Scoring for Theremin and Orchestra - Initial Thoughts

So it's time to start figuring out what works for scoring for theremin and orchestra and what doesn't - as my main goal is to write music for the instrument, not become a professional thereminist. But you have to have a good idea of how to play any instrument to write effectively for it.

Wrote this short piece to start testing things out in preparation for writing a much longer piece for theremin and orchestra (I'm thinking a tone poem of some sort as opposed to a concerto that I think would pose some significant problems). Been working on a Klezmer Suite that's in a very accessible tonal style for a long time and never came up with a slow movement I liked and thought hey something for theremin and orchestra might be nice (though a violin could be substituted).

Pavanish for Theremin and Orchestra

See below for score, parts and accompaniment.

As I wrote this piece experimenting with different ranges of the theremin (I tried all few theremins I have) against the orchestra (of course MIDI sampled orchestra here) I found a few things. I'm sure others have talked about similar issues. This is my initial take which is at this point centered on melodic playing (not using the theremin for effects against the orchestra, possibly with effects pedals, which is a totally different area to discuss). Others may disagree with me here. That's fine. 

1. You have to be very careful in your scoring. It's very unlike most solo instruments. The theremin really doesn't blend in that well to my ear or it can create a muffling effect. You can't get in its way.  In fact I had to reduce the orchestra's size here from the original. I might use a large orchestra, but likely not that much tutti when the theremin is playing. In many ways the theremin is ideally a chamber instrument in my mind. I fear, if you have to crank it up to a deafening roar to get above the full orchestra you are going to hurt your poor audience. I still have a lot of experimenting to do with volume and levels - and also the bass as I was told has too much low energy in the pizz if a sub-woofer is being used (tried EQing that back - but need to hook up a sub-woofer). This is an interesting by-product of creating sound files - you really have to test anything you do with a variety of speakers from good to crappy.

2. Keeping with the above, try not to have counter melodies in the range of the theremin. Sounds better when your counterpoint is in another register. I have some oboe against the theremin too close in range in here that just didn't blend the way I wanted, but the lower clarinet sounded better against the theremin to my ear.

3. As I've seen somewhere else, doubling the theremin with other instruments doesn't sound too great in many cases. Again, to my ears, its not a blending instrument.

4. You can have the theremin as an accompaniment/counterpoint to your orchestra if you get it out of the way (i.e. stick it up high).

5. Low range of the theremin really needs to have the orchestra tone way, way back. Need to experiment with the theremin on the bottom and orchestra all above it. That might be a nice effect.

6. In general (at least on my few theremins) I've seen that almost all the volume variation in terms of getting a highly expressive dynamic line happens within only a scant 1-3 inches (sometimes less)  from the antenna. The theremin can get loud quickly so the orchestra needs to be playing very softly to bring out the expressiveness of the theremin (or as noted above reduce the orchestra in texture). Bernard Herman's great score to "The Day the Earth Stood Still" was really very limited in instrumentation, but in my mind one of the best compositions for theremin and "orchestra" ever written.

7. Doubling a melody in some close harmony next to the theremin has some issues as well. Sounds better if you have two theremins in that vein or double in another octave. I thought a flute which is more sine-like might harmonize well, but I didn't really like it and actually removed the flutes altogether from the piece as it cluttered the texture against the theremin. Need to do more experimentation there.

8. That theremin is really a solo instrument and not one that really should be playing all that loud for any extended period of time. Your ear can easily center on it and lose track of the orchestra I've found. 

9. Less is more. Don't let the theremin play for too long. Mix it up with the orchestra. My ear can tire quickly of the theremin sound so let the orchestra do a lot of the heavy work.

10. Playing long notes above the orchestra works well.

11. Horns sound good as accompaniment (as horns always do). Not sure about other brass. Didn't use anything but horns here. Need to experiment a bit there.

12. Same for percussion. I think a piece for just percussion and theremin might be really nice. Need some experimenting there.

Well on to more orchestral tests. My goal here is to put together a chapter on scoring for the theremin that could be used in conjunction with one of the many orchestration texts available that don't even mention the instrument. Maybe some newer ones do. I'll post that as a "book" on IMSLP with some examples as that is the better forum to post a thing like that for mass consumption. Of course I can only use my music and public domain music for examples.

Rich

P.S. - Just uploaded a new version of the score, complete parts (see Parts tab) and a .MP3 file of just the accompaniment (Synthesized/MIDI tab) if you would like to try and play along. Might take a day for IMSLP to vet this an make it available. The piece is submitted under a Non-Commercial Common Copyright licence which means anyone can use it for any purpose they like as long as they are not trying to make a commercial profit from it without my permission.

Accompaniment: Pavanish - .MP3 Accompaniment

Parts: Pavanish - Complete Parts

Study Score: Pavanish - Study Score

Rich, I like the direction that this is headed. There is a pretty large void on the internet and in the world for composers discussing the fine details like this. It's always good to see history being made. I'm sure that down the road it will at lease provide a great reference for people who don't know where to begin.  

Thanks Randy. Orchestration is one of my passions and I agree there's not too much out there discussing this and certainly no good place to go to hear explicit examples of orchestral passages detailing scoring for theremin.

Rich

rkram53 wrote: In many ways the theremin is ideally a chamber instrument in my mind. I fear, if you have to crank it up to a deafening roar to get above the full orchestra you are going to hurt your poor audience.

