Vulcan Harp & Theremin - #2

YouTube via copperleaves | January 30, 2011 |

"This composition is called THE FIRE PLAINS and it is the second in a series of 12 studies for the Vulcan harp and theremin. The Vulcan harp was introduced by artist and visionary Wah Ming Chang more than 40 years ago for a STAR TREK episode. Over the years it has evolved considerably, along with the technology involved with its manufacture. It is acoustic, electroacoustic and electronic (it is the electronic component that permits such things as the playing of complex harmonies, glide pitch shifts, arpeggiation, etc.).

This piece is a study for the use of the gated arpeggiator. Before starting to play, I tapped two bars on the "tapper control" in the tempo I wanted the arpeggiator to engage in the second half of the composition (two bars instructs the instrument to play sixteenth notes - one bar would have told it to play eighth notes). Once the pattern is entered, all the harpist has to do is touch the tapper to engage it and apply it to the chords that are struck. From that point on, it is activated or deactivated alternately by touch until it is cancelled.

This instrument is a prototype. It is entirely self-contained and it is not MIDI capable. It has 15 banks of its own sounds, and each bank has 10 programs. The instrument is also provided with its own effects, timbre controls, etc. It is not mechanically activated like a keyboard. It triggers its sounds by means of the frequencies that the strings are tuned to, so it must be very accurately tuned prior to playing. It transmits directly to its amplifier by means of an antenna integrated into the pin column (the extended curved vertical arm that holds the tuning pins) so there are no cables.

This performance was recorded in a single take because it was too tricky to try and piece it together with only one video camera. Once the track was complete, I overdubbed the theremin part using the Samuel Hoffman 1929 RCA theremin. I didn't bother to show myself playing the theremin because there are already quite a few videos here on YT of me playing theremins of different sorts. The Vulcan harp, on the other hand, is rare. There are only two instruments in the world like the one you see in this video."

Vulcan Harp & Theremin (1929 RCA Theremin)

YouTube via copperleaves | January 18, 2011 |

"This is called THE KATRIC ARK and it is one of a series of 12 compositions for Vulcan harp and theremin. Since the Vulcan harp was introduced by artist and visionary Wah Ming Chang more than 40 years ago, it has evolved considerably, along with the technology involved with its manufacture. It is acoustic, electroacoustic and electronic (it is the electronic component that permits such things as the playing of complex harmonies, glide pitch shifts, etc.).

As a sculptor, Chang molded the instrument to fit the human body, and it is great to hold because it is so wonderfully ergonomic. This particular harp has 26 strings (copper, brass and silver) and is played with finger picks. There are no steel strings and the instrument does not use magnetic pickups like electric guitars. It also does not need to be plugged into anything so there are no annoying cables to get in the way. It transmits directly to its amplifier and speakers by means of an antenna integrated into the pin column (the extended curved vertical arm that holds the tuning pins). The two speakers you see in the video are JBL JRX-125 monitors.

As a concept, the characteristics of "Vulcan music" are determined by the remarkable capabilities of the Vulcan harp which include many of the possibilities of the classical instruments of India. The sound of the Vulcan harp has been described as a combination of harp, lute, violin and sitar. If you add to this everything that is possible with the use of the shift disc and the harmonic valves (the seven button controls - one for each note of the diatonic scale - riding above the brass plate) you have an extraordinary number of combinations that can be explored. The harmonic valves are all level-sensitive (each responds to three degrees of left hand finger pressure applied to them: touch, half, and full) and this determines the harmony applied to the vibrating strings. Octave displacement is played by multiple valve configurations depending on the register in which the harpist wants to play.

There is also a "tapper control" incorporated into the Vulcan harp for generating complex polyrhythms but it is not used in this particular composition. The "tapper" is the knob that sits just behind the lowest bass strings on the upper edge of the instrument facing the harpist. It can be silently programmed just before a piece is played by drumming the fingers of the left hand on the knob in the exact rhythm combination you want to hear applied to your sound once you begin to play. The instrument will loop the rhythm continuously throughout the piece (or until you squelch it).

