Leon Theremin—The Father of Electronic Music
When most people today think of the histroy of electronic music (not electronica music, ELECTRONIC MUSIC -- the start of it all!) they think of synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog. And in fact, Robert Moog (born in 1934 and died in 2005) played an essential and formative role in the development of electronic music.
But even Bob Moog had a mentor -- the Russian scientist and cellist who started making music electronically as early as 1918 -- Leon (Lev Sergeyevich) Theremin. (We are not speaking of electronic music as the amplification of acoustic musical instruments -- we are talking about making music purely out of an electronic source.)
Shortly after the invention of the vacuum tube, which America's Thomas Edison and others were working on as early as the 1870s, Theremin conceived the idea of building an essentially electronic musical instrument.
In 1918, Theremin built the prototype of what he called his "aetherphone."
According to MIT, "It was fairly simple in shape: a wooden box, mounted on four legs, with a straight antenna rising up from its top and a P-shaped loop antenna extending horizontally from its left side. Inside the box, the antennas were connected to very high frequency oscillators made with vacuum tubes. On the front of the box were control switches.
"The key to the aetherphone's sound is the principle of heterodyning: when two signals of close but different frequency are mixed, a new signal results whose frequency is equal to the difference of the two original signals. Alone, the signals produced by the Theremin's oscillators are too high-pitched for the human ear to hear; but when those signals combine, the resulting signal can be heard, and more importantly can be varied by the position of the 'musician' standing between the two antennas. Specifically, the player waves his or her hands near the straight antenna to control pitch (the range is about 2 1/2 octaves on either side of middle C), and near the looped antenna to control volume (bringing the hand within an inch of the antenna cuts off the sound completely).
"Theremin's invention is still the only musical instrument which is played without any physical contact. The sound it can produce runs from a drone to a whine, but is always somewhat other-worldly. For this reason, although Theremin himself and others have composed complex musical works in the classical style for the Theremin (as the device is better known), it is best recognized for its prominence in the soundtrack to various early Hollywood sci-fi movies, like 'The Day the Earth Stood Still.' However, the Theremin does make a memorable pop music appearance in the background of the Beach Boys' 'Good Vibrations.'"
SIDEBAR: Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin
Robert Moog began his career in developing electronic musical instruments by making and working with Theremins.
"After ten years of making Theremins, providing unearthly sounds to science fiction movies and avante garde musicians, Bob Moog met experimental composer Herbert Deutsch
The Theremin was not a commercial success, although a variety of versions of it are still sold and there are many kits available to "build your own".
The Theremin is difficult to play with any degree of musical proficiency. This is likely the reason that, in the music world, it is often thought of as a "novelty" and used primarily to make "special effects" sounds. But virtuoso Theremin players did develop, notably Leon Theremin's fellow Russian, Clara Rockmore. Said Bob Moog of Ms. Rockmore, "...no other thereminist has ever come close to Clara Rockmore's artistry."
Ironically, when played artistically, the Theremin sounds a good deal like a cello, the instrument played by Theremin himself. No doubt his interest in the cello helped fuel his passion for perfecting the Theremin.
"For ten years Theremin worked in New York. With the help of Clara Rockmore, he developed what would today be called 'performance art,' featuring stages which automatically reacted to dancers' movements with varied patterns of sound and light.
"Then, in 1938, Theremin was kidnapped by the KGB and taken back to Russia. Forced to abandon his music, he spent a year in prison, and later developed listening devices for the Soviet secret police. Meanwhile, RCA scrapped its stock of theremins in order to provide raw materials to the US war effort.
"In 1991, at the age of 95, Theremin returned to the US, where he was reunited with Clara Rockmore and gave a number of concerts. He then went back to Russia, and died in Moscow two years later. But the Theremin has enjoyed a recent resurgence in popularity, due to its inventor's recent visit and a documentary film of his career made at that time. Numerous sites on the World Wide Web testify that Leon Theremin's 'music of an alternate universe' still has a strong appeal." —MIT
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played a Theremin solo in live versions of the song "Whole Lotta Love."
, whose search for electronic sounds inspired Bob to create the first Moog Modular Synthesizer. Though Bob took on the project just for fun, when he premiered it at the Audio Engineering Society Convention in October of 1964 the response was immediate and Bob started taking orders on the spot. By the time he received a graduate degree (PhD in Engineering Physics, Cornell University) in the summer of 1965, the R. A. Moog Co. had delivered several modular synthesizer systems, mostly to academic and experimental composers. But it would be a few years later when public awareness of Moog synthesizers would leap ahead beneath the nimble fingers of Wendy Carlos.
Carlos’ renowned album 
was released on Columbia Records at the
end of 1968, achieving immediate success. The album went on to sell over a million copies, creating a sharp demand for Moog modular synthesizers throughout 1969 and early 1970. Many 'switched-on' records were produced during that period. By the end of 1970, the now incorporated R. A. Moog Inc. introduced the Minimoog®, a compact performance synthesizer based on the technology of Moog modular products, enabling keyboardists to take the Moog on the road. And that began a decade of music that would be forever altered by the Minimoog and its incomparable sounds." —
