What now? [Samgr / Flickr]
Nearly a month ago, I announced my plan to build a theremin in preparation for our upcoming show. Since then, construction has been held up a bit by other endeavors, but I’m now ready to press forward. Almost. This is embarassing, but does anyone who lives nearby have a soldering iron that I can borrow? I could pick it up, or you could drop it off here and get a tour of our high-tech nerve center. The show is tentatively scheduled for the 23rd, so I need to get started on this ASAP.
Meanwhile, we’re still dreaming up ways to use our theremin once it’s complete. Greta and OliverCranglesParrot have both challenged me to play the Open Source theme song. I’m up for it, but do you think the theme is too percussion-heavy to be recognizable? Chelsea has booked thereminist extraordinaire Pamelia Kursten for the show. Maybe she’ll give me a lesson.
I bet you could find one at WGBH to borrow. I have one but I am out here in central MA. I could mail it to you. Brendan has my email address.
Not that expensive:
http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/jsearch/product.jsp?pn=100391613
hey there samgr.
Over winter break i visited my uncle. He’s a dabbling ‘electronic’ musician, stuffed into the back of a studio crammed with gadgets and keyboards and lots of copmuters old and new. to my great surprise, on this occasion he had a theremin: a very well built, ultraprofessional one, sitting on the floor. The theremin has been a vicarious passion of mine for a long, long time, ever since seeing a cluster of sci fi films and reading a book or two on Lev himself, so i immediately sat it on a music stand, plugged in, and went to playing. I learned a lot that day, and I would like to issue a warning. Theremins, or at least this one, do not want to work when sitting metal music stands. In fact, i moved it all around this very full studio, and it had a slew of bizarre and uncanny responses to the equipment housed there. In one spot, it worked beautifully, a few inches to the left, it went silent. on the floor it would scream, but 90 degrees horizontal to the mixboard, not a peep. And on the music stand (this took us a good 7 or 8 minutes to figure out), nothing beyond the faintest blip.
My best of luck to you and your device. Perhaps we can duo one day.
I’d like to hear a stab at the ROS theme! A challenge for sure, but it might not be too percussive of a piece to interpret if you follow the keyboard line in super slurred legato and half as fast as it is currently played, simplified further through eliminating all the pedal-like ornamental notes it could be riffed beautifully for the show. Who knows, Chris might even give up a Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!