Theremin documentary is flawed

I have just been watching on DVD the 1993 documentary “Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey” which is quite fascinating, especially for the footage of Terman himself, but I stunned by the blatant BS in the segment with Brian Wilson discussing his hit song Good Vibrations. There is Wilson with a Theremin in front of him waxing lyrical about it while over him we have a clip of the Beach Boys with the instrument that was actually used -- i.e. the Tannerin -- clearly being swiped along its “keyboard”.

Here’s another clip (also wrongly titled):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CelV7EbuV-A

I can’t understand how director Steve Martin allowed that erroneous segment in the film to stand. I don’t know if Wilson went on to explain that the Theremin wasn’t used and that bit was excluded from the film, but director Steve Martin -- who ought to have known the Theremin inside out after researching material for the film -- went ahead and allowed his audience to believe a fallacy, and made Brian Wilson look like he didn't know what he was talking about into the bargain.

Your comment is based upon your naiveté of what should be called a theremin. The video is a lip sync copy of the original sound track.  Your argument will go on for eternity as it is ignorance like yours that denies Paul Tanner as the original musician playing the musical instrument he invented called “The Box”, not an Electro-Theremin much less the Tannerin.

For the sake of sanity and the masses the theremin is a sound. How you get there can be authentic RF vacuum tube heterodyning to that artificial nasty synth sound generation.

Now enjoy spring break!

PS: Though I never had the privilege to hear Barbara play, our community is like a small string of lights on a moonless night, loosing one will be noticed for a long time. My heart goes out to your family and friends Barbara, I do believe one day we shall meet.

@Touchless "ignorance like yours that denies Paul Tanner as the original musician playing the musical instrument he invented called “The Box”, not an Electro-Theremin much less the Tannerin."

Not an Electo-Theremin? Here's an interview with Tanner:

http://www.electrotheremin.com/ptanner.html

@Touchless: "the musical instrument he [Tanner] invented"

What have you to say to this from David Miller? ...

"No. The instrument was not a real, traditional, two antenna-type theremin [as portrayed in the subject documentary]. It was the Electro-Theremin, a mechanical instrument developed for Paul Tanner by Bob Whitsell in 1958"

and ...

"The Tannerin is what I [Dave Miller] named the modern recreation of the Electro-Theremin that Tom Polk and I have developed. Brian Wilson is currently using a Polk Tannerin.

I only refer to the original sound track recording which is used in that video you give the link to. The Electro-Theremin term came from Hollywood and the Tannerin term came from someone I consider to be one of the finest Thereminist of all time at TW.

"Brian Wilson is currently using a Polk Tannerin" and David Miller is a fine individual. I agree.

The Beach Boys did begin with a original Moog tube theremin but had no control over it when they contacted the Los Angeles Musicians Union and met with Dr. Tanner.

All through that interview you refer to, only David Miller calls it an Electro-Theremin, you should email David and ask what Dr. Tanner called it.

gtc, your up late, are you local?

Final words: Later on the "Beach Boys" used a design researched and constructed by the talented Tom Polk corroborated by David Miller <= (gtc)

Well, I go back to my original point. Steve Martin's film is about the two-antenna type Theremin developed by Termen and that is the instrument they placed in front of Brian Wilson for his segment. However, that is not the instrument shown in the Beach Boys clip, nor what was used in the recording -- as you say.

So, my gripe is with Steve Martin, as I said in my initial post.

The word "tannerin" to describe the "electro-theremin" devised by Paul Tanner, was coined by me back in 1998. It just seemed like a logical and simple name for the instrument. "Electro-theremin" didn't seem descriptive because the theremin is already "electro". 

Whether we like it or not, for most people the word "theremin" applies to any sound that is reminiscent of the wobbly, spooky, siren-like sound FX we are familiar with from old SciFi and suspense films of the 40's and 50's. The tone may be produce by a computer, a synthesizer or genuine RCA. It doesn't matter. If it SOUNDS like a theremin, for most folks, it's a THEREMIN.

The problem is that what sounds like a theremin to some people (particularly those who are not really familiar with the instrument) may not sound at all like a theremin to a thereminist. This is true of many synthesized sounds. The synthesized or sampled sound of a cello might fool me, but it probably wouldn't fool a real cello player for one second. 

Here is a recently posted YT video of a "theremin" patch on a Roland 5080. To me, this sounds nothing at all like a theremin but I suspect I am in the minority.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYMZ_SmVRO0

Just as a point of historical interest, in ELECTRONIC ODYSSEY Brian Wilson refers to an old friend of the Wilson family who owned a theremin. That friend was none other than Dr. Samuel Hoffman and Brian, Dennis and Carl were occasional visitors to the Hoffman home in the 1950's.

It is my understanding that film maker Steven Martin was aware of Paul Tanner, and of the instrument that was used on GOOD VIBRATIONS, when he made the film. The Beach Boys/Brian Wilson segment is the only part of the documentary that relates to popular music, and the song GOOD VIBRATIONS is a benchmark many people are familiar with. Other than spooky sound FX on old movies, the rest of ELECTRONIC ODYSSEY is fairly esoteric. 

Coalport, thank you for your valuable input. I gess I'm being picky, but I still consider the Tannerin, or any of its ilk that uses metal to metal electrical contact to elicit sound, to be a different beast from the one invented by Termen and the subject of the documentary. I would have been happy for the director to have drawn a distinction between the two; I just got the impression that he glossed over it. IMO, documentarians ought to take more care.

What I would very much like to see is somebody reproducing the exact passages from Good Vibrations on a genuine Termen Theremin.

I found the film fascinating. In fact it spurred me to go out and buy a copy of the Lev biography "Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage" by Albert Glinsky.

It also spurred me to consider construction of the Keppinger Theremin, which I have now commenced.

I have listened to the YouTube clip, and to me it just sounds like something from a modern synth, at times resembling what I think of as Theremin tones, but mostly not.

For me, an instrument must be gestural (aka space control, both pitch and volume) in order to be considered a theremin. As far as I'm concerned, the tannerin is not a theremin because you must touch it in order to play it. The "matryomin" is not a theremin because it is a pitch only device.

Strictly speaking, the Moog SERIES 91 theremins are not theremins because they are not heterodyne. The Moog MIDI Ethervox has two voices: one of them (VOICE ONE) is produced by the traditional heterodyne method, and the other (VOICE TWO) is synthesized like the SERIES 91. I have no problem calling a synthesizer a theremin provided it is entirely gestural.  

I concur with the gestural criterion.