User's Manual

29
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE THEREMIN
Theremin and his invention were greeted by wide fanfare when he arrived
in the United States in 1927. He met with large American companies,
organized Theremin concerts at Carnegie Hall, and gave demonstrations
to the likes of Albert Einstein and Ira Gershwin. Theremin found a friend
and inspiration when he met Russian expatriate, Clara Rockmore. She was
a gifted young musician who had been forced to give up playing the violin
due to bone problems related to childhood malnutrition. Freed by the
non-physicality of Theremin’s instrument, within a short time she began to
display a virtuosic ability to turn the unique sound into hauntingly beautiful
melodies unlike any other. To this day, Clara Rockmore is still regarded as
the world best Theremin player.
After patenting his invention in the USA, Theremin granted RCA the
commercial production rights. RCA went into production with the hopes
that their new “Thereminvox” would become just as common as a piano
or radio in the American home. Unfortunately, the release of the Theremin
occurred just before the Stock Market crash of 1929. Tough times made
the instrument’s significant price tag unappealing to most families and
only a few RCA Theremins were sold.
Over the next decade, Leon Theremin stayed in New York and opened
a studio where he worked to develop his other inventions, such as a
Theremin-controlled burglar alarm. In 1938, Theremin abruptly returned
to Russia, under somewhat mysterious circumstances. In the decade that
followed, interest in his work faded. In the 1950s, the Theremin experienced
a resurgence, when it found a new career in Hollywood. It became the
In 1919, electricity and radio waves
were the cutting-edge technology of
the time. Back then, a young Russian
scientist named Leon Theremin was
hard at work using radio waves to
develop a device that could measure
the density of different gasses in
the air. Theremin realized that his
own body was interfering with the
device, producing an audible tone that
changed pitch as he moved around the
room. He quickly discovered that by
making subtle movements in the air, he
could actually ‘play’ this tone. After a
few more refinements, the instrument
we call the Theremin was born.