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Theremin photos


dottydog

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Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone might be able to help me track down any photos or footage of the band using the Theremin. I know they exist but have obviously been looking in the wrong places. There are so many great photos on this site but I'm hoping someone will be able to point me in the right direction rather than me having to hunt through every picture to prove a point!!!

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Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone might be able to help me track down any photos or footage of the band using the Theremin. I know they exist but have obviously been looking in the wrong places. There are so many great photos on this site but I'm hoping someone will be able to point me in the right direction rather than me having to hunt through every picture to prove a point!!!

I know someone on the old board had screenshots from the Zeppelin DVD, but I'm not sure if those can be posted here now that this is the official site.

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Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone might be able to help me track down any photos or footage of the band using the Theremin. I know they exist but have obviously been looking in the wrong places. There are so many great photos on this site but I'm hoping someone will be able to point me in the right direction rather than me having to hunt through every picture to prove a point!!!

Perhaps dottydog is attempting to locate actual photos to show a friend - to establish the band's use of a Theremin for production reasons; as part of a discussion on the matter.

Here - is a nice mounting of the theremin onto a mic stand - ingenious for a live application as it allows the audience to really see the performance and owing to the unique sound of the theremin, especially when patched through an Echoplex and distortion, would give the audience both a sense of wonder and portray the instrumentalist as a kind of sorcerer of sound - waving his arms.

Very unique.

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Perhaps dottydog is attempting to locate actual photos to show a friend - to establish the band's use of a Theremin for production reasons; as part of a discussion on the matter.

Here - is a nice mounting of the theremin onto a mic stand - ingenious for a live application as it allows the audience to really see the performance and owing to the unique sound of the theremin, especially when patched through an Echoplex and distortion, would give the audience both a sense of wonder and portray the instrumentalist as a kind of sorcerer of sound - waving his arms.

Very unique.

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dottydog,

There is a documentary about the inventor of the theremin (I believe his name was Leon theremin) and the story behind its evolution that you can look up. Ive rented it.

I think the theremin has many more possibilities with effects and alterations than we have thought of. For instance, since it works by passing one's hands through an electric field.....what would happen if you passed a large magnet through the same field ? Who knows.

I'm glad you asked for the photos - it didn't occur to me to mount one to a mic stand for performance. Really impressive here.

Edited by producergal
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Hi, you guys are FANTASTIC! Thank you so much for your help. I'm studying for a Masters in Music and almost all of my classmate/tutors are Classical musicians whereas I am involved in the 'Pop' industry. I have been looking for a way to bridge the gap and shake things up a bit for my 20th Century presentation and the Theremin and it's inventor might just do the job, I sort of think that as an instrument it is still ahead of its time as were/are Led Zeppelin so I want to pivot the presentation around it and them; everytime I try and bring in my idea of contemporary music I get Stravinskied and I think there's more of an overlap than I'm being given credit for! Hope that explains it and thanks again for the great shots and advice.

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dottydog,

There is a documentary about the inventor of the theremin (I believe his name was Leon theremin) and the story behind its evolution that you can look up. Ive rented it.

I think the theremin has many more possibilities with effects and alterations than we have thought of. For instance, since it works by passing one's hands through an electric field.....what would happen if you passed a large magnet through the same field ? Who knows.

I'm glad you asked for the photos - it didn't occur to me to mount one to a mic stand for performance. Really impressive here.

I don't know that magnetism would make that much of a difference. From what I understand, a theremin works on capacitance(2 conductors seperated by an insulator, in this case the antennae is one conductor and your hand(or a magnet in this case) is the other with the air between being the insulator), as the second conductor can only charge to the applied voltage of the first conductor, using a better conductor(a magnet as opposed to your hand) will result only in minute changes as obviously only tiny voltages/currents are involved...it would be a lethal device with large amounts of current. The whole thing is just an oscillator, the pitches produced are a result of the interplay between the inductive reactance in the box and the capacitive reactance of the anteannae/air/hand etc...to change the pitch you can change the applied voltage/current to the inductive circuit , or change the distance between the conductors .

probably an over simplified explanation but that's basically how they work...lol but basic electronics was a long time ago for me

Edited by spatdrastik
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Dottydog- you must see the documentary that was mentioned, it's called Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey. There's footage of Theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore playing classical pieces, as well as info on more "pop" uses. Plus the story of Leon Theremin is pretty amazing.

Yes, this was excellent! His life was very intriguing, to say the least. His interest in the interaction of dance movement with the theremin lead him to work with the American Negro Ballet. Dance pieces were choreographed to interplay with the instrument. He eventually married prima ballerina Lavinia Williams. Then ... poof! He vanished ... (You have to watch it. I don't want to give away the mystery. ;) )

The Theremin - Leon Theremin with commentary by Robert Moog (Moog Synthesiser)

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  • 3 months later...
Hi, you guys are FANTASTIC! Thank you so much for your help. I'm studying for a Masters in Music and almost all of my classmate/tutors are Classical musicians whereas I am involved in the 'Pop' industry. I have been looking for a way to bridge the gap and shake things up a bit for my 20th Century presentation and the Theremin and it's inventor might just do the job, I sort of think that as an instrument it is still ahead of its time as were/are Led Zeppelin so I want to pivot the presentation around it and them; everytime I try and bring in my idea of contemporary music I get Stravinskied and I think there's more of an overlap than I'm being given credit for! Hope that explains it and thanks again for the great shots and advice.

Very cool, let us know how it goes!

The very idea of the theremin is so trippy, an instrument the musician doesn't actually touch. Sort of making music in reverse, the waves causing the sound not vice-versa. Perfect for Zeppelin, electric magic, and all.

(Off to add the movie to my queue at Netflix...)

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There is a documentary about the inventor of the theremin (I believe his name was Leon theremin) and the story behind its evolution that you can look up. Ive rented it.

The same guy, Lev Thermin, invented the technology which is used for automatic doors.

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