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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 70.127.72.90 (talk) at 20:23, 13 August 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Just out of interest, which Beatles record has a Theremin?

None of them, according to http://www.phish.net/faq/btheremin.html I'm getting seriously out of touch - who the hell are Phish?

I'll remove Beatles... Phish are a "Jam Band", spiritual descendent of The Grateful Dead

Mixup with invention dates

In the first paragraph it says that the theremin was invented in 1919. Later on in the article it says that it was invented in 1918. Which one is it?

I've read in Russian sources that the correct date is 1920. Paranoid 14:05, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Grove dictionary gives 1920 as the date of the first demonstration.

Other inconsistencies

There are inconsistencies between Theremin and Leon Theremin articles, particularly regarding Leon's return to Soviet Union and his work in sharashka. These versions need to be reconciled. Paranoid 14:05, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)

"The Theremin was the basis from which all twentieth-century electronic music was developed." - An outrageous claim. Evidence, please??

--> Robert A. Moog, the inventor of the sinthesyser, started building theremins at his garage when He was a teenager... he did it for 51 years. Evidence enough of the influence.

I think to claim that Moog was the inventor of the synthesizer is pushing it a bit. He wasn't even alive when the Dynamophone, Theremin, Spharophon, Dynaphone, Ondes Martenot and Trautonium were invented. Yes he invented the voltage-controlled oscillator but even that was already worked by Harald Bode, inventor of the Melochord. Just a suggestion, why don't you do some research before passing stuff of as truth. (Kelcey)

Phonetics?

"The theremin or thereminvox (originally pronounced /tay-ray-meen/ but often anglicized as /there-uh-min/) ..."

What on earth is this system of transcription? I've never seen it before, but it seems somewhat official, with its slashes. Whatever it is (if it is anything at all), it should be specified. I tried reading it as IPA, but hit rather a sticking point almost immediately. Anyone? - Vague | Rant 08:45, May 30, 2005 (UTC)

I don't know what it is, but the system seems pretty clear to me (western American). The problem with IPA is that it is inscrutable for someone who hasn't been trained in it. That makes it effectively an independent language complete with its own character set— which is fine for the specialist (because it is unambiguous) but not for the average English speaker. I wonder why the "dictionary English" long and short vowel marks and syllabic accent marks (for example) do not seem to be available on Wikipedia? --Blainster 01:54, 31 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I've converted them into IPA following Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation). I'm not sure what language "tay-ray-meen" was meant to be representing, but I assumed it was a representation of the French thérémine. If it should be pronounced as English, [teɪɹeɪmiːn] might be better. --bjh21 16:55, 23 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

unique

I read the first paragraph as "[As a musical instrument] the theremin is unique in that it requires no physical contact in order to produce music and was, in fact, the first musical instrument designed to be played without being touched." If it is truely unique, then it goes without saying that it was the first.

--> Forget the D-Beam or the E-Bow?

Some musicians who have used the theremin

Am I out of line by suggesting that this section is getting a little out of hand? Perhaps rather than being notable musicians who have used a theremin it should be musicians who have used a theremin in a notable fashion. That would cut a lot of the questionable personnel from said list. The long of the short of it is that a lot of musicians have used a theremin at some point or another. Just because a few freakish theremin wails appear on one song from one album doesn't seem, to me, like a valid criterion to put a musician this list. Compare this article with guitar or piano. Personally, I'm in favor of removing the entire section. Comments? -- Krash 00:47, 27 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hearty agreement here. If we can get it down to a handful, fine. Otherwise dump the whole list. --Blainster 02:56, 28 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Good deal. I just cut the whole section. I think anyone worthy of mention is listed above in the In popular music section. If anyone sees the need for this list, let's use this talk page to weed out an appropriate handful.
Maybe I'll next take it upon myself to clean up the link repository...
-- Krash 14:39, 28 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I find it sort of sad that this list has been removed, as I'm really quite interested in hearing (even brief) examples of bands utilizing the Theremin... especially great artists like Add N to (x), the flaming lips, edward ka-spel/the legendary pink dots, and the polyphonic spree. Now that I think about it, it seems to me that many of these artists have used the instrument in a significant way... If I recall, the last track on The Polyphonic Spree's debut album contained a 30+ minute long noise/drone/music track which was probably mostly theremin. I've no doubt in my mind that much of the stuff done by Edward Ka-Spel contains theremin, but it must blend in well with his semi-creepy musical aura. I think this is just another example of a fine section for an "expanded" version of a wikipedia article. Is it really a consensus that this information doesn't belong in the article or somewhere on wikipedia? Many of these artists seem to me to serve as good examples of what a theremin might add to contemporary experimental and pop music as an atmospheric (rather than the center of the musical piece). Jxn 06:37, 27 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
As for the The Polyphonic Spree - the track you mention is based on vocal samples; nevertheless - the band _has_a_thereminist_as_a_regular_member_ - I can't see what could possibly be more significant. (Well, theremin solos, I guess...)
I agree with scratching the one-time and unconfirmed uses (the notable ones, like the Beach Boys, are already in the "popular music" section anyway) - but there's still going to be enough artists to fill (and justify) the list (some of them were not even there, like The Avalanches). Squeal 20:40, 20 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Removed material

Nomenclature and other business

Okay...what's the dude's name. Because I've always thought it was Léon. The bulk of the literature that I have on hand calls him Léon ad nauseam. Even though it was his birth name, to call him "Lev" just seem neologistic. I'm going to change the article to reflect this.