The theremin in this video is the 1929 RCA that once belonged to Hollywood thereminist Dr. Samuel Hoffman. It was used by Dr. Hoffman on the soundtracks of many classic science fiction films of the 1950's, so I thought it would be appropriate to use it here. If you are curious about this 1929 theremin, I am featured in the 20TH CENTURY FOX 2-disc DVD "special edition" of the re-issue of the original 1951 science fiction masterpiece, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. There are already several videos on YouTube of me playing this instrument (and some from the 1950's of Dr. Hoffman as well) so after the solo theremin section at the beginning of the composition, I concentrated entirely on showing the Vulcan harp. There are very few Vulcan harps in the world and even fewer musicians who can actually play them, so I thought people might might like to see it.

PLEASE NOTE: the recording of this composition was done directly to a Roland VS-2400CD. There were no FX added to the instruments other than the usual EQ and a small amount of reverb. No peripherals, no MIDI modules, overdubs or computers were used at any time in the recording process."

Dvorak

YouTube via copperleaves | December 23, 2010

LONDONDERRY AIR / Ethervox Theremin

YouTube via copperleaves | December 07, 2010 | 0 likes, 0 dislikes

"The great Irish singer Harry P. Greene (born in Dublin in 1865) said of this traditional Irish melody, "It is a perfect example of pure phrasing far beyond the powers of that most limited instrument, the human voice. Only the violin can begin to do it justice and rise to its wonderful climax with every note serenely true. None of the great singers have tried to sing it; they know better!"

Since it was first introduced in the mid 19th century, this melody has remained one of the most recognizable and loved throughout the world. There have been several sets of lyrics written to be sung to this tune (the most popular is "Danny Boy") but the melody stands beautifully on its own."

BEATLES Theremin

YouTube via copperleaves | November 27, 2010 | 3 likes, 0 dislikes

"This song is called THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD and it was one of the last songs the Beatles did together (1970) before the group broke up. For me, this video was an experiment in trying to play precision theremin and sing at the same time. I found that the best I could do was play "fills" (short instrumental phrases between the melody lines), so I only sang one verse.

The song itself has a very interesting history and has its own article on Wikipedia, at the following URL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long...

The theremin I am playing is a Moog Ethervox, and I am singing into a Sennheiser headset microphone."

Mozart Theremin Concerto

YouTube via copperleaves | November 12, 2010

"This is the main theme from the "andante" movement of Mozart's piano concerto #21 in C major (K. 467). The theme was used in the soundtrack of the 1967 Swedish film, ELVIRA MADIGAN, and since then it has been called "The Elvira Madigan Concerto".

This is a theremin transcription of the theme played on the Moog Ethervox."

"AFRIQUE" For Gravikord & Theremin

YouTube via copperleaves | October 27, 2010
Theremin comes in at 2:24.
"The "gravikord" is an electroacoustic instrument that is the brainchild of inventor and musical instrument builder, Bob Grawi. It is based on the traditional west African double harp known as the "kora". This piece of music is a short improvisation designed to show some of the things that the gravikord can do (things that are not possible on the kora). I had to cut my head off when I filmed myself playing the gravikord because I was singing the part that I would eventually play on the Moog Ethervox theremin and it looked a bit silly!

For more about the gravikord (tuning, construction etc.) Wikipedia has a very interesting and informative article at the following URL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravikord"

Julius Goldberg's RCA Theremin

YouTube via copperleaves — June 13, 2010 — "This is the unique 1929 RCA theremin that was once the property of Leon Theremin's assistant, Julius Goldberg. One of the things that makes this instrument so unusual, are the "lightning bolt" antennas that were created for it in the 1930's. For the purpose of this video, I have removed the cabinet doors in order to be able to show the inside of the instrument.

One of the problems that RCA theremins can develop over the years (this instrument is more than 80 years old) has to do with the degeneration of the "trimming condensers". These are the three little white cards that hang from the chassis. You will notice that each card has a trimming screw on it which allows the user to adjust the range of the instrument as well as the volume response. Turning the screw to the left or the right fine tunes capacitance by pushing two plates together on the inside of the card. Over the years, these plates naturally degenerate and lose their capacitance (causing the pitch range of the sound to fall lower and lower over the decades) so extra capacitance has to be added in order to maintain the integrity of the instrument. This can be done easily by adding a capacitor to the circuit. I have done this by connecting small alligator clips to the poles of the circuits and then inserting capacitors that will return the instrument to the original RCA specifications. By leaving the clips exposed (you can see them in the video) I can access them easily and adjust capacitance without having to disassemble the theremin.

