Therelympics ~ post submissions here :)

Playing the theremin or singing "a cappella" (i.e. no accompaniment) is tricky unless you have perfect pitch, or some kind of tone reference. Within only a few bars your pitch drifted significantly flat of the key of C where you began. You do have a good ear because you managed to pull off the modulation to the key of E, and then to the G, quite nicely (although you did wander from Charles Trenet's original melody). 

Another thing accompaniment does for us is that it keeps us in tempo so we don't constantly speed up, slow down or screw up note values. Failure to respect a reasonably consistent tempo when playing "a cappella" causes a performance to be jerky as the player lurches from note to note. 

Yes well said but having freed myself of the constraints of accompaniment and beat I ended up straying a bit from the original tune and lurching a bit but still only slightly murdering the piece..unfortunately there aren't degrees of murder.Thank's for the comment and encouragement coalport I'm still very much the beginner with this amazing instrument...I just love the theremin...it's like no other instrument.

Straying from the tune and lurching (failing to respect the note values of the melody) can be considered "artistic license" even though most of the time it's pure sloppiness.

It's pitch drift that is a problem. 

In the absence of perfect pitch, if you play "a cappella", the longer the piece you are playing is, the flatter you will go (some people do tend to drift sharp rather than flat).

A couple of years ago I went to a festival of Gregorian chant in a town not far from where I live. Gregorian choirs, although they are supposed to sing unaccompanied, often have a single extended note playing very quietly on an organ in the background, to prevent the entire group from drifting off key as the chant progresses. 

At the festival, however, the singers all had tuning forks in their pockets. Every few minutes someone would take one out and listen to it (which could be done without interrupting anything) and this kept the whole choir on pitch.

The problem with allowing pitch drift when playing the theremin is that you are not playing the intervals accurately. Basically, you are practicing your mistakes and thinking it's O.K. because you can't hear them. We often make the mistake of thinking that something that is acceptable to us will be, or ought to be, just as acceptable to everybody.

Thanks coalport that's really interesting..yes some kind of reference point is essential.I hope to get some accompaniment CD's soon and/or make my own as well sometime soon.Mostly though I'm still fascinated with the sounds I can get out of my diode altered EW standard, I like nothing better to come home from work and have a session with the theremin just playing it spontaneously and exploring the sounds.Therefore musically I've progressed little over the last 9 months I've had the instrument..I think it's taken me that long to get familiar with the strange setup that is the theremin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90CFw9Ags4g&feature=related

this lady does a good unaccompanied piece but even she drifts around but she still does it very well the piece not the drifting.

I think Dalit Warshaw (the thereminist in the above video) has perfect pitch. She was a student of Clara Rockmore, and the theremin she is playing is the custom instrument Lev Termen made for Clara in the 1930's. This unique instrument was bequeathed to Dalit and has recently been professionally adjusted and restored by theremin engineer, Andy Baron.

I find the sound in this video very harsh and strident. Apparently no effort was made to record the performance professionally, and the mike used seems to be the built-in electret in the video camera.

From the artistic point of view, my problem with this performance is that the phrasing has no flow to it. I'm all for taking liberties in this kind of "a cappella" delivery but the liberties, IMHO, don't seem to be well thought out and they lack "feel" and sensitivity. Dalit tends to over extend note values too often and for too long, which tends to give a speed-up, slow-down, speed-up, slow-down, pace to the interpretation. 

Dalit is not helped by the "rabbit ear" pitch technique she uses, which consists of rapid "pop up" extensions of the index and middle fingers, while vibrato is accomplished by flapping of the fourth and fifth fingers. I don't know where she got this method but it certainly wasn't from Mrs. Rockmore! 

Many people have said that Clara's theremin doesn't sound the way it used to when Clara was alive. I think it does. What is missing is Clara!

Eighty percent of the impression created by the instrument when Clara played it came from Clara herself, not from the tubes and circuitry. We should also not forget that the recordings of this instrument we are familiar with were carefully engineered by Bob Moog himself, who used strategically placed studio microphones and high end professional equipment to capture the sound.

Many people have told me that Samuel Hoffman's theremin does not sound the same today when I play it, as it did when Dr. Hoffman played it back in the 1940's and 50's. The fact is, IT DOES.

Nothing at all has been changed on Hoffman's instrument, and by using Hoffman's modified "chicken peck" technique and miking the instrument with vintage equipment, I can make it sound EXACTLY like the instrument we are familiar with on film soundtracks. 

If I may quote the late Mae West, "It's not what I say, it's the way that I say it." 

coalport you wrote:

"Dalit is not helped by the "rabbit ear" pitch technique she uses, which consists of rapid "pop up" extensions of the index and middle fingers, while vibrato is accomplished by flapping of the fourth and fifth fingers. I don't know where she got this method but it certainly wasn't from Mrs. Rockmore!"  

invisiblejelly says:

"With the 'rabbit ear' technique (which I've never seen anyone else use before)Dalit seems to be able to grab the right note so that the note is kind of pulled or grabbed out of the continuum..with a slight 'effect' similar to an effect like putting your finger hard on a fret board so there is a slight note before you pluck the string..it seems to define the note differently than using a more traditional theremin technique..I think it's designed to make the theremin sound more 'instrumental' and less 'electronic' ie like a cello which has other sounds around a note produced by the physicality of the thing ie wood, string, bow, fingers etc.

invisiblejelly says:

With the 'rabbit ear' technique ....Dalit seems to be able to grab the right note so that the note is kind of pulled or grabbed out of the continuum..

I'm not quite sure what that means. My problem with the "rabbit ear" technique is that the tasks that must be performed by the pitch hand & arm of the thereminist are not distributed among all the available muscle groups. Both intonation and vibrato must be executed by finger motion which is fine for relatively simple pieces but I think the method would be very limiting for more difficult compositions. 

Dalit seems happy with this method of playing and I guess that's all that matters.