The theremin, IMHO, needs to be treated by orchestral composers and arrangers much the way the human voice and the violin are treated. You can very effectively lead up to a ‘tutti’ passage, but once you get there the orchestra should take over and the solo instrument should drop out.

Richard Wagner liked to compose passages in which his sopranos and heldentenors sang over the full orchestra, but he designed his own opera house at Bayreuth where the musicians were actually underneath the stage, and not in an “orchestra pit” in front of it. This had the effect of allowing the full INTENSITY of the orchestra to be felt with out the deafening full VOLUME. 

The late French soprano, Régine Crespin, was a good friend of mine and sang several times at Bayreuth. She told me once that singing there was a unique experience because you do not HEAR the orchestra the way you do in most opera houses throughout the world. You FEEL it from beneath and the entire stage vibrates like soundboard. 

Got an ERROR 404 message for the three links at the bottom of your post (above)……??

I re-attached the links. They work on my computer and ipad now.

I agree on treating it like a voice or violin - even oboe, maybe even trombone in some cases, etc. That is, in most cases try scoring for it as if it was a solo instrument and don't think of it as an "electronic" instrument that can amplified to the hilt. Though there are certainly cases where creative use of amplification can be used effectively with the orchestra in a more modern setting.

But divorced from this, there are also things to think about versus what instruments sound good with it and in what ranges, what kind of orchestral techniques are effective with it, how to use the instrument to create interesting colors with the orchestra (especially seeing that you can get much different timbres out of different theremins - even the same instrument).  So perhaps composers need to think about what theremin sound they even want to specify - not just say "Theremin" in the score.

When you look at an orchestration text for a violin for example you will have pages and pages talking about different sounds in different ranges, articulations, harmonics, how to use it with other instruments and with other violins, etc. That's kind of where I'm heading here - experimenting with different things and codifying it all for myself and others. Not much I can see out there discussing such things in any practical sense with any musical examples available. Unfortunately all the works written for theremin by definition (date > 1923) are copyrighted so you just can't be extracting from scores or performances to create a text or post online, nor can you easily even buy scores that use it (I'd pay good money to see the score from "The Day the Earth Stood Still").

The beauty of today's MIDI-based sampled orchestras is that they let anyone get a feel (albeit not the real feel) of scoring techniques and what things might really sound like if they had a real orchestra at their disposal. Before this, few students of orchestration had any opportunity to hear their works. It's exciting times for orchestrators - and those wanting to learn arrangement - including composers who write for the theremin.

The late Bob Moog once pointed out that the early synthesizers were originally designed as tools to give composers some idea of what their music will sound like when it is eventually played by an orchestra. These “tools” quickly became instruments unto themselves.

Hi Rich,

I'm wondering about phrasing -- some of which you have indicated in your score, but not on the recording.  Any tips?

Thanks!

Beth

Beth,

Well the goal here was to really talk about orchestration relating to the theremin. But yes, the score indicates the direction in which the phrasing should head, though frankly I always let any soloist interpret a part differently if they like. This melody can certainly be phrased a number of ways.

As to my admittedly crude, rather expressionless almost all legato playing, that's more a function of being a novice with 9 months of theremin under my belt (with not nearly enough practice as I should have put in).

But this is also a good illustration of the pluses and minues of using the Theremini. On one hand its built in pitch correction can allow a beginner to play a piece like this relatively in tune, which has some pretty difficult parts with all the chromatic motions and that one very disjunct compound melodic line. But it comes at the expense of dynamic expression and articulation.

I'm sure I can give a much better performance (albeit maybe more out of tune) on my Etherwave, but my real goal here was to talk about orchestration. So I chose to play more in tune. And also frankly, I kind of like the tone I was able to get out of the Theremini in this case.

I'm practicing it on my analog instruments. 

Rich

Hi Rich,

Sorry for going a bit off topic.  But I'm planning to work on this piece, and was just wondering if you had anything specific in mind in terms of expression.  Yes, some of the leaps are going to be tricky to play in tune, for me, anyway.  But I like a challenge!

It was interesting to hear that you found flute doesn't blend well w/theremin -- I had been contemplating doing something with flute, guitar, and theremin -- maybe I need to rethink that.

Beth

Beth,

The piece, as its name implies (though also a pun intentionally trying to sound kind of Yiddish) was simply meant to be "rather like a Pavane" (Pavanish). If you look at the two iconic Pavane's by Ravel and Faure, they both are built on a strong tonal sequence, as is this piece. By the way, a by-product of emphasizing motivic melodies based on tonal sequence, especially the sequence of fifths as in this case, is that you can create melodies that are rather easy to remember. If you want to play it, I would just go with your feeling in that vein - it was meant to be a piece with an expressively flowing melodic line. My markings are just one possibility in this case. The very disjoint part is also a sequence using a compound melody where there is stepwise motion on two levels, which I thought might not be that bad to play as you just need to feel the stepwise motion in the two ranges and quickly jump between them - but it was harder that I thought it would be. Good luck.

That was just me on the flute issue related to the larger orchestration I was working on here where adding flutes was too much for the texture with the theremin in the same range. Does not mean that it might not sound good in the more intimate chamber setting you are proposing. Best thing is to record a bit of something yourself with a flute if you have a friend that plays it and see how it sounds to you. I expect flute, guitar and theremin might sound ok as long as the flute and theremin don't get in each other's way.

Rich