Theremin

An unusual electronic instrument developed in 1919 by Leon Theremin. The Theremin had two antennas and was played by moving one’s hand closer to and further from them. One antenna controlled the volume and the other controlled the pitch. A skilled Theremin player could produce a wide variety of interesting sounds and musical phrases. The sound of a Theremin is a sort of eerie whining type of sound and was used for “effect” in some popular music of the ’60’s and ’70’s (for a good example check out the beginning of Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys). After modern synthesizers became commonplace the Theremin faded into relative obscurity. Today there are still some die hard Theremin fans out there with clubs and users groups. Also, Bob Moog (a major developer of the modern synthesizer) is now building and selling new hand made units though his company, Big Briar.