Thursday, April 10, 2008

Ladies And Gentlemen, The Theremin

You might be wondering what on earth this lady is doing. The answer: playing a theremin.

The theremin is one of the most fascinating musical instruments. There are no stings or belts, and you don't blow into anything. You literally play sound waves by moving your hands over two antennae: one which controls pitch (right hand) and one which controls volume (left hand). It is the only instrument which can be played without any mechanical touching (ie: plucking of strings, etc). You may know the theremin best as the UFO sound effect in any sci-fi B movie pre 1970. As you can see from the video, it can be a serious classical instrument as well; bringing with it a novel and distinctive pitch.

The video is Debussy's "Claire De Lune" on theremin as performed by Lydia Kavina. Widely regarded as the world's foremost thereminist, Kavina studied under Leon Theremin (her grand uncle and inventor of the instrument).

If you want a better example of how the theremin works, theres a good video here (bear with it though, it's a little boring).

Hope you all enjoy.

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