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If a moderator wishes to move this to another board, please feel free -- It doesn't seem to neatly "fit" anywhere so I'm putting it on the main board:
This past Sunday I did a very -- for me -- scary thing and performed a Theremin score of my own devising for a screening of Georges Melies' silent film epic "The Conquest of The Pole"(1912) :hot: :cheers:.  Ultra-modern facility.  They screened it once for me to practice with, and everything went wrong.  I figured out I was standing too close to the machine.  When the actual screening took place, I stepped further back & it went even better than I expected!!  People applauded and cheered & laughed in the right places (I'd figured out how to make this goofy/wanky slide-flute "spin" sound for when the explorers get sucked up by the magnetic pole) & was an unqualified success.
On the way out afterwards, I was stopped by a man who introduced himself as the son of Louis Barron, the creator of the electronic music score for Forbidden Planet(1953)!!  He had never seen a Theremin played before, much to my utter shock.  Turns out, Theremins were considered too primitive and out-of-date, even by 1953 standards, so Barron never had one in the house!!  Talk about your odd encounters -- Anyway, he was fascinated with the instrument & we had a fine old time -- Got paid, too, which is always a worthy showbiz goal!! :cheers:
peter WEEEEoooooWAAAAoooo/denny What's That Racket?

I found this on YouTube....The Legend of Zelda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJYho56INKU
There's more there too......this sounds really cool.   :smile:

Ah, see, you have the time to discuss theremins with random sons of musical composers, but cannot even take time to have a beer with somebody you battered with a viewing of "RoboC.H.I.C."  I already had given you my promise that I would not harm you in any way...

Neat story and strange how they would consider certain instruments "too old fashioned" for a soundtrack.  I think that, properly used, you could probably use just about any instrument in a soundtrack.

Oh, Andrew, I am truly, dreadfully sorry I wasn't able to meet you in Denver that time -- You, and anyone else on this board, would absolutely FREAK over The Denver Museum of Nature and Science -- and there are the most amazing brewpubs, serving some real "Set Yo' Ass Down!" suds within walking distance --
As I've often said, I live in Longmont, Colorado, and would be very happy to meet anyone & everyone from this board were they to pass through the area.
I forget what messed up with my meeting Andrew, but it had to have been important, as I would most assuradly wish to buy gallons of our local Microbeer as an offering to our Fearless Leader!
 :cheers:
Beer . . . Is there anything it can't do? . . .
PS:  Six more performances of The Solid Gold Cadillac/ends March 23.
peter crane/denny johnson

It was mostly the fact that I contacted you out of nowhere and at the last minute, because I was in Denver after being stranded there (connecting flight) during a winter storm.  I did go to the Museum of Natural History for the day I was there and it was great.  Beautiful view of the mountains and all from the one room with the big staircase too.

Congratulations on the paycheck and the chance meeting! I have the Forbidden Planet Soundtrack lying around here somewhere, and it's a creepy classic.

Nice to know that everything panned out well!  A Theremin score to any movie, be it an old Melies film, or a more modern one, is always worth a look in!


 :cheers:

And thankyou Poogie, for the Theremin clip --
I'm not that good yet, but I do understand what the player here is doing -- Note the very quick left handed wrist-snaps -- these are essential to proper playing & deceptively difficult to execute properly.  Theremin is a very very technique-driven instrument.
I can certainly do some of this, but practice, practice, practice . . .
peter johnson/denny crane

You are very welcome.....it certainly looks fun. So when do we get to see you playing?  :teddyr:   :wink:

Well, the techno-geeks/scientist types (AND THEY ARE OF COURSE ALL MADI tell you --
well, they took the digital film of me & I talked to them today & there may be some time before I get my own copy -- after that, it's a bit of a crapshoot, as I'm a technoidiot, as Andrew will tell you --
I don't know how to upload videos, etc. & will need someone to help me, but once I get the actual "tape", I'll be sure to try & get it "up" SOME-where!
peter johnson/denny crane

I've seen Peter Johnson post about the Theremin and couldn't imagine what it was. That video certainly made it clear that it could be used to make movies.

I have never heard of it either,  :question: but then I haven't heard of a lot of things, ha. I looked it up and the first one I saw was way different than the one above. I thought there might be some others who had never heard of it sooooooo I found the video above. When I heard that sound in movies  I thought it was the "Saw". I wouldn't mind learning how to play it.  :smile:

You couldn't be any more ignorant than me. We have only had a computer for about 10 months now. I'm learning by asking stupid questions on this forum, ha. Thank God there are very helpful people here. We didn't have computers in school. Now days (I'm old) kindergartners have them. Anyway I can't wait to see your video.......don't worry, I'm very patient.  :smile:

Funny, you look quite young and buxom in your picture . . .
Yes, there are in fact quite a number of different Theremin models, though the one in the video you accessed is the same one I "play", a Moog Etherwave Theremin.
The gal I admire the most as a Theremin player, Victoria Lundy of The Inactivists, plays a supercharged model that looks like a piece of Danish furniture/sculpture.  Definitely out of my league.
Tuning is a . . .(obscene swear word). . . but once you have it tuned, and you're standing in the proper place, the thing will DO YOUR BIDDING!!  Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!! 
Seriously, they are very addictive to fool around with -- I think everyone should have one, which was Lev Segeyavitch Theremin's dream/goal.  Look him up!
love
peter theremin/denny MMMMOOOOOOOGGOGGOGOGOGOOGO

I did a paper on Lev Theremin once.  He actually invented the precursor to the modern RFID chip, which I found to be quite interesting.

