Thomas Grillo has the makings of becoming the next Clara Rockmore. The Theremin is a notoriously difficult instrument to learn. Not only do you play the instrument without even touching it, but they are so sensitive that you need extraordinary hand control and listening skills to nail the pitch of each note you are playing. Clara Rockmore used to play with a speaker directly behind her head, so as to be able to hear the sound the instant it was generated, and would not allow people to come with 5-10 feet of her, lest their presence interfere with the instrument.

Thomas Grillo has also developed considerable skill with the instrument. Here he is performing “The Swan” by Camille Saint-Saëns.

In a nutshell, here’s how the Theremin works (from WikiPedia):
The theremin is unique among musical instruments in that it is played without physical contact. The musician stands in front of the instrument and moves his or her hands in the proximity of two metal antennas. The distance from one antenna determines frequency (pitch), and the distance from the other controls amplitude (volume). Most frequently, the right hand controls the pitch and the left controls the volume, although some performers reverse this arrangement. Some low-cost theremins use a conventional, knob operated volume control and have only the pitch antenna.

The theremin uses the heterodyne principle to generate an audio signal. The instrument’s pitch circuitry includes two radio frequency oscillators. One oscillator operates at a fixed frequency. The frequency of the other oscillator is controlled by the performer’s distance from the pitch control antenna. The performer’s hand acts as the grounded plate (the performer’s body being the connection to ground) of a variable capacitor in an L-C (inductance-capacitance) circuit. The difference between the frequencies of the two oscillators at each moment allows the creation of a difference tone in the audio frequency range, resulting in audio signals that are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.

To control volume, the performer’s other hand acts as the grounded plate of another variable capacitor. In this case, the capacitor detunes another oscillator, which affects the amplifier circuit. The distance between the performer’s hand and the volume control antenna determines the capacitor’s value, which regulates the theremin’s volume.[9]

Modern circuit designs often simplify this circuit and avoid the complexity of two heterodyne oscillators by having a single pitch oscillator, akin to the original theremin’s volume circuit. This approach is usually less stable and cannot generate the low frequencies that a heterodyne oscillator can. Better designs (e.g. Moog, Theremax) may use two pairs of heterodyne oscillators, for both pitch and volume.

Today, Theremins are widely available, and are fairly reasonably priced.

I’ve opened up the listening room for you all. This is a page I will post all (or most) of the best of my classical synthesizer recordings. At the time of this posting, there are 12 pieces, listed below:

Classical/Romantic/Impressionistic

Fetes from Nocturnes by Dubussy

Mars, the Bringer of War from The Planets by Holst

Holst/deCosta – Mercury, the Winged Messenger from The Planets

Holst – Neptune, the Mystic from The Planets

Eine Kleine Nachtmusique Mvt. 4 by Mozart

Organ Music transcribed for Synthesizers

Marcel Dupré – Prelude No. 3

Prelude, Choral et Fugue by Franck

Baroque/Renaissance

Claude la Coucou by Daquin

Noel-X by Daquin

Misc. (TV Themes, Experiments, etc.)

Danny Elfman – Beetle Juice Main Titles

Keeping Up Appearances Theme Music

Fawlty Towers Theme Music

I will post an update whenever I add a new piece.

Feel free to

SEND ME A REQUEST

(by adding a comment to this post)

for a piece you’ve always wanted to hear performed on synthesizers. I will do my best to accommodate.

VISIT THE LISTENING ROOM

I’ve just joined Classitronic, A SoundCloud group for classical synthesizer music. You’ll notice to the right a SoundCloud drop-box. This is where you, dear reader, can send me your own synthesizer recordings.

Here is my first two postings to the group, a recording of Debussy’s Fetes, from Nocturnes, and Mars from The Planets:

To join the group, head on over to Classitronic at SoundCloud.

I chose to use analog synthesizer exclusively in this recording, relying mostly on the MiniMoog V from Arturia, and the ES-2 that’s built into Logic Pro, and two Pro-53 instances.

From wikipedia:
The Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, K. 525, more commonly known as Eine kleine Nachtmusik (“a small serenade” — rendered more literally but less accurately as “a little night music”[1]), is a composition by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, written in 1787 while working on the second act of Don Giovanni in Vienna.[2] It is not known why it was composed.

The work is written for a chamber ensemble of two violins, viola, and cello with optional double bass. It is often performed with more than one person to a part.