The elaborate speaker stand that you see behind me, is an exact replica of the "sprite" speakers (there were originally three of them) that were created for the "Electrio" in 1931 by Vincente Minnelli when he was working as a set designer at Radio City Music Hall. Minnelli later went on to become one of Hollywood's most celebrated film directors of the 1940's and 50's. Unfortunately, the original stands disappeared long ago. They are very top heavy and they probably just fell apart.

It was felt at the time that the theremin, theremincello, and theremin keyboard (which formed the "Electrio") was not very interesting to look at from a distance, so these spectacular Art Deco speaker stands were created to look impressive from a distance. They were almost eight feet tall (this reproduction is about 7' 8" tall) and were very fragile. The stand you see in this video is equipped with a CLARATONE speaker specially designed for use with a theremin.

The piece I am playing is CHE FARO SENZA EURIDICE from C. W. Gluck's opera, ORFEO ED EURIDICE.

If you would like to know more about Julius Goldberg, and see some photos of the original sprite speakers, please visit my website:

http://www.peterpringle.com"

Click here for all posts featuring Peter Pringle featured here on MATRIXSYNTH. Don't miss this impressive cover of Cohen's Hallelujah.

As When The Dove / Handel / Theremin

YouTube via copperleaves — May 03, 2010 — "This piece is called AS WHEN THE DOVE LAMENTS HER LOVE and it is from the oratorio ACIS AND GALATEA (1720) by George Frideric Handel. I first recorded this piece, or maybe I should say my own arrangement of it transcribed for theremin, several years ago before YouTube existed. It is wonderful fun to play so I decided to do a whole new version of it on HD video and post it.

There is a lot of very fast fingering and some extended baroque trills in this piece which are hard to see because they tend to become a blur on a video screen. I tried to get camera angles that would show as much as possible of the technique involved in case there are some theremin enthusiasts out there who are interested in this kind of music.

The theremin I am playing is a Moog Etherwave Pro which has been modified with an EPVM1345 module created by French engineer, Thierry Frenkel. I have to say that I got as much of a kick out of playing the harpsichord on this piece as I did out of playing the theremin!"

ELECTRONDE (Theremin) of Martin Taubman

YouTube via copperleaves — April 16, 2010 — "This is an archival news film from 1938, showing Martin Taubman and his "Electronde". If you look carefully, you can catch an occasional glimpse of the audio cutoff cable that runs from Taubman's left hand (which he keeps at his side) to the Electronde cabinet. The volume for this device is controlled by a pedal placed under Taubman's right foot. The pad under his left foot is there only for balance so that one leg is not higher than the other.

According to the 1939 CYCLOPEDIA OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS (which was edited by, among others, Nicolas Slonimsky, a personal friend of Lev Termen, the inventor of the theremin), the absence of "attack" on the "space control" instruments was considered a serious limitation by many musicians of the 1930's. While a fast "dipping" motion of the volume hand of a thereminist can create the impression of attack, it is not instantaneous and cannot produce the true staccato of Taubman's ELECTRONDE.

You will notice that Taubman has placed his Electronde on top of his speaker, and turned the speaker so that it points to Taubman's right. This way, when he plays, his audience sees him only in profile and his left hand (which controls his audio cutoff switch) is hidden on the upstage side."

GABRIEL'S OBOE - HOFFMAN'S THEREMIN - 1929

YouTube via copperleaves — April 08, 2010 — "This is the GABRIEL'S OBOE theme from Italian composer Ennio Morricone's score for the film, THE MISSION. Through the miracle of "green screen" I have been able to place myself inside the theremin. Yes, those giant glass tanks behind me are actually the delicate little vacuum tubes that give the RCA theremin its distinctive voice.

