theremin
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The
theremin, named after its inventor, Russian physicist Lev Termen (who later
emigrated to the US and changed his name to Léon Theremin), was originally the
product of Russian government-sponsored research into proximity sensors. It is
the only instrument which is played without touching it - the distance between
the player’s hands and two antenna’s determines the volume and the pitch the
instrument produces. After amazing people around the world in the twenties and
thirties, the theremin disappeared for almost eighty years - recently, many
companies have started selling DIY theremin kits (Bob Moog has said there would
have been no Moog synthesizers hadn’t he first experimented with theremins).
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prime example
the story
Jimmy Page
used an American produced Sonic Wave theremin during the wild middle part of
the studio and live recordings of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love. The Sonic
Wave features only one antenna, controlling the pitch, while loudness is
controlled by a volume knob. In the 2008 documentary It Might Get Loud, Page
remarks to The Edge and Jack White “It doesn’t have six strings but it’s a lot
of fun!” before cracking up.
other examples
There’s a
high-pitched sliding electronic sound in the choruses and in the outro of Good
Vibrations, the October 1966 Beach Boys single that became number one at both
sides of the ocean (a first for the Beach Boys). This sound was created by an
Electro-Theremin, which is often called a Tannerin after trombonist Paul
Tanner, who had one custom built in the late 1950s by amateur inventor Bob
Whitsell. Instead of the player having to use his hands to play the instrument,
the Electro-Theremin featured a volume knob and a pitch knob, which was
attached to a slider (much like the slider of a trombone). By writing down the
note names beneath the slider, the player had much greater control of the
instrument. Tanner himself played the instrument on three Beach Boys thracks: I
Just Wasn’t Made For These Times, Good Vibrations and Wild Honey. Brian Wilson
later said the Electro-Theremin work on Good Vibrations alone had cost fifteen
thousand dollar. In the late sixties Tanner donated the instrument to a
hospital for audiology work, because he believed newer keyboards made it
obsolete.
Jackie Cane, a song from 2000’s The Magnificent Tree, was written by Alex Callier, bass player with Belgian band Hooverphonic, and Cathy Dennis, who went on to write Can’t Get You Out Of My Head for Kylie Minogue, Toxic for Britney Spears and I Kissed A Girl for Katy Perry. Callier and Dennis met at a songwriter’s seminar in England and wrote Jackie Cane about a former femme fatale. This theme would be explored further by Hooverphonic on their next studio album, Hooverphonic Presents Jackie Cane. It was Youssef Yansy who played the theremin which connected the outro to the rest of the song - a more prominent role is given to him on another track from the same album, L’odeur Animale. Alex Callier said the theremin is one of his favorite instruments: “I play the piano, guitar, and bass - the guitar is my favorite instrument to play. But I would really like to learn how to play the cello and the theremin.”
Jackie Cane, a song from 2000’s The Magnificent Tree, was written by Alex Callier, bass player with Belgian band Hooverphonic, and Cathy Dennis, who went on to write Can’t Get You Out Of My Head for Kylie Minogue, Toxic for Britney Spears and I Kissed A Girl for Katy Perry. Callier and Dennis met at a songwriter’s seminar in England and wrote Jackie Cane about a former femme fatale. This theme would be explored further by Hooverphonic on their next studio album, Hooverphonic Presents Jackie Cane. It was Youssef Yansy who played the theremin which connected the outro to the rest of the song - a more prominent role is given to him on another track from the same album, L’odeur Animale. Alex Callier said the theremin is one of his favorite instruments: “I play the piano, guitar, and bass - the guitar is my favorite instrument to play. But I would really like to learn how to play the cello and the theremin.”
