A Man of Mystery and Legend LEV TERMEN 1896 - 1993 A Man of Mystery and Legend

Lev Termen was interested in electricity and music from an early age when he was 13 he became interested in the work of Tesla and high frequency fields, he observed that the pitch of a Tesla coil was influenced by nearby metallic masses. He became a student at the Moscow institute of physics technology and radio sciences.

In 1920 he returned to the institute as head of the oscillation laboratory, where he devised a technique for measuring the temperature of gasses by the variation in pitch with temperature. His interest in music resulted in the demonstration of the first theramin using the principles derived from the gas temperature experiments in September 1920, he regarded this instrument as being perfected with the two aerials one for pitch and the other for volume.

In June 1921 he applied for a patent which was granted in Sept 1924 In June 1921 he applied for a patent which was granted in Sept 1924. In 1924 Termen demonstrated his invention at a conference about the electrification of the country, the demonstration was a great success and Pravda journalists named his instrument the ‘Termenvox’

1922 - 4 In 1922 he met Lenin who played the theramin quite well, Termen said. Lenin awarded Termen a medal and the right to travel freely throughout the country. During this period termen worked at the institute of Electronics, the Poulkov observatory, and the Military medical school. Termen claims to have made the first working television during this time.

1925 Termen was sent abroad to demonstrate his invention and give concerts in Berlin, Frankfurt, Dresden, and Munich. During this period he met many scientists including Einstein. Concerts were also given in Paris and London. His Albert Hall concert attracted 8000 people. During these tours he was also spying on the electrical companies that he visited.

1927 - 38 Termen was sent to the USA where he became a celebrity and his name was anglicised to Thermen, he gave his concerts and worked with General electric, RCA and other companies 9still spying for the USSR). Rca made 2000 theramins as they were now called for sale these original instruments are still sought after as a search of eBay will prove.

He set up a musical laboratory in New York and trained students in the instrument, Clara Rockmore, a Russian émigré was the most successful of these, she had trained as a cellist but had to give up after losing the use of her left hand. The Theramin was therefore the perfect instrument for her. She continued to perform for many years.

During his American period Termen continued to build instruments, to give concerts, and to train new players and in 1930 ten theramists? Gave a concert with the first electronic orcestra, featuring a Theramin Cello..

1938 Meanwhile things in the USSR were moving on and any scientist was suspect, Termen was kidnapped by the KGB and returned to Russia where he was sent to prison and then to a GULAG labour camp.

He disappeared from view and many in the West thought that he had been executed. Later he was sent to a Scientific Labour camp along with many other Russian scientists, where he worked on military projects.

1956 Following the death of Stalin who had awarded Termen a ‘secret medal’ He was rehabilitated. Among the projects that he worked on for the USSR were ;’BUGS’ the development of electronic listening devices, The famous bug planted in the American ambassadors office that operated for about 15 years was a Termen design.

1991 Termen was finally allowed to leave the USSR in 1991. He attended conferences of electronic music in France and America where he was greeted as the father of electronic music. He was re-united with Clara Rockwell and with his American wife, and gave talks and concerts at this time..

On his return to Moscow he found that his laboratory and home had been raided and all of his notes, records,models, instruments etc. had been removed, they have never been seen since. Lev Sergeyevich Termen died in 1993 aged 97

Other electronic musicians The man who kept the flame alive for so many years was Robert Moog. He started out building new theramins and repairing RCA models and his company still makes theramins under the name of ‘Etherwave’ It was Bob Moog who was instrumental in getting Termen back into the west.

Theremins in use The strange sound has been popular in film soundtracks and pop music as well as occasional use in classical concerts. The TV theme to Midsommer Murders features a theramin, as does the Beach Boys Good Vibrations, and tracks by Led Zeppelin, ‘Whole Lotta Love’

Technique The main problem with the theramin is the pitching of the instrument players usually stand very still and only move the fingers of the right hand to control the pitch and the position of the left to control the volume the technique is to stand with a loudspeaker immediately behind the player so that the pitch can be heard at a low volume by the player.

Internet searches will produce thousands of entries including plans kits and new developments, I recently found a design for a loaded antenna to replace the simple rod that was claimed to give a linear pitch control thus allowing better pitching by use of a printed piano type keyboard as well as a robot player controlled from a computer via a midi interface.

What is a Theremin? Basically a pair of high frequency oscillators one fixed, and one varied, by changes in capacitance bought about by hand position. The output of the 2 oscillators is mixed in a BFO to give a difference signal within the audible range.