The eery , futuristic whole tone of the theremin is unmistakable . Inhorrorandscience fiction , it may signal the reaching of a fast-flying saucer , a fiber ’s impendingpsychotic break , or a misrepresented science experiment gone faulty . The electronic nature of the interference suggests otherworldly origins , and its exercise in films likeThe Day The Earth Stood Still(1951 ) has made it synonymous with the eldritch and bizarre .
The instrument itself , however , is hard to recognize on sight . consist of a box with dials and two antennae — a vertical one extending up from the right side and a horizontal cringle transmitting aerial sticking out from the left field — it bet like a contraption ramp up for experiments rather than melodic compositions . In fact , that was the original intention when it was designed as part of a Soviet inquiry programme in 1919 . Despite beinginvented in a laboratoryby a physicist - turned KGB spy , it was only a matter of fourth dimension before the theremin made it big in Hollywood .
It Came From Russia
electrical energy was just starting to transmute day-after-day life in the former 1900s . Prior to the 1920s , less than half of U.S. homes hadelectrical power . Recordings of songs played on the wireless , but the instrument used to wreak them werestrictly acoustic . Silent picture were still the norm at moviehouses .
It was in this climate that Leon Theremin created what would become the world’sfirst mass - producedelectronic instrument . contain Lev Sergeyevich Termen in St. Petersberg , Russia , in 1896 , he was a tinker from a young long time . By 7 he could take asunder a lookout man and put it back together , and by 15 he had builthis ownastronomicalobservatory . In his other twenty dollar bill , the bud physicist was recruited by the fresh founded Physical Technical Institute in Petrograd . As a scholar at the mental institution , Theremin acquit enquiry into propinquity sensing element for theSoviet governmentin the wake of the October Revolution in 1917 . His goal was to make a equipment that used electromagnetic waves to value thedensity of gases , and could thus detect incoming objects . In sample to produce that instrument , he rather created one that give rise a whining sound standardised to the thinner cosmic string of a violin . When he moved his hand airless to the auto , the pitch lept higher , and it dropped when he force his script away .
Theremin was an experient cellist as well as a physicist , and immediately visualize the melodious electric potential of his inadvertent invention . The burgeon Soviet government saw its value as well , though it lacked military applications .
Electronic Espionage
Vladimir Lenininvited Theremin to the Kremlin to demonstrate his instrument — then bed as theetherophone — in1922 . By moving his right bridge player along the vertical aerial to check the rake and his leftover bridge player along the horizontal one to adjust the volume , Theremin perform Camille Saint - Saëns ’s “ The Swan ” and other bit for the Russian loss leader . Lenin was impressed enough to send him on a concert tour around the country .
The tour eventually extended to Western Europe . Theremin perform forAlbert Einsteinin Berlin in 1927 , and the surveil year he bring the instrument to the United States , filling venueslike Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera House with its ethereal music . The Soviet Union give the world tour as a chance to show off its domination of electric engineering , but that was n’t their only motif . Theremin was sent to the U.S. as a undercover agent first and a musician 2nd . His high position in his field yield him memory access to major American technical school corporations like RCA , which sign a contract to make up his pawn for the mass food market in 1929 .
The company paid him $ 100,000 for the rights , but it would be a while before that investment paid off . The first commercial-grade thereminscost $ 220 — worth about $ 3700 today , and a prohibitively high price for many hobbyist . Because players controlled it by travel their hand through empty air , the learning breaking ball was also steep . The Great Depression kill any hopes of it becoming an all-night sensation , and RCA suspended production .
The instrument ’s inventor , meanwhile , was facing his own hardships . Despite the intelligence he gather for his home country , Theremin was n’t welcomed as a hero upon his regaining . The Soviet Union was in the thick of Joseph Stalin ’s political purge , and in 1939 , Theremin wasarrested for say treasonand sentenced to eight years in a Gulag for scientists , where he contrive bugging machine and aircraft technology for the military .
Theremin ’s days as a globe - renowned concert performer were over , but the instrument that had adopt his namesake was just starting to take off on the other side of the earth .
The Sound of Science
The theremin made its cinematic debut roughly a decade after its invention . Dmitri Shostakovich became the first pic composer to use it when he mark the 1930Russian filmOdna , orAlone . Instead of angle into the musical instrument ’s modern sound , he used it to bring up the roar Siberian winds the main theatrical role faces at the terminal of the picture .
In the forties , the unusual instrument was first have in Hollywood film scores . Its association with sci - fi was n’t prompt . In this decennary , it was more often utilized in thriller and mysteries to add an unsettling effect to scenes where a character experienced psychological hurt . In Alfred Hitchcock’s1945 movieSpellbound , composer Miklós Rózsa used the tool to suggest mental imbalance when a blank bathroom set off the protagonist ’s pent-up storage of a skiing accident . The same composer also included it in his score for Billy Wilder’sThe Lost Weekend , turn that same class .
The theremin did n’t find its genuine niche until the1950s . The decade was characterized by procession in quad exploration and anxieties about nuclear state of war — both of which aid fuel a golden eld ofscience fiction in picture palace . One of the earliest and most notable examples of the legal instrument in sci - fi is Bernard Herrmann ’s score forThe Day the Earth Stood Still .
In the 1951 movie , the electric squeal help create a menacing and preternatural atmosphere around the foreign invaders that could n’t be accomplish through costumes and special effects alone ; countless foreign and fiend motion-picture show that espouse would borrow this same melodious trick . By the close of the 1950s , the American populace no longer take in the theremin as a Soviet curio ; it had become the official audio of outer blank .
Retro Reputation
Though its cultural impact peaked in the mid-20th century , the theremin assure abrief resurgencein the nineties . This was largely thanks to Tim Burton ; the instrument adds a retro , vitamin B - movie vibration to the scads for his moviesEd Wood(1994 ) , composed by Howard Shore , andMars Attacks!(1996 ) , compose by Danny Elfman . In Joel Schumacher’sBatman Forever(1995 ) , Elliot Goldenthal used a theremin to draw up the Riddler ’s kooky delirious scientist composition .
In each of these cases , the sound carried intension it did n’t have 40 eld prior . Instead of inspiring sincere apprehension , the high up - pitched tone calls to heed an antiquated visual sense of the hereafter popularized by low-down - budget sci - fi movies . A theremin can add a layer of nostalgia — or even ironic cheesiness — to modern media , but filmmakers ca n’t use it the agency Alfred Hitchcock did in the forties and expect TV audience to take them earnestly .
More than a C after its innovation , it ’s clear that the instrumental role will always be link with the fifties sci - fi boom , even if its origins as a creature for Soviet espionage are just as interesting and gonzo .
