Photos:
The completed Collins theremin kit in a Radio Shack project box |
The Theremax in the woods |
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Chuck the Cat demonstrates that volume control can be a real problem at times |
The completed Silicon Chip Magazine Theremin from Jaycar Electronics, or how to recycle a fancy salmon box |
Some sound files:
Since 2001 I've worked on several compositions involving the theremin, the largest of which is a theatre piece, Rasputin, which was premiered in autumn 2002. As part of my work with the instrument, I've put together (in fairly rough form) a couple of related, abstract pieces, using the simplest computer sound recording technology. The astute listener might detect some vague references to some of the theremin "licks" found in Miklos Rozsa film scores (The Lost Weekend and Spellbound). The .wav file below uses the Theremax and the Chuck Collins theremins, with the Theremax being the lead instrument. Sorry about the crackling that you'll hear--I accidentally bumped the cable to the amplifier on one of the early source .wav files and thought that I'd leave it in to maintain some sense of analog "charm." I will be doing some additional recording in the near future and will make MP3 versions available as well.
Not technically a theremin piece, my electronic work, The Distortion Variations, an MP3 file created from a source .wav file created with the MouSing program, nevertheless has a thereminesque quality to it. I used various techniques such as distortion, ring modulation, etc. in creating the piece. Check out the link below to download the MP3 file. The piece is a real challenge to the listener, and it may not suit the taste of most, but it does demonstrate many of the most widely used electronic manipulation techniques of the 1950s through the present.
A Few Random Thoughts on "the Theremin Paradox"
One of the great curiosities of twentieth-century music was the way in which the theremin was treated by the musical world. As John Cage so aptly put it in his 1937 talk "The Future of Music: Credo" (reprinted in Cage, John. Silence. Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, Wesleyan University Press, 1973, paperback ed.), "When Theremin provided an instrument with genuinely new possibilities, Thereministes did their utmost to make the instrument sound like some old instrument, giving it a sickeningly sweet vibrato, and performing upon it, with difficulty, masterpieces from the past. Although the instrument is capable of a wide variety of sound qualities, obtained by the turning of a dial, Thereministes act as censors, giving the public those sounds they think the public will like" (Cage 1973, 4). Indeed, over a decade before Cage's seminal lecture on the future of music, even the original promotional brochure for the RCA theremin (available in .pdf format on the internet) seems to suggest that the instrument might be able to produce a music of the masses--a sort of democratic music in which the performer/composer might create placing significantly more weight on broader aesthetic concepts and less weight on traditional musical concerns as precise rhythm and discrete pitches taken from the limited world of equal temperament.
Despite the wide variety of possibilities presented by the theremin, early on it was treated just like Cage suggests. Some of the virtuosi, like Dr. Samuel Hoffman and Clara Rockmore, were able to perform musical literature based on what could basically be labeled nineteenth-century musical aesthetics. Certainly the massed performances of Camille Saint-Saens's "The Swan" that seem to be regular features at theremin confabs continue this approach. Arthur Harrison, who has designed and built several theremin circuits (and completed instruments), discusses his difficulty in playing "the classics" in his internet article "Some Reflections on Playing a Theremin" (http://home.att.net/~theremin1/article1.htm). I sense that Mr. Harrison feels that he must apologize for the difficulties he encountered. If Cage is right, then the creative jamming Harrison finds to be more successful is probably closer to an "appropriate" instrument-specific compositional aesthetic than just about anything else--we are talking about an instrument completely without tactile reference points, one that can be activated by simply moving in close proximity to the instrument. Sure, we can appreciate the musicality and sheer technical mastery of the "traditional" theremin virtuosi, but we who view the instrument as a venue for often-under-realized possibilities of expression also have a valid musical point to make.
Since I mentioned both Dr. Hoffman and Ms. Rockmore in the previous paragraph, it is interesting to note the controversy surrounding the way in which the instrument was treated by these two performers and others. Clara Rockmore states categorically in the Steven Martin film on the instrument and life of Theremin that she "only wanted to play Bach," wanting to have nothing to do with using the theremin to create scary sounds for film scores--Rockmore clearly felt that such use of the instrument would be detrimental to it being treated as a "serious musical instrument." Hoffman, Paul Shure, and others contributed to a number of sound tracks (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Spellbound, The Lost Weekend, etc.) in which the theremin was used as Ms. Rockmore feared. I can appreciate Rockmore's concern, but the fact is that the theremin was probably the only instrument capable of the kinds of expression (range, timbre, vibrato possibilities, glissando, and so forth) used by composers (and in particular Miklos Rosza) to enhance the films for which they composed.
Another part of this theremin paradox would have to be the question of why the instrument was not used more frequently by Cage and other avant-garde composers from the 1930s forward. Part of the answer might lie in the instrument's association with the horror and science fiction film, from the mid-1930s Bride of Frankenstein on. Part of my own work in the future will probably involve realizations of graphic scores of composers like Anestis Logothetis and Cage for theremin ensemble. In fact, the February 26, 2002 New Music Concert at Mount Union College included Logothetis's 1965 graphic work Labyrinthos in addition to the premiere of one of my own compositions (listed below). The Logothetis work, devoid of specific pitch (and even pitch-class) references is truly a concerto of gestures--what better solo instrument than a "gestural controller" (as PAiA Electronics describes the Theremax)?
My Recent Theremin Compositions
TwO MOOn POOms for high voice and theremin, 2001. Based on texts by my friend, Buffalo, New York poet Michael Basinski. The voice part is fully notated and takes the form of a (generally) modal (phrygian for the most part) chant. The thereminist improvises, accompanying the singer and filling in with cadenzas during the singer's silences. The first movement is scheduled to be premiered by Patricia Boehm, soprano and myself, February 26, 2002, Presser Recital Hall, Mount Union College.
Rasputin: A Theatre Piece for Two Actors, Strings, Brass, and Theremin, 2001. One actor portrays a college professor delivering a lecture on Grigorii Rasputin, while the other portrays the starets. A string quartet and brass ensemble perform interludes, overlapping with the lecture. Much of the timing of the interludes is free, creating a floating intermedia structure sometimes called enjambment. The theremin's part consists of graphically notated cadenzas and characterize the strange hold Rasputin had over his followers. The thirty-minute piece concludes with the theremin playing the opening phrase of the Russian hymn used by Tchaikovsky in his 1812 Overture. The piece was premiered October 16, 2002, Presser Recital Hall, Mount Union College.