Dynamic Capacities

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A theremin is an electronic musical instrument based on the the theory of beat frequencies. Musicians should recognize this as a way to tune an instrument to a reference tone. When you play a particular tone and it is not in tune with a reference tone, of the same frequency, there is a recognizable pulse (or beat) until the two ones are brought to the same frequency. The more pulses, the further off the tuning. The theremin uses an electronic oscillator as a stable reference tone of a very high frequency (inaudible and most often in the low radio frequency range). It has another electronic oscillator, initially in tune with the reference, which has a variable frequency controlled by the proximity of the hand to a capacitive sensing element (usually an antenna of some sort). The difference between the two frequencies is a pitch in the audible range which is detected and amplified. Move your hand near and away from the sensing element and get musical pitches.

Lev Sergeivitch Termen (anglicized to Leon Theremin) was born August 15, 1896 at St. Petersburg, Russia. Coincidentally, this makes him a Leo.
Leon was a physicist, and in 1919 while working for the Russian government on alarm devices, he invented the theremin. The device he created caused a whistlewhich changed in a predictable way with the proximity of an approaching body, and he found that he could play recognizable melodies by varying the distance of his hand by discrete amounts in front of the alarm. The first prototype of the theremin was made in 1919 just as the civil war in Russia broke out. Theremin was granted a US patent on February 28, 1928 for the "thereminvox", as it was then called, and it was commercially licensed by RCA in the same year. It is unique in hat it is the first musical instrument that can be played without being touched. It has been used in settings as widely varying as the movie soundtracks, rock bands,television music and as a serious solo instrument played by the virtuoso Clara Rockmore, another Russian. Theremin died on November 3, 1993 in Moscow at he age of 97. His long and active life is another of his remarkable accomplishments.

Bob Sexton