This instrument was once the property of Doctor Samuel Hoffman, who used it on the soundtracks of such classic films as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, SPELLBOUND, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and many other suspense and SciFi movies of the late 1940's and 1950's. At that time, he modified the instrument for use in the recording studio by putting special audio output jacks on it so that external speakers could be plugged into the RCA theremin amplifier. For this recording, I used a CLARATONE speaker that was specially built by Florida vintage theremin expert Reid Welch (you can see it mounted on a pole behind me and to my left).

This speaker was designed to emulate the sound of the vintage Jensen speaker used by the late, great theremin virtuosa, Clara Rockmore. Because Reid had been a personal friend of Clara Rockmore, he had the opportunity to study her instrument and her speaker set up. His CLARATONE has a 10 inch cone and a particularly warm, sweet and definitely human voice."

Hoffman Theremin - O MIO BABBINO CARO

YouTube via copperleaves — April 02, 2010 — "The videos I have posted to YouTube in the past that show me playing Samuel Hoffman's RCA theremin were made when YouTube quality was not as good as it is today. Here is a theremin transcription of O MIO BABBINO CARO from Giacomo Puccini's opera, GIANNI SCHICCHI. As you can see, I have taken the doors off the cabinet so I could zoom in on the old vacuum tubes that give the instrument its distinctive voice.

Doctor Hoffman used this theremin on the soundtracks of such classic films as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, SPELLBOUND, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and many other suspense and SciFi movies of the late 1940's and 1950's. At that time, he modified the instrument for use in the recording studio by putting special audio output jacks on it so that external speakers could be plugged into the RCA theremin amplifier. For this recording, I used a CLARATONE speaker that was specially built by Florida vintage theremin expert Reid Welch (aka "Mr. Trubble").

This speaker was designed to emulate the sound of the Jensen speaker used by the late, great theremin virtuosa, Clara Rockmore. Because Reid had been a personal friend of Clara Rockmore, he had the opportunity to study her instrument and her speaker set up. His CLARATONE has a 10 inch cone and a particularly warm, sweet and definitely human voice. Unfortunately, Reid only made a limited number of these custom speakers and I was lucky to get the very last one (which I purchased in 1998).

The speaker that is built into the cabinet of this unique theremin was placed so that it was facing away from the thereminist and on the floor. This is the very worst possible place for a theremin speaker because when you play, your speaker is the only way you can hear what you are doing. For best results, your theremin speaker should be placed at head level, behind or beside you, pointing toward you, and no further away than about six feet.

A friend of mine who was well acquainted with vintage radio technology used to call vacuum tubes 'magical Inca fire bottles'."

In A Monastery Garden - THEREMIN

YouTube via copperleaves
"One of the very first theremin recordings ever made was thereminist Lennington Shewell's transcription of British composer Albert Ketelbey's hugely popular 1915 composition, IN A MONASTERY GARDEN. It was released in 1930 by RCA at virtually the same time as they began to distribute the first RCA theremins.

This is a wonderful piece of magnificently schmaltzy, unabashedly sentimental, early 20th century "light" program music and it launched Ketelbey into the forefront of the popular composers of his day and made him one of Britain's first music millionaires. This piece of music was wildly popular and would have been very familiar to our great grandparents. We need to remember that it was written after the start of World War I, and Europeans were reeling from the tragedy and brutality of the destruction of the world they had known.

The score calls for birdsong, chapel bells, an organ, and for a chorus of monks to be heard singing "Kyrie Eleison" (a phrase from the Greek meaning, "Lord, have mercy") in a nearby cloister. The monks' voices were to be (according to the original score) the "gentlemen of the orchestra" who were required not only to play their instruments but to sing as well!

Here's what Ketelbey himself wrote about this composition: "The first theme represents a poet's reverie in the quietude of the monastery garden amidst beautiful surroundings - the calm serene atmosphere - the leafy trees and the singing birds. The second theme in the minor expresses the more personal note of sadness, of appeal and contrition. Presently, the monks are heard chanting "Kyrie Eleison" with the organ playing and the chapel bell ringing. The first theme is now heard in a quieter manner as if it had become more ethereal and distant; the singing of the monks is again heard - it becomes louder and more insistent, bringing the piece to a conclusion in a glow of exultation".

