Strange Encounter/Strange Show --

[peter johnson]

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!

[Ash]

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!"   

[peter johnson]

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

[dean]

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...

[Flangepart]

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?"

[Raffine]

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.

[peter johnson]

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!

peter johnson/denny OHMIGODHOWDOYOUTURNTHISTHINGOFF??????????