This Sunday, August 15th, is Lev Termen's birthday, he was known as Leon Theremin in the U.S. We champion the theremin as a serious classical and experimental instrument, but the early popular side of the theremin in records and film is important too. The flying saucer would not have had it's iconic ooo00OO00ooo sound, there would not have been a Tannerin (see Beach Boys), or even the Moog Synthesizer without Lev's invention.
It is very likely that up until the YouTube era, Samuel J. Hoffman was the most heard thereminst in America. He was the primary, if not only, thereminst in Hollywood during the forties and fifties recording records and film scores, and even some T.V appearances.
For Lev's birthday this year I'll indulge my love for B Movies. No "The Day the Earth...", "Ten Commandments" or "Spellbound" this time, here's a short list of B Flicks and Spooky Movies you'll hear the theremin in.
- The Thing from Another World (1951)
- It Came from Outer Space (1953)
- The She-Creature (1956)
- The Indestructible Man (1956)
- The Queen of Outer Space (1958)
- House on Haunted Hill (1959)
- The First Spaceship on Venus (1960)
- Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962) (this might be a Tannerin)
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I mean no offense, but I don't think I can fully support this supposition. Granted, that is the way things DID happen, but I don't believe they would not have happened otherwise.
I believe the same synthesizer technology would have developed eventually through a parallel branch of development, such as radio > Hammond Novachord and organs > analog synthesizers. Its development would have been supported by the continuous advancement in electrical/electronic components and by any number of electronics tinkerers.
Dr. Moog was not the only one working on analog synthesizer technology at that time. It is often misstated that he "invented" the analog synthesizer. He in fact invented the first practical, commercially viable analog synthesizers.
Are we glad Dr. Moog had a fascination with the theremin and developed some of the first practical synthesizers? You bet we are!
Would the theremin have survived and blossomed into anything more than a curiosity, a museum piece, or an amateur electronics project without him? Quite possibly.
But, would as many people be able to enjoy the theremin (and synthesizers) to the degree that we do now without Dr. Moog (and Lev, of course)?
Absolutely not!
He was working on Clara Rockmore's theremin:
"At that moment I sensed a strong spiritual connection with Leon Theremin, a feeling that remains with me even now. I consider that that moment was the high point of my professional career."
I don't doubt it. Can you imagine...?
Not only that but doing it with Clara in the room and able to play her theremin once again when he was done.