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Delve deeper into hot topics featured in NGM's February Geographica with help from Resources. Click on a link, pick up a periodical, browse through a book, and explore!
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It's not just for sci-fi soundtracks anymore
Eight decades after its invention, one of the earliest electronic instruments is popular again.
To play the theremin, a musician's hands hover around the instrument's antennas, controlling pitch and volume by interrupting the electromagnetic fields that surround them.
The theremin produces wavering notes—ooh-WEE—oooh—that sound more like George Jetson than George Gershwin. You may have heard it in Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." But that's not a theremin in the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations"; it's the electro-theremin—based on the same principles but laid out like a keyboard.
Remembering which hand position produces what note isn't easy. Inventor Leon Theremin taught the technique in the United States in the 1920s after a series of concerts. He'd already made a splash in his native Soviet Union, giving demonstrations to admirers including Vladimir Lenin.
Build-your-own-theremin kits are now widely available. And Moog Music, a company specializing in electronic instruments, sold more than 3,100 ready-made theremins in 2001. "It's kind of a cult thing," says Moog's Linda Pritchard, "but more people seem to want them every year."
—Margaret G. Zackowitz
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