Is it possible?

I have often heard people say, "In order to appreciate a theremin performance you really have to see it being played."

And I have often heard people (yourself included) say that their first interest in the theremin came from hearing it on - in no particular order - a Clara Rockmore recording, Whole Lotta Love, The Day The Earth Stood Still, (in the UK at least) on a Bonzo Dog album or Spellbound. (And if we include instances where people think they have heard a theremin, Good Vibrations, the original Star Trek theme or Doctor Who.)

Coalport said: “All that aside, is there a particular quality that a "real" theremin has when it is played well that sets it apart from other similar instruments equally capable of glide and portamento?”

IMHO the theremin was born to sing opera… this rises above the elements of theater, dance and music; it can share a universal story in the hands of a Master Thereminist, a symbiotic relationship. I often mention the soul of the instrument as being inseparable from the soul of the artist. As words do capture the story of "Oh My Beloved Father" the theremin adds fluid emotions to "O mio babbino caro".

The particular quality of the heterodyning analog theremin instrument is unseen as it is the ability to express deep fluid emotion while a modern synthesizer will just sound pretty.

Christopher

I can't speak for "well played" theremin, but a friend of mine was explaining to someone that I play songs on the theremin. I corrected him, but he was insistent that they were songs. He knows the difference between a song and an instrumental piece. I took this to mean that he felt that the instrument sings.

The definition of the word "song" is changing, thanks to the internet. If you read the comments on videos that have been posted to YouTube, you will notice that people often refer to any piece of music - the latest from Lady Gaga or a movement of a Beethoven symphony - as a "song". This seems to be because when you purchase an mp3 from an online outlet such as iTunes, the piece is referred to as a "song" regardless of whether it is sung, instrumental, long, short, popular or classical. 

One of the reasons why the theremin is "transparent" is because the instrument does absolutely nothing at all for the player. If you sit down at a Steinway piano and play one note, an entire set of delicate mechanisms is activated that gives a perfect rendering of the note, complete with all the resonance of a carefully crafted cabinet and the full range of sympathetic harmonics coming from hundreds of perfectly tuned strings.

With the theremin, everything must be provided by the player. The note must be sculpted from nothing but a raw scream. The thereminist must reveal the note and, in turn, the note reveals the thereminist.

"The particular quality of the heterodyning analog theremin instrument is unseen as it is the ability to express deep fluid emotion while a modern synthesizer will just sound pretty." -RST

Chris,

I believe I understand the source of your rather beautiful "the ability to express deep fluid emotion" - but I am not sure that it is only "the heterodyning analog theremin" which is capable of this..

It is my opinion that any instrument, in the hands of a gifted musician, is capable of expressing their "deep fluid emotion"- But some are better suited than others.. Sax, analogue synth, electric guitar, theremin - these 'lead' instruments particularly come to my mind as instruments with great 'emotive' expressive capabilities.

I think perhaps that the theremin is 'best' (in the hands of a skilled thereminist) because it is less restrictive than the other instruments - both pitch and volume are absolutely under the performers controll, there is no natural decay to the amplitude, no defined vibrato speed or depth, no preset portamento time - everything is absolutely under the performers control.

In particular, I think it is the control of pitch / vibrato which gives the theremin the edge for vocal 'simulation' - One can control vibrato with a wheel or joystick or other controller, but the theremin allows a cycle-by-cycle control of all aspects - depth, shape,speed - and it is therefore possible to do what the voice can do.

I do not think any other instrument provides such an interface - but many other instruments come close - and IMO there are only a few performers who do the theremin justice - most of us would probably  produce better, more emotive music, if we went to an easier instrument!

To me, it is the interface which makes a theremin a theremin.

Fred.