I just pulled off mentions of Bill Bailey, Goldfrapp, and Mentok the Mindtaker per my sentiments from September expressed in the section above.

I don't know about the others, but Goldfrapp I'm putting back. (I figure she's _the_ most famous comtemporary user of the instrument, at least here in Europe...) Squeal 21:11, 20 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Also, Jimmy Page is a lot of things but he is not a theremin virtuoso. -- Krash 01:33, 6 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sample?

It would be great to have a few .ogg files to give us an idea of what the heck this thing actually sounds like ... Ppe42 03:25, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

merger with Electro-Theremin

Merging would make this article too long. — Shadowhillway 05:46, 19 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Electro-Theremin is different instrument. Similar to Ondes Martenot. Do not merge them. Aum.en 10:23, 20 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

And now 3 editors disagree with the proposed merger. I'm going to remove the tags. -- Krash (Talk) 13:33, 20 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Anonymous user 209.139.215.129 asked on my talk page why I deleted the link to "Theremin Enthusiasts Club International". My answer here: after browsing the site, I concluded that the site is not the type or quality of site that should be linked from this encyclopedia article. Request comment and consensus from other editors. — Shadowhillway 00:49, 21 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Easily reproduced

I don't agree with this statement:

Even though theremin sounds can be reproduced easily on modern-day synthesizers, many musicians continue to appreciate the novelty and uniqueness of using an actual theremin.

The 'sound' of the theremin itself is usually something resmebling a modified sine wave, which is easy to emulate. Emulating the performance of the instrument, however, is a different matter entirely. 'Modern-day synthesizers' use discreet notes on a keyboard, and even with pressure-sensitive XY touchpads such as on the Korg Z1 or the ribbon controllers on the Kurzweil K2500 and up, an emulation of a theremin performance on anything other than a theremin is poor at best. I'm going to rephrase this. If there are any objections, I'd like to hear them. --Overand 02:46, 26 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I never liked that statement because it is not demonstrative of a full appreciation of the instrument. Please do rephrase. Sounds approximating a theremin timbre can be synthesized on contemporary equipment, but a faithful software emulation of all the characteristics of a theremin would be much more involved. — Shadowhillway 02:55, 26 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Star Trek theme: Theremin or Ondes Martenot?

The Ondes Martenot article claims that that instrument was used in the theme. This needs to be researched. Ibadibam 22:34, 6 June 2006 (UTC) The article on the theme itself lists a vocalist. I seem to recall hearing that different seasons had different versions. Ibadibam 00:48, 7 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Doctor Who TV programme

Good day chaps. Over on this side of the pond, i might be so bold as so suggest that the most popularly-known use of the theremin over here is in the theme to Doctor Who. Perhaps it should be added to the TV programmes section. --Glastonbridge 19:09, 12 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Funny, I thought that very thing on reading this article for the first time today. (And I'm on the "left" side of the pond!) I'll be bolder and add the reference -YorkBW 22:21, 12 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
OK, I've been educated, and I take back my boldness. Several resources on the web (such as http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Mark_Ayres/DWTheme.htm) claim there's no theremin in the Doctor Who theme! -YorkBW 22:32, 12 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There is no theremin - the entire theme was concocted by putting together samples of tones that were re-recorded at different speeds to produce each of the required notes, which were then spliced to get the right length of sound. In effect, just about all the notes were hand-crafted in this way by Delia Derbyshire. It was the subject of a documentary that has been screened as part of different "Doctor Who Night"s on BBC TWO -AlanJenney 22:00, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

La Niña Santa

The theremin is also a recurring theme in the 2004 movie La Niña Santa, but it seems unuseful to me to add this trivia info when there is no page about this movie yet.


Marriage

He married while in New York, and this was an interracial marriage (he married an african-american woman.) This caused interesting reactions from people here in the states. When he was kidnapped, he was kidnapped away from his own wife, and I believe she never learned what happened to him. This was all well covered in the documentary of a few years ago. Some synopsis of his marriage and all of these events would be good to flesh out this article and add perspective and humanity, I think... but I don't have a copy of the documentary so I can't do it accurately.

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