oscillator to produce tonal change.{{cite web| title= Super Theremin utilizing three radio sets| url= http://www3.kiwi-us.com/~tomoyaz/higa9902.html#990228}}{{primary source inline|date=July 2023}}
• The Matryomin by Masami Takeuchi is a single-antenna theremin-type device mounted inside a matryoshka doll.{{cite web| title= Mandarin Electronics: Matryomin| url= http://www.mandarinelectron.com/matryomin/}}
• The Chimaera is a digital offspring of theremin and touchless ribbon controller and based on distance sensing of permanent magnets. An array of linear Hall-effect sensors, each acting as an individual theremin in a changing magnetic field, responds to multiple moving neodymium magnets worn on fingers and forms a continuous interaction space in two dimensions.{{cite web| title=Chimaera, the poly-magneto-phonic theremin| url=http://open-music-kontrollers.ch/chimaera/about/| access-date=2014-02-18| archive-date=2016-07-22| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722063107/https://open-music-kontrollers.ch/chimaera/about/| url-status=dead}}

{{Cite conference

| publisher = Goldsmiths, University of London

| pages = 501–504

|editor=Baptiste Caramiaux |editor2=Koray Tahiroglu |editor3=Rebecca Fiebrink |editor4=Atau Tanaka

| last = Portner

| first = Hanspeter

| title = CHIMAERA – The Poly-Magneto-Phonic Theremin – An Expressive Touch-Less Hall-Effect Sensor Array

| book-title = Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

| location = London, United Kingdom

| date = 2014-07-30

}}

[https://web.archive.org/web/20141018121248/http://nime2014.org/proceedings/papers/397_paper.pdf Link] {{small|(3.9 MB)}}

• Artefact #VII by Ini Archibong, is a theremin nested in a "pod-like sculpture" made of Japanese Tsugaru Nuri lacquerware.{{Cite web |title=Artifact #VII │ Tsugaru Nuri x Ini Archibong |url=https://craft-x-tech.com/collaboration/artifactvii/ |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=Craft x Tech}}{{Cite web |last=Chicco |first=Gianfranco |title=Prefecture makes perfect |url=https://londondesignfestival.com/stories/prefecture-makes-perfect |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=London Design Festival}}{{Cite web |last=Demetriou |first=Danielle |date=2024-06-02 |title=Craft x Tech elevates Japanese craftsmanship with progressive technology |url=https://www.wallpaper.com/design-interiors/craft-x-tech-debut-japanese-craft-contemporary-design |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=Wallpaper}}

• List of Russian inventions
• Ring modulation

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite journal |last=Rosa |first=Jaime E. Oliver La |date=2018 |title=Theremin in the Press: Instrument remediation and code-instrument transduction |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/organised-sound/article/abs/theremin-in-the-press-instrument-remediation-and-codeinstrument-transduction/E66920F656DA138E043CC54DCA5A9130 |journal=Organised Sound |language=en |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=256–269 |doi=10.1017/S135577181800016X |issn=1355-7718}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Theremin |first1=Leon S. |last2=Petrishev |first2=Oleg |date=1996 |title=The Design of a Musical Instrument Based on Cathode Relays |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/6/article/585354 |journal=Leonardo Music Journal |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=49–50 |doi=10.2307/1513305 |jstor=1513305 |issn=1531-4812}}

• {{cite book|last1=Brend|first1=Mark|title=Strange Sounds: Offbeat Instruments and Sonic Experiments in Pop|date=2005|publisher=Backbeat|location=San Francisco, Calif.|isbn=9780879308551|edition=1.}}
• {{Cite book | first = Carolina | last = Eyck | title = The Art of Playing the Theremin| publisher = SERVI Verlag | location = Berlin | isbn = 978-3-933757-08-1| year = 2006}}
• {{Cite book | last = Glinsky | first = Albert | title = Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage | location = Urbana, Illinois | publisher = University of Illinois Press | year = 2000 | isbn = 978-0-252-02582-2 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/thereminethermus00glin }}
• {{cite book|last1=Pinch|first1=T. J|last2=Trocco|first2=Frank|title=Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CoUs2SSvG4EC|year=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-04216-2}}
• Rockmore, Clara (1998). Method for Theremin. Edited by David Miller & Jeffrey McFarland-Johnson. Made publicly available at [http://www.electrotheremin.com/claramethod.html Clara Rockmore Method for Theremin] [pdf]

• {{Cite video

| people = Martin, Steven M. (Director)

|date = 1995

| title = Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey.

| medium = Film and DVD

| publisher = Orion/MGM

}}

• {{Cite video

| people = Lydia Kavina, Clara Rockmore (featuring), William Olsen (Director)

|date = 1995

| title = Mastering the Theremin

| url = http://moogmusic.com/products/merch/two-theremin-classics-dvd/

| medium = Videotape (VHS) and DVD

| publisher = Moog Music and Little Big Films

}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://www.ted.com/talks/pamelia_kurstin_plays_the_theremin.html Pamelia Kurstin on Ted.com]
• [http://www.theremintimes.ru/en Theremin Times ]
• [http://www.thereminvox.com/ ThereminVox.com]
• [http://theremin.ca/ TECI]: Theremin Enthusiasts Club International
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130523065218/http://theremin.org.ru/ theremin Theremin Family]
• [http://www.thereminargentina.com.ar/ Theremin Argentina]
• {{cite web|last=Moriarty|first=Philip|title=The Theremin|url=http://www.sixtysymbols.com/videos/theremin.htm|work=Sixty Symbols|publisher=Brady Haran for the University of Nottingham|year=2009}}

{{Electronic music}}

{{Electrophones}}

{{Experimental musical instruments}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Electronic musical instruments

Category:Continuous pitch instruments

Category:Inventions by Léon Theremin

Category:Experimental musical instruments

Category:Monophonic synthesizers

Category:Musical instruments invented in the 1920s

Category:1928 introductions

Category:1928 in the Soviet Union

Category:Soviet inventions

Category:Russian inventions

Category:Theremin