The theremin in this video is a Moog Ethervox and I used it not only for the melody but also for the birdsong. The voices of the monks singing "Kyrie Eleison" are me singing into a Digitech VOCALIST."

Tuvan Throat Singing & Theremin

YouTube via copperleaves

"Here is a short improv for Tuvan/Mongolian throat singing (a style known as "khoomei") and MIDI theremin. The instrument you see me holding in the video is called a "morin xuur" or "horse fiddle". It is normally played with a bow but in this composition I pluck the strings and also drum my fingers on it to play rhythmic patterns. I'm afraid I'm not a particularly good throat singer, but I do enjoy doing it a lot and I greatly admire the Tuvan and Mongolian musicians who are the real masters of it.

The MIDI theremin you see in this video is the Moog MIDI Ethervox."

Be sure to see Huun-Huur-Tu - Live

Le Plat Pays / Brel / Theremin

YouTube via copperleaves
"This is Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel's anthem about his country. He originally wrote the song in French but recorded it in both French and Dutch. Brel was one of the first popular singers to use the instrument known as the "ondes martenot" in his songs and it was an important part of the special feeling of this song. I do not play the ondes so I have used its sister instrument, the theremin, instead. I first heard this song in the summer of 1963 and fell in love with it. For me, Brel has been an inspiration ever since."

Theremin And Electric Kantele

YouTube via copperleaves

"I call this composition LEMMENKAINEN'S DREAM. Lemmenkainen was one of the heroes in the Finnish national epic known as the KALEVALA. The writer of The Lord Of The Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien, based much of his vision of Middle Earth on ideas and images from the Kalevala which he had read as a teenager. He liked it so much he actually learned Finnish in order to read the book in its native language, and later went on to invent a language entirely of his own (the language of the Elves called "Quenya") which was based on Finnish.

The kantele (pronounced "kan - teh - leh") is the national instrument of Finland and belongs to the family of instruments known as "psalteries". The one you see in this video is a 38 string, steel strung, electric kantele. It's magnetic pickups (which are eight inches long) were custom made by Jason Lollar for Bart Hopkin of Experimental Musical Instruments. If you are curious about them, visit Bart's website, windworld.com.

The kantele is an extremely resonant instrument and larger "concert" models are provided with a damper consisting of a thick felt strip similar to what you might find on a piano, in order to mute the strings. I left the damper box open in the middle part of this video so you could see what it looks like. These electroacoustic kanteles bear little resemblance to the traditional 5 and 10 string folk instruments but they open up all sorts of doors for modern musicians. The high tension and steel strings on the instrument in this video allow me, if I wish, to play the kantele with a bar which I hold in my left hand. Players of steel guitars and of certain traditional instruments of India also play in this way. The effect of it is a very pure and strangely lonely "northern" sound which I found appropriate for the piece.

The theremin I used is a Moog Etherwave Pro."

THEREMIN: Yesterday, Today & Forever

YouTube via copperleaves
"Here are two performances of the Disney classic SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL COME performed on the same 1929 RCA theremin 53 years apart. The first version was from a broadcast of the Disney TV show, THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB in 1956, where we see the celebrated Hollywood thereminist, Dr. Samuel Hoffman, playing for a group of mouseketeers. The second version of the song is one I recorded this afternoon (Nov. 24, 2009) on the theremin that once belonged to the late Dr. Hoffman. It is fortunate that extremely good care has been taken of this instrument throughout its life and it functions as well today as it did when it was made 80 years ago."

THEREMIN: L'invitation au voyage

YouTube via copperleaves. Don't miss this performance as well. You can find more here.
"This is one of my favorite songs from the works of French composer Henri Duparc, originally written to a poem by Charles Baudelaire. I have taken certain liberties with the arrangement in order to make up for the absence of the words which are extraordinarily powerful.

Duparc lived an unhappy, tormented life and did not write many compositions. Along with composer Camille Saint-Saens, he founded the National Society Of Modern Music in his native France.

I should mention that I probably would not have been able to play this on my Moog Etherwave Pro theremin if it's volume circuit linearity had not been greatly improved by the addition of the EPVM1345, a tiny module invented by French engineer Thierry Frenkel."

