A monophonic electronic instrument developed by Lev Sergeyevich Termen and named after him; it was one of the earliest electronic instruments, and the first successful one. The instrument, originally inspired by Termen's similar ‘radio watchman’, and initially called the ‘Êtherophon’, was first demonstrated in 1920; subsequent presentations were made for Lenin in March 1922, and in many parts of the Soviet Union, under the name ‘termenvoks’. At the end of 1927 Termen travelled to the USA, where he gave concert demonstrations under the name ‘thereminvox’ (later just called ‘theremin’). From 1929 the RCA manufactured 500 theremins. Among its leading performers have been Clara Rockmore, Lucie Bigelow Rosen, Samuel J. Hoffman, Lydia Kavina and Dennis James. The theremin has been featured in over 100 concert works and more than 35 films.
A notable feature of the theremin lies in its manner of performance, for the player does not actually touch it. The frequency of the single pitch emitted from its loudspeaker is dependent on the distance of the performer's hand from an antenna rising vertically from the instrument (‘space control’). It employs a beat-frequency oscillator (BFO), which consists of two radio-frequency oscillators, one at a fixed frequency and the other controlled by the capacitance between the right hand and the antenna; the resulting frequency lies within the audio range (in the first version the sound was audible only over headphones; Termen replaced these first with a large ‘earphone’ with a cardboard horn and in the mid-1920s with the newly invented loudspeaker). Moving the hand back and forth creates pitch changes over a wide range (early sources mention three to four octaves and Moog, 1954, gives a compass of five octaves). The volume is controlled by a similar procedure, with the left hand moving in relation to a horizontal metal loop (Termen's original system consisted of a volume pedal and a left-hand interrupter switch). Different timbres can be chosen by setting a switch that controls a system of filters. The disadvantage of the theremin is the difficulty of controlling the transition from one pitch to another, because a glissando invariably accompanies any move from note to note, unless the left hand disguises it with loudness variations or, for small intervals, the player uses right-hand ‘fingering’. Termen developed other versions of the instrument in which these problems were alleviated, including a four-octave, monophonic keyboard theremin (c1928; a five-octave version was constructed later) and a cylindrical fingerboard theremin (1929–30), which resembled a cello, but they lacked the unique appeal of the original.
The first orchestral work with a solo electronic instrument was Pashchenko's Simfonicheskaya misteriya (‘Symphonic Mystery’) for theremin and orchestra, which received its first performance in Leningrad on 2 May 1924 with Termen as soloist. In the same year it was also prominent in Valentin Yakovlevich Kruchinins score for the science-fiction film Aelita. Later composers for the instrument include Joseph Schillinger, with the First Airphonic Suite (1929) for theremin and orchestra, Varèse, who requested two special theremins for Ecuatorial (1932–4), although the revised score specifies ondes martenots, Anis Fuleihan, Grainger, Martinů and Schnittke. The fingerboard theremin was used by Stokowski to reinforce the double basses in the Philadelphia Orchestra at the end of 1930, though it was soon replaced by a specially constructed space-controlled instrument, which was in turn replaced in the mid-1930s by an ondes martenot. The three types of theremin were used for popular dance music by the Electrio in New York in 1931, and larger ensembles of theremins were assembled in New York in 1930 (14 space-controlled, 1 fingerboard) and 1932 (the Theremin Electrical Symphony, consisting of 16 fingerboard and keyboard instruments). The theremin has also been used in music-hall and variety performances, in film scores and by some rock groups, for example the Beach Boys in Good Vibrations (1966).
Several space-controlled instruments between the early 1920s and the late 1930s were based on the theremin, including the Sfaerofon, Croix sonore, Electronde, Elektronische Zaubergeige and Ethonium. Robert A. Moog manufactured five models of the theremin between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s, and in 1965 applied the same system in a controller developed for Cage's Variations V, in which dancers moving between a number of antennae affect the sound produced. The theremin was little used from the mid-1960s to around 1990, when ‘glasnost’ in the Soviet Union enabled Termen to make several visits to the West, increasing interest in analogue electronic music, and Moog's company Big Briar started manufacturing theremins with up-to-date technology. Subsequently more than 15 different models have been produced by Big Briar and at least nine other manufacturers, including PAIA, Longwave (including a pocket version), Tony Henk and Doepfer; some of these use analogue circuitry, not always based on the BFO, while others are digital. Theremins have also been used as MIDI controllers.
ME (L.S. Termen)
J. Schillinger: Manual for Playing Space-Controlled Theremin (Camden, NJ, 1929)
S.N. Bronshteyn: ‘Termenvoks’ i ‘Elektrola’: teoriya i praktika elektricheskich muzïkalnïkh instrumentov (Moscow, 1930)
I.J. Saxl: ‘Music from Electrons’, Radio News, xiv/2 (1932–3), 74–6, 120 only, 127 only
R.A. Moog: ‘The Theremin’, Radio & Television News, li/1 (1954), 37–9
F.K. Prieberg: Musica ex machina: über das Verhältnis von Musik und Technik (Berlin and Frankfurt, 1960), 203–10
R.A. Moog: ‘A Transistorized Theremin’, Electronics World, lxv/1 (1961), 29–32, 125 only
T.L. Rhea: The Evolution of Electronic Musical Instruments in the United States (diss., George Peabody College, TN, 1972), 41–61; rev. as ‘The Un keyboards of Prof. Theremin’, Contemporary Keyboard, iv/9 (1978), 60 only; repr. in The Art of Electronic Music, ed. T. Darter and G. Armbruster (New York, 1984), 28–30
R.A. Moog: disc notes, Shirleigh and Robert Moog Present Clara Rockmore, Theremin, DEL 25437 (1977, 2/1987)
B.M. Galayev: ‘L.S. Termen: Faustus of the Twentieth Century’, Leonardo, xxiv/5 (1991), 573–9 [incl. substantial bibliography]
A.V. Glinsky: The Theremin in the Emergence of Electronic Music (diss., New York U., 1992); rev. as Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage (Urbana, IL, forthcoming)
Keyboard, xx/2 (1994) [incl. articles by R.L. Doerschuk, S. Martin, C. Rockmore, R. Moog]
Leonardo Music Journal, vi (1996), 45–83 [incl. articles by B. Galeyev, L. Kavina, N. Nesturkh, D. Gillard, A.J. Henk]
RICHARD ORTON/HUGH DAVIES