Thursday, September 30, 2010

Theremin Thursday for September 30, 2010

ther·e·min
[ther-uh-min] noun; a musical instrument with electronic tone generation, the pitch and tone volume being controlled by the distance between the player's hands and two metal rods serving as antennas. Origin: 1925–30; named after Leo Theremin (b. 1896), Russian inventor.

Thurs·day
[thurz-dey, -dee] noun; the fifth day of the week, following Wednesday.

Ther·e·min Thurs·day
[ther-uh-min thurz-dey] noun; a day to celebrate the electronic instrument invented by Leo Theremin.
Related forms: #ThereminThursday -- a hashtag used to denote twitter content related to Theremin Thursday



Video Exhibit A: Artist Plays Theremin With a Jellyfish -- Underwire has a story about Yuri Suzuki who has created an electronic instrument played by jellyfish. Yes, you read that correctly. According to Olivia Solon of Wired UK, Suzuki demonstrated a "see-through capsule filled with water containing a number of jellyfish. The movements of the jellyfish in the water influence the sound emitted by a theremin." Unfortunately, jellyfish are not exactly plentiful in the UK, so goldfish were used during the exhibition instead. Still, it's a pretty cool concept. Check out the video:





Exhibit B: Sir David O'Clock's OVERTURE FUTURISTA, Part Two: Distruzione della Quadratura -- Now, I don't know what that title means exactly, but the video intrigues me and the music, in my opinion, demonstrates first rate use of the theremin. Let me know what you think. Especially if you decide to check out Part One (I'll look at it later tonight).





Video Exhibit C: Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise" Performed by Dalit Warshaw -- You might think this is just a standard example of the theremin for classical performance, but you would be wrong. This clip comes from a series of videos in which Ms. Warshaw is playing Clara Rockmore's theremin. Yes, that Clara Rockmore, the great artist who truly made Leon Theremin's invention sing!




Theremimage: From now on, our weekly theremin photo will be called the Theremimage. This week, I leave you with another look at Yuri Suzuki's musical fish:

yuri-musicalfish.jpg

That image is from Core77's coverage of the London Design Festival. Yes, that teapot in the background was part of the show.

No comments: