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RCA Theremin

Not available for use in Recording Studios

On exhibit

Artifact TypeTheremin

Manufacturer Radio-Victor Corporation of America (RCA)

Inventor Leon Theremin 1896 - 1993

Manufacturer LocationUSA, North America

Date1929

In the history of electronic music, the Theremin stands alone. To this day, it remains the first and only instrument of its kind that can be played without any physical contact from the performer. Its eerie sounds were used in the 1930s by the symphony orchestras of New York, Philadelphia and Cleveland, and by the 1970s it had found a place in popular music—showing up on songs by Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. Invented by Russian physicist Leon Theremin (1896 – 1993), this particular Theremin was manufactured by RCA as part of a pilot run of approximately 500 units in 1929.

Operation/FunctionThis instrument consists of a wooden cabinet/enclosure, two metal antennae (referred to as the pitch control rod and the volume control loop), eight vacuum tubes, three radio frequency oscillators, two coils (referred to as the pitch control resonant coil and the volume control resonant coil), two transformers, and both a pitch control adjustment knob and a volume control adjustment knob. The vertical antenna, which is used to control and vary the instrument’s frequency, is connected to a circuit that consists of a variable pitch coil of high inductance, as well as a smaller coil and condenser. The P-shaped horizontal antenna employs a similar design but is modified to control amplitude. A laced cable connects the electrical components, referred to as the Theremin Assembly, to the socket power unit. The output electrical signal produced by the instrument is amplified by an internal two-stage audio frequency amplifier. Most units are signed, ‘Radio Corporation of America’. Frequency range spans approximately four octaves. According to the RCA Theremin Service Manual Notes, the following electrical and physical specifications apply: - Voltage Rating: 105-125 Volts - Frequency Rating: 50-60 Cycles (Hertz) - Power Consumption: 90 Watts - Type of Circuit: Special beat frequency oscillator with audio stages - Number and Types of Tubes: Three UY-227, 1 UY-224, 1 UX-120, 2 UX-171A, 1 UX-280 (8 in total, all Radiotron) - Number of Oscillators: 3 - Type of Detector: Two-grid detector modulator - Number of A.F. Stages: 2 - Recommended Loudspeaker: RCA Loudspeaker 106 - Musical Range: 3.5 Octaves, Lowest note of loudspeaker to 1400 cycles approximately - Height to top of Pitch Control Rod: 64 inches - Height of Cabinet: 46.5 inches - Width, including Volume Control Loop: 31.5 inches - Width of Cabinet: 19 inches - Depth: 12 inches - Dimensions of Packing Case: 14.5 inches x 24 inches x 51 inches - Weight, Net: 67.5 lbs - Weight, Shipping: 99 lbs The vacuum tubes of the RCA Theremin have the following functions: UX-120 as power amplifier, UX-171-A as power amplifier, UY-224-A as screen grid radio-frequency amplifier, UY-227 as detector amplifier, and UX-280 as full-wave rectifier.Cultural SignificanceAlthough the Theremin remains a relatively obscure electronic instrument, its cultural impact cannot be understated. That being said, it never became a highly commercial success despite attaining an initial flurry of interest among the general public. When the instrument was first released by RCA in September of 1929, it sold for a whopping $232 (or $175 without the necessary vacuum tubes and recommended RCA Model 106 loudspeaker to accompany); this, at a time when most radio receiving sets could be bought for only $30. It was initially marketed as an instrument for the “everyman”, so to speak, in that simply standing and moving one’s arms around haphazardly could produce new and unusual tones. This claim of ease, of course, did not prove to be the case, as the majority of aspiring players who lacked any formal musical training – as well as a number of those who did have extensive training in an acoustic instrument – found the instrument exceedingly difficult to work with on account of its non-physical performance technique. Perhaps the biggest factor that attributed to the Theremin’s inability to garner any significant level of commercial success was due to the fact that its release date coincided with the stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent start of the Great Depression. That being said, the Theremin has always held a very important place in the history of contemporary Classical music in that it came exactly at a time when avant-garde and early experimental composers, such as Edgar Varèse and Olivier Messiaen, had felt the acoustic realm to be nearly exhausted, and were yearning for new timbres and articulations. In that regard, the Theremin’s emergence into the progressive and modernistic aesthetic tendencies of the early 1920s could not have been better timed. The Theremin remains one of the most critically regarded musical instruments, precisely due to its unique method of playing. Still, to this day, it stands as the first and only musical instrument that requires zero physical contact from the player in order to generate tones. It has been referenced numerous times in popular culture, including its somewhat niche usage in popular music. Although it remains the case that only a handful of performers have ever truly mastered the instrument throughout its nearly century-old history, it still stands as a sort of cult addition to the musical landscape, with a number of amateur Theremin orchestras emerging within the last few decades. It is regarded as one of the most groundbreaking instruments in the history of musical instrument design, and is still lauded for its unparalleled and unmistakable interface. In June of 2014, Canadian author, Sean Michaels, published a book with Random House Canada entitled Us Conductors, which chronicles the history of the Theremin and the storied life of its inventor. Michaels, who was born in Scotland and raised in Ottawa, later attending McGill University to pursue a degree in Cultural Studies, has succinctly expressed his fascination with the instrument, stating, “I love the idea that there was this time where the newest, most exciting scientific invention, akin to the iPad or Google Glass, where the world is wondering, ‘How will this transform us?’ was a musical instrument”.Technological SignificanceThe Theremin stands, still today, as one of the most important instruments in the history of electronic music. It is unsurpassed in its technological innovation, providing the groundwork for a series of electronic musical instruments that would emerge throughout the twentieth century employing new and alternative methods of interaction. Although its internal electronic mechanisms are, in fact, somewhat simplistic, the brilliance and uniqueness of its exterior operation are what have continued to render the instrument such an iconic musical object for nearly a century. Technologically, it also attests to the geist, so to speak, of an aesthetic era – this being the modernist decades of the early twentieth century – where the general attitude was bent towards new and progressive ideas. The first RCA Theremins predated the advent of the transistor and employed vacuum tube technology. A vacuum tube is a device that directs the flow of electric current through a vacuum within a sealed container. They were used as a fundamental component of electronic technology throughout the first half of the twentieth century, until they were replaced by solid-state transistors and related devices in the 1950s and 1960s. The first instantiation of vacuum tube technology was invented by American engineer Lee De Forest (1873 – 1961) in 1906, and came in the form of what was referred to as the “grid” Audion. Solid-state technology was far smaller, lighter, more reliable, more durable, and less expensive than vacuum tube technology. It has been said that Theremin first conceived of the idea for the instrument while experimenting with radio frequency oscillating circuits at the Technical Institute in St. Petersburg, where he was employed throughout the mid 1920s. He became fascinated by the notion that the body moving within an electromagnetic field could affect the frequency of the circuit without requiring any physical interaction, likening the experience of control to that of an orchestral conductor. It is important to note that, despite popular belief, the Theremin was not by any means the first electronic musical instrument. It was, indeed, certainly among the first commercially-minded electronic instruments, however a number of other experiments in the electronic generation and amplification of sound preceded it. Most notable among these is Thaddeus Cahill’s Telharmonium, which was developed in 1897 and is often considered to be the first precursor to the electronic organ given its use of tonewheels and additive synthesis. That being said, the Theremin does remain alone in its unique design, with no other instrument created either before or after replicating the extent to which the instrument is performed without the physical contact of the player, and with few other instruments employing the body’s natural capacitance (its ability to hold an electrical charge) as an element of intended design. That being said, a number of instruments emerged in the decades that followed that explored alternatives to the conventional keyboard interface, which quickly became (and has remained) the standard in electronic instrument design. Notable among these are the Ondes Martenot, which was invented by French cellist and radio telegrapher Maurice Martenot in 1928, and employs a continuous ring controller that also relies on the player’s capacitance in order to generate tones; and, the Trautonium, which was co-developed by Friedrich Trautwein and Oskar Sala between 1929 and 1931, and employs the contact between resistance wires and a metal plate in order to generate tones. More recent designs include several innovations by American synthesizer builder, Donald Buchla (born 1937 in South Gate, California), including the iconic touch-plates that adorn many of his modular systems, in which each “key” is individually tunable. In the 1990s, Buchla also designed several controllers, including the Thunder and Lightning, which employ interfaces that are more gesture variable. It is interesting to note that most of these instruments and controllers, which provide gradual movement between pitches, are, as a result of their flexible interfaces, microtonal, meaning that they can easily isolate frequencies in between those defined within the equal-tempered twelve-tone octaves of the piano. Microtonality was a particularly gripping concept during the twentieth century, with experimentalist pioneers such as the American composers and instrument builders Harry Partch (1901 – 1974, born in Oakland, California) and Lou Harrison (1917 – 2003, born in Portland, Oregon) designing complete musical systems and orchestras based on an expanded approach to frequency, often inspired by non-Western tuning systems. Leon Theremin also developed a device in 1932 called the Terpsitone, which employed a similar technology to the Theremin but was modified to be controllable by a dancer’s body in motion. A number of more modern instruments have been designed with similar controls, including sensors and continuous ribbons, so as to produce more fluid articulations than those offered by the traditional chromatic keyboard. In the early 1950s, famed American musician and inventor, Raymond Scott, designed the Clavivox, which is essentially a keyboard-controlled Theremin that incorporated a Theremin module built by Robert Moog, then just a budding engineer. The legacy of the Theremin has been survived by Moog Music, which, since around 2000, has produced a modernized version of the instrument known as the Etherwave Theremin. A series of kit versions also exist, allowing the performer to build and perhaps even customize the electronics of their own unit.Users/PerformersThe most notable user of the Theremin is, arguably, Clara Rockmore (Lithuanian, 1911 – 1998). Although Leon Theremin himself also performed quite frequently on the instrument, Rockmore’s performances and recordings have remained the most widely recognized and referenced historical examples. Clara Rockmore (née Reisenberg) was born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1911 and began her musical career at a very early age, initially performing on the violin and admitted to the Imperial Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia by the time she was only 5 years old. Unfortunately, as a child, Rockmore began suffering from bone ailments that rendered her unable to perform violin by the time she reached early adulthood. Shortly thereafter, however, she began performing on the newly emerged Theremin and quickly came to master the instrument. Throughout the 1930s, she performed with the orchestras of New York and Philadelphia, and released one commercial recording of Theremin performances, 1977’s The Art of the Theremin, which features piano accompaniment from her sister, Nadia Reisenberg. Rockmore was married once throughout her life to Robert Rockmore, an attorney, and spent the majority of her later life in New York City, where she passed away in 1998. Perhaps more than any other virtuoso of the Theremin, Rockmore established a unique and extremely precise approach to playing the instrument, a method that was often referred to as “aerial fingering” and certainly influenced by her classical training in violin performance. She remained close to Leon Theremin throughout his life, and helped bring about several changes in the design of the instrument, including expanding the frequency range from 3.5 octaves to nearly 5 octaves. Other notable performers of the Theremin include Samuel Hoffman (American, 1903 – 1967), who performed the instrument on the soundtracks to the films It Came From Outer Space (1953) and The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), in addition to performances on recordings by musicians such as Sun Ra and Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band; famed British conductor Leopold Stokowski (1882 – 1977), who worked with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the NBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, in addition to founding the New York City Symphony Orchestra and arranging the music for the Disney classic, Fantasia; and, the highly prolific performer, Pamelia Kurstin (American, born 1976), who has recorded with the likes of David Byrne, Yoko Ono, and Béla Fleck, released solo recordings on John Zorn’s Tzadik label, and become well known for her “walking bass” performance technique, inspired by her previous training on upright bass.

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