Polyphonic Theremin from Moog

IMO, a polyphonic theremin is the wrong direction anyway.. [i](by polyphonic, I mean the ability to control several pitches independently)[/i] as one would need to have multiple hands/arms (and probably brains) to play it musically.

Having multiple pitches tracking each other is possible now with present technology - simply use CV and drive several oscillators detuned from each other.

Duophony (two seperately controllable pitches) is possible and usable - one pitch determined by hand <-> antenna distance (capacitance) and the other pitch being related to this, but being offset by the hands vertical position - as in, if the hand is alligned to the centre of the pitch antenna, both oscillators produce the same pitch, raise the hand and the 2nd oscillator pitch increases with respect to the first 'master' oscillator.. lower the hand and the pitch of the 2nd drops with respect to the master oscillator.

The above also really needs seperate volume control for each oscillator - this can be achieved by adding an axis to the volume antenna - so left/right movement of the volume hand (for example) controls the mix of the two oscillators (for example.. fully left giving osc 1 output only, fully right giving osc 2 output only, centre giving equal mix of both, up/down giving control of overall volume as per normal)

This is, I think, as far as theremin polyphony can go.. anything more and one would need to take control away from the player and place it in the 'hands' of a microcontroller.. and IMO such an instrument would lose the essence of what we love about the theremin.

There is something similar in the above to what happened to the analogue synthesiser.. In the early days they were all monophonic, and when they became polyphonic they lost (IMO) the features which had made them great - I see the theremin and monophonic synth as quite similar - the player is concentrating exclusively on one sound, and getting more expression from this one sound than they could get when multiple sounds / chords are being played.

Fred.

Hi FredM, I agree, only a duophonic theremin would be truely feasible for many reasons.

You can use a TC Helicon Harmonizer, which is fun, but yeh, you do lose control of a great many aspects of control of the music. It's fine for improvising with, but not particularly useful for advanced music.

Leon Theremin was working on a polyphonic theremin in the late 70's and 1980's. I have heard a recording of what was supposed to have been Lev himself playing the device and it was quite interesting. There were no specifics on exactly how it worked. About ten years ago, I experimented with using a harmonizer (a Digitech VOCALIST) to create harmonies in performance - as if the theremin were not already difficult enough to play without trying to add bells & whistles to it!

Here is an mp3 I made in 2001 of my "polyphonic theremin" playing MOSCOW NIGHTS. It's a shoddy performance but it gives you some idea of what the setup sounded like.

Moscow Nights (http://www.peterpringle.com/music/nights.mp3)

Hi Coalport. I have that Digitech Vocalist as well as the TC Helicon.

One of the reasons I've not done much with them is if your vibrato is too wide, you end up trilling from one chord to the next. It really does complicate theremin playing, reqiring a lot more stability.

By the way, with all those instruments you have, surely, you could do an authentic Russian style rendition of Moscow Nights. ;) Not bad for a "shody" performance as you put it. But it's interesting to hear how different your playing is between then, and now. Thanks.

The playing on the MOSCOW NIGHTS mp3 is shoddier than it might otherwise have been because I had to advance the progression of the harmonies while I was playing. Very tricky. The advantage of the VOCALIST over the TC Helicon (I also have both of these devices) is that the VOCALIST has a hands-on keypad for live performances and improvisations. The TC Helicon must be pre-programmed. It has been my experience that these devices really work best for the instrument they were designed for - the human voice.

Attempts to make the theremin polyphonic are interesting and fun from a technical and engineering standpoint, but IMHO they are an utter failure artistically.

What we have to ask ourselves is whether what we are trying to do is really facilitating the task of artistic creation, or whether it is making it more difficult for the sake of "show". It's like the "laser harp". It's wonderful fun to see someone play it on stage, and it is ever-so-cool, but it doesn't do anything that cannot be done more efficiently, reliably, and with far greater control on a simple keyboard.

As precision thereminists, our ability to play consistently, on pitch, with maximum control is reduced with each superfluous task we add to our performance.

"The theremin is the most difficult of all musical instruments. It's much harder than the violin which I played for years." Clara Rockmore

Hi Coalport. I agree. That's why I've not done much with harmonizers either on youtube, or in public. Even multitrack work, I won't use the same theremin for each part. I like to use a different theremin, or in the case of the EW Pro, a different setting for each part to give a more organic feel to the polyphony.

I think harmonizers are fun to show off with for friends, or casual improving, but I don't think they have a place in professional theremin performances, at least for the time being.