Peter, I gotta know, did you buy a pre-assembled theremin or do you build one from a kit?  I'm tempted to build one myself just for the fun of it.

The wife and I have decided we would like to try our hands at the Theremin, it looks like fun and we might be able to get a duet going, piano and theremin, can you buy one at a music store, and what would you recommend for beginners?

Okay! Cool!  Real Questions!!!
Kit or prebuilt:  Myself, I don't read electronic schematics, which, I understand, is a language unto itself. 
The Theremin I own was one of the last ones built by hand by Robert Moog, a Moog Etherwave Theremin, much like the Moog Synthesizer.
Moog is dead now, but his name and company live on!
This is very much considered the "beginner's model", as Moog got permission from Theremin himself to build them in America.
I don't know enough about the "supercharging" process to know what else is available out there --
In Denver there is a band called The Inactivists, whose Theremin player is a woman named Victoria Lundy -- She is godawful amazing, and plays a thing that looks like the 1960 Time Machine, next to my plain, black box.  So, yes, there must be degrees of instrumentation out there -- I also correspond with a very accomplished Theremin player in New York named Robert Schwimmer, who has release several CD's of very amazing material.  He plays the same "black box" that I do, but can make his do things I'm still learning about.
It's a deep topic, actually -- type in "theremin" & visit all the random sites that crop up -- I'm sure you'll find some instructive things.
Mine cost about $300 -- Yes, you can get them from music stores.  You do have to purchase or acquire somehow a source of amplification.  Make sure it's an amp that can handle electric keyboard or synthesizer or something like that, as it will BLOW OUT AND RUIN a basic guitar amp.
Much Love
Peter Johnson:  Theremin Genius! :bouncegiggle:

I had never heard of a Theremin until this thread.
Why does the word Theremin sound like a drug one takes for a headache?

I can just see the TV commercial in my head with Peter Johnson holding up a bottle of the medicine and saying...
"When I get a headache, I take extra strength Theremin.  It works!"    :smile:

It IS a strange name --
The guy who built the first one was named Lev Segeyevitch Ter'men -- Very Russian Russian guy -- This is an Anglicisation of his name, which would be written in Cyrillic, and has no English equivalent.  When he toured America in the 1920's the press took to calling him "Leon Theremin", and his machine, "The Ter'men Etherwave Voxmachine" simply "Theremin's Machine", which was shortened to "Theremin", which even he began calling it.
I read the guy's bio.  He was a Communist Industrial spy for Lenin and Stalin, but was put into The Gulag by Stalin anyway during his mad purges.  Theremin actually invented modern television in 1924, but Stalin repressed it and kept it as a "secret weapon" for the sole use by the KGB to spy on Russian citizens and keep people from crossing the borders.  He also was instrumental in inventing the loudspeaker -- before the Theremin, in 1920, with its own amp & speaker, people listened to radio via headphones.  He got the idea to build a "giant freestanding speaker" so many people could hear the instrument played at once.  He invented so many amazing things that even today are ahead of their time, and made them generally avaialble to the public in the 1920's.  Nobody knew what to do with half the stuff he came up with:  Motion-sensitive lights, invisible ray burgular alarms, self-rocking cribs, etc. etc.
  While a Soviet prisoner, he worked on aircraft designs for jets and rockets, but they locked up his plans & made him work on propellor-driven bombers instead.  Even these designs still seem modern.
  He came up with a wireless, power-sourceless, free-standing bugging device that he placed inside the Great Seal of the US in Moscow at the US Embassy.  This design form the 1930's is still classified technology.
The guy was simply amazing on so many levels -- look him up!  His life reads like science-fiction, but it's all real --
peter johnson/denny ter'men

That is just plain incredible.  I'm definitely going to have to look more into this guy...

Man i wish i could get one. Be great for unwanted visetors.
Put one by the guest chair...
Jehova's witness : What is that ungodley noise!?"
You : "What noise?"

Great thread, Peter. Theremins are one of the coolest if not orneriest musical instruments ever invented. I've had the chance to try playing one and I have tremendous respect for anyone who can actually perform on one.

I'm sure you're aware of Bernard Herrmann's score for The Day the Earth Stood Still. He used two Theremins for that one. Now that's asking for trouble. The 'second Thereminist' was actually a violinist who volunteered to learn to play the thing for the score. I've heard recordings of the original scoring rehearsal sessions (they were included as 'bonus tracks' on one of the OST releases) and you've never heard such a racket in your life!  If you listen closely to the score in the film its not too surprising to find they had a difficult time staying in tune with each other and the orchestra even in the finished product.

You are correct when you say they are the "ornieriest" instrument -- Why?  Because they have INFINITE RANGE!!  They can quite literally play any notation you can think of -- sometimes all at once!
Like trying to pour a precise amount of water into a glass in a thunderstorm downpour --
Still terrific fun, though!
 :twirl:
peter johnson/denny OHMIGODHOWDOYOUTURNTHISTHINGOFF??????????