The Theremin
Termen's first machine, built in the USSR in 1917 was christened the "Theremin" (after himself) or the "Aetherophone" (sound from the 'ether') and was the first instrument to exploit the heterodyning principle.
"I was interested in making a different kind of instrument. And I wanted, of course, to make an apparatus that would be controlled in space, exploiting electrical fields, and that would use little energy. Therefore I used electronic technology to create a musical instrument that would provide greater resources" 
-- Leon Theremin

The free Desktop version (MAC OS9 & WIN) from the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/playground/theremin1.shtm
The Theremin is one of the earliest electronic instruments, and is played without ever physically touching it.
The Theremin was patented in 1921. The instrument was invented by Russian physicist Lev Sergeivitch Termen.
In 1938 Theremin was kidnapped in the New York apartment he shared with his American wife (the black ballet dancer, Iavana Williams) by the NKVD (forerunners of the KGB). He was transported back to Russia, and accused of propagating anti-Soviet propaganda by Stalin. Meanwhile reports of his execution were widely circulated in the West. In fact Theremin was not executed, but interned in Magadan, a notoriously brutal Siberian labour camp. Theremin was put to work on top secret projects by the Soviet authorities, culminating in his invention of the first "bug," a sophisticated electronic eavesdropping device. Theremin supervised the bugging of both the American embassy, and Stalin's private apartment. For this groundbreaking work he was awarded the Stalin Prize (first Class), Russia very highest honour.
Ray Milland suffers delirium to the music of the theremin in "The Lost Weekend" and Gort destroys tanks to a similar soundtrack in "The Day The Earth Stood Still". Sadly, this will be the only area to exploit the theremin's ethereal sound for the next twenty years.
For the narco-herbally stimulated kids in the 60's, however, the theremin's crazy spaced-out sound is manna from heaven, and this relationship between the instrument and the more leftfield exponents of modern music will grow over the next forty years with Blur, Jimmy Page, Portishead, Big George Webley, Holly Johnson, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, The Radio Science Orchestra, Fishbone, Man or Astro-man?, Meat Beat Manifesto, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Pere Ubu, Phish, The Lothars, Orbital and John Cage all employing the theremin in their work.
The tragedy is that Termen himself is unable to see the heights to which his invention shall rise. He dies in 1993, after returning to the United States two years earlier, having created the last truly innovative musical instrument and almost independently changing the way music is perceived.
Professor Termen's invention will go a long way to advancing the cause of electronic music, and from the "D-Beam" infra-red controller found on synthesizers, drum machines and samplers, to the Moog, his influence on composing and music in general is almost without limit.
Not simply an aural pleasure, the theremin inspires Albert Einstein to investigate the connection between music and geometrical figures. While Professor Termen lives in America, between 1929 and 1938, the General of Relativity even sets up a laboratory in the Russian scientist's house and spends several days sketching octagons to the music produced by the instrument.
Come one, come all, roll up and out with the old, the bathwater, the baby and the barrel, clean your ears and hearken, hearken to me as I proudly present to you, the bonny and beautiful public people that you are, a mechanism of musical magnificence, a device of deliciously demonic derring-do (in mildly musical a manner), a scintillating selection of sine waves, a hair-raising hotchpotch of heterodyning oscillators, a wealth of the wonderfully weird wrapped up in a handy hold-all... we proudly present for your entertainment, the worlds first mouse-controlled theremin with backing orchestra!
The theremin is not so much played as the player becomes a part of the circuit and makes the music from within, but don't worry about electrocution for it's all done with waves and beats, daddy-o.
"I wanted to invent some kind of an instrument that would not operate mechanically, as does the piano, or the cello and the violin, whose bow movements can be compared to those of a saw. I conceived of an instrument that would create sound without using any mechanical energy, like the conductor of an orchestra" 
-- Leon Theremin




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See also:
http://www.thereminworld.com/
http://theremin.info/
Top Downloads
· 1: Vocalise
· 2: The Virtual Theremin
· 3: Mousing
· 4: BBC Science Downloadable Theremin for MAC
· 5: Theremini
· 6: GLEETCHPLUG V.1.0.1 for Mac OS 9.x
· 7: Peter Pringle video

a brief history  Lev Sergeivitch Termen electronic music pioneer
http://www.oddmusic.com/theremin/

Theremin Enthusiasts Club International
http://typhoon.he.net/~enternet/teci/teci.html

The Theremin Web Ring
http://www.thereminworld.com/tring.asp
While finding an original vacuum tube RCA Theremin is nearly impossible, more modern Theremin's are manufactured today. One which closely captures the classic Theremin sound, along with other features, is Bob Moog's EtherWave. Moog built homemade Theremin's in his teens, and later created the famous Moog synthesizer in the 1960's. 

http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/theremin/

The Art Of The Theremin http://www.amazon.com
List Price: $11.98
 Price:    $10.99
Product Details
Composer: Sergey Rachmaninov, Camille Saint-Saens, et al.
Performer: Nadia Reisenberg, Clara Rockmore
Label: Delos Records - #1014
Audio CD (December 14, 1992)
ASIN: B0000006U6


Music from the Ether: Original Works for Theremin http://www.amazon.com
List Price:   $17.98
Price: $14.99
Product Details
  Composer: Joseph Schillinger, Friedrich Wilckens, et al.
 Performer: Joshua Pierce, Lydia Kavina, et al.
 Label: Mode - #76
Audio CD (June 22, 1999)
ASIN: B00000J8RP


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Via / By / Excerpted / From / Thanks to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/playground/theremin1.shtml
http://www.oddmusic.com/theremin/
http://www.thereminworld.com/
http://theremin.info/
http://www.amazon.com

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