Rachmaninoff: Theremin "How Fair This Spot"

YouTube via copperleaves
"This is a transcription for theremin of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff's beautiful song, Opus 21 #7, "Zdes Xorosho" (How Fair This Spot).

According to the New York Times, Rachmaninoff attended a demonstration of the theremin in 1930, given by its inventor, Leon Theremin (a fellow Russian), at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Apparently there was a woman in the audience who leapt to her feet after the first number applauding and shouting "Bravo! Bravo!" Rachmaninoff who, according to the article, was sitting behind her, loudly exclaimed, "Sit down Madame! You Exaggerate!"

At the time, the instrument was unknown and there were no musicians, other than its inventor, who were competent to play it.

Although Rachmaninoff never wrote anything for the theremin, one of his compositions, VOCALISE, has become one of the standard transcription compositions for the instrument. In regard to this song, HOW FAIR THIS SPOT, written for piano and voice in 1901, I found the following information on the internet:

'Rachmaninoff and his wife were on their honeymoon when he composed the work, which, not surprisingly, he also dedicated to her. Moreover, he had recently recovered from a depression caused by the disastrous 1897 premiere of his Symphony No. 1, which undermined his confidence and ability to compose until the appearance in 1901 of his ever-popular Piano Concerto No. 2. This was obviously a blissful time in his life, then, true to his nature, Rachmaninoff was moved to write music here about romance and passion, leaving out the sunshine and merriment he must also have felt. The song features one of the composer's most soaring, beautiful vocal melodies that would not have been out of place in a slow movement of one of his concertos or symphonies. The accompaniment is appropriately subdued and just as romantic as the vocal line. The text, by G. Galina, describes a pastoral scene where young lovers have come to be alone with nature and themselves. This lovely song typically has a duration of just over two minutes.'"

Cohen's HALLELUJAH: Vocal, Theremin & MIDI theremin

YouTube via copperleaves.
"First of all, I'm sorry this video is so long but I wanted to sing all the verses of it that I could find. Leonard Cohen (who wrote the song) said that he wished people would stop singing it but you might as well ask people to stop looking at the Mona Lisa! In its genre, this song is a masterpiece.

I discovered Leonard Cohen back in the early 60's when a family friend gave my parents a copy of LOVE WHERE THE NIGHTS ARE LONG, a collection of the works of Cohen and his friend and mentor, the late, brilliant Irving Layton. I had never really appreciated poetry until I read that book. Perhaps what has always impressed me most about Leonard Cohen's work is his ability to be distant and objective about his subject while resting quietly in its heart.

There are two theremins in this video, Samuel Hoffman's 1929 RCA and the Moog MIDI Ethervox. I have never been able to sing and accurately play the theremin at the same time, so verse three (where I play the Hoffman RCA) is the only verse where I did not sing live. The MIDI theremin (which you see on verse five) is fairly easy to play while singing. Simple gestures of the arm trigger sounds from a separate MIDI module (in this case a Roland JV 2080).

The keyboard on this video is a Korg Triton Extreme (doubled with a Roland Fantom XR). The advantage of an electronic keyboard over an acoustic piano is that there is no leakage into the vocal mike when a singer is playing and singing at the same time. Nothing will ever replace a good Steinway but the latest generations of electronic keyboards are awesome!

The mike I used is a cordless Sennheiser that I have had for years. It was given to me by Sennheiser when they sponsored a tour in the 1980's and it works as well today as it did when I got it.

Here's a little bit of trivia you may not know about the RCA theremin in this video. According to Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong's biographer, Andrew Smith, Armstrong actually took a recording of this theremin with him into space for the moon landing in 1969. The previous owner of this instrument, Dr. Samuel Hoffman, used it on his 1947 recording, MUSIC OUT OF THE MOON. Neil Armstrong liked the sound of it so much that he made a cassette tape of it from his personal record collection and took it with him to the moon.

Andrew Smith ends his book, MOONDUST, with the following words, '.....when I've thought of Apollo, I've thought of him [Neil Armstrong] and his little band drifting out there toward the secret Moon.....spilling theremin music out at the stars.'"

Update via Brian in the comments:
"Check out: http://www.peterpringle.com/"