All About Theremins

On the outside, grace and elegance...

Today's Google doodle salutes Clara Rockmore, a virtuoso at playing the Theremin which evidently inspired the Rolling Stones and led on to the once-popular Moog Synthesizer, for which I used to own a copy of Bach's greatest electronic hits. It was interesting one time, just annoying after that.

This all begs the question, "What the heck is a Theremin??"

Well, it's a large, dark piece of furniture that would look quite at home in your den next to the cabinet with your good china in it, except for 2 or more metal antennae sticking out of it. As it turns out, instead of china, your lovely Theremin is packed with electronics that are designed to do one irritating thing: emit loud feedback when you cause interference by waving your hands around between those antenna.

Mr. Theremin, who invented the Theremin, discovered in his russian lab that by gracefully moving your hands within the electric field between the 2 antenna you could control the noise created by the interference and actually make spooky musical notes.  For Theremin players like Ms. Rockmore it provided the added performance value of hypnotic hand-dancing for the audience during the concert.

And on the inside...

Theremins hit the big time right after WW II so you hear them in creepy science fiction movies of the 1950s like The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Thing (From Another World). The Beach Boys play a quasi-Theremin (controlled by a knob and a slider) in Good Vibrations. Someone once described Theremin music as, "a cello lost in a dense fog, crying because it does not know how to get home."

Soon enough though Theremin fever cooled when the public got sick of it and musicians moved on to newer, better instruments -- like the Moog Synthesizer.  But a nostalgic 1993 movie called Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey reignited interest in the old thing. Less awkward miniaturized Theremins are now available. Composers are writing Theremin concerts and Sheldon is playing one on Big Bang Theory.

LLAP Mr. Nimoy

Very sad news about a science fiction icon. Leonard Nimoy -- aka Mr. Spock -- has just passed away, apparently due to his COPD caused by decades of smoking. That just leaves Kirk, Uhura, Chekov, and Sulu from the usual crew on the bridge.

He had numerous other roles too, and he was good in all of them.  I particularly enjoyed him when he took over for Martin Landau as Paris, resident master of disguise for the Impossible Missions team. He also made a formidable Samuel the Prophet in the Bible film David.

Speaking of Jewish history, I once heard Mr. Nimoy tell (on TV) where he got the famous split-fingers gesture to go with his equally famous pronouncement, "Live long and prosper" (or just, as sci-fi geeks like me know, LLAP). As a youngster in synagogue he got curious about what the rabbi did while the congregation bowed their heads to receive theHigh Priestly Benediction from him. So he peaked. As it turned out the rabbi was making the split-fingers with both hands. It's meant to resemble the Hebrew letter shin, the first letter in the Jewish word for "the Almighty."

Nimoy as a prophet

When he had to come up with a gesture for what amounts to a Vulcan benediction, the split-fingers just came naturally, he said.

Spock (and Nimoy) have totally embedded themselves in our collective consciousness, with his "LLAP" and "Highly illogical, Captain" and the ears and ambiance of the Enterprise's First Officer. I knew he was in his 80's but somehow it doesn't feel real that he's dead. I had this same feeling when Neil Armstrong died -- which, I guess, shows how my brain's filing system works. Two space explorers, one pretend, one true. A celebrity tweeted today that "Nimoy was supposed to outlive us all." I agree.

"Of my friend, I can only say this... of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... Human."
-- James T. Kirk