Theremin

Терменвокс

Audio: Theremin

The theremin is the first mass-produced electronic musical instrument, played without touch by moving the hands through the electromagnetic field of two antennas. Invented in 1920 by the physicist Léon Theremin (1896–1993).

The theremin is a legendary instrument on which the performer literally “paints sound in the air.” One antenna (vertical) controls pitch based on the distance of the right hand; the other (horizontal, loop-shaped) controls volume based on the left hand.

The inventor was the physicist Léon Theremin (1896–1993). The most famous 20th-century theremin virtuoso was Clara Rockmore. The theremin sounds in classic cinema (Hitchcock's Spellbound) and in modern electronic music; the similar sound in the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations was made on Paul Tanner's Electro-Theremin, an instrument without antennas. Today young Ukrainian performers are taking up the instrument.

Cultural Versus

Theremin

Sub-category:: electronic

56%similarity

Basolia

Sub-category:: strings

The basolia is a Ukrainian folk bowed string instrument of the bass register, similar in form and size to the cello. Held between the knees, it has 3–4 strings and provides the low bass voice in troïsta music.