Here’s an interlude to go from the frigid winter to the leading edge of spring. The gardens around
our house provide the background for the All-Theremin Balalaika Ensemble’s rendition of “Troika.”
A Song to Help Usher in the Spring
Getting to the Bottom of a Theremini Problem…
Many people are experiencing a serious problem with their Thereminis exhibiting compromised sound.
They describe it as “fluttering,” “wiggling,” and “sputtering.” After deciding to see what I could
dig up on this problem, I looked at threads in blogs and other comments, hunting for a solution. So far,
here’s what I’ve found.
That said, I’ve already received word of one instance where the grounding procedure has failed. I’m still
hopeful that the procedure will work for others. I’ll continue to explore possible solutions; it would be
great to find a fix that works 100%. We’ll see…
A Theremin Need Never Be Constrained
2013. Two solo concerts, then an improvised set with PascAli that showed why the theremin, and in fact,
all instruments need never be constrained to playing any form of traditional melody, tempo, or genre.
Dissolving those boundaries yields moment to moment exploration. Some might say, “That’s just noise!”
Some might say, “Wow!” everyone responds differently to music that challenges the ear’s, mind’s and
heart’s capacity for accepting the unusual. What will your reaction be? There’s new music on the way.
For now, try the unbound sound below…
Interview for Theremin Online
Last year, I was contacted by Peter Theremin, great grandson of Lev Termen himself. Peter is an
extraordinary thereminist, someone I admire very much. We’ve occasionally corresponded over the
last few years and he approached me about doing an extended interview during which I answer
questions from other thereminists. It immediately struck me as a marvelous opportunity, so I
responded with a big “yes.”
Something I would love to do someday would be to visit Peter and the other members of his family.
When and if that can happen is anybody’s guess, given the current pandemic and other factors. But
I can always hope…
A Lesson From the Vinegar Mother
It’s hard to believe that it was back in 2016 that my ambient concept album, “Lessons From
Vinegar Mother” was released. While I’m working on a new one, please enjoy the full experience
of Lesson 7, complete with narration, music and multimedia. This is the version that I use in
live performance.
Meditate to 88
In 2012, the brilliant electro-musician, Howard Moscovitz, and I spent many hours improvising over
the course of a few months – he on acoustic piano and electronic keyboard, me on a variety of
theremins. We chose what we felt were the best seventy minutes of our instrumental “conversations”
and produced our ambient CD, Exploration of the Black Exterior. This piece, 88 Evening Devotions,
from a purely musical standpoint, is an exploration of the theremin’s ability to play the notes
between notes, quarter-tones, eighth-tones, etc. These are frequencies that inhabit the expanse
beyond the boundaries of our traditional western 12-tone scale, yet still remain hauntingly melodic.
From a conceptual standpoint, the composition is a very spare meditation on fragility. The “88”
in the title refers to the number of times the “bells” sing. And the broccoli, a tree of life in microcosm,
is just plain delicious.
The Past Tense Does Not
Necessarily Mean a Tense Past
FLASHBACK TIME…Possibly the strangest of my performance pieces, “TranscendAmbiental
Medication,” had a scant number of performances yet it remains a favorite of mine. Everything from
the stories to the original music is off the wall, yet presented almost as a meditation. This is an excerpt
from a 2012 performance in Kansas City.
Music in Mind
All together now…daydream…muse…meditate…imagine…
Never Knew That This Happened in 2020…
On February 23, 2022, I received an email informing me of something I was unaware of.
In the summer of 2019, I presented a theremin program for a local New Jersey channel,
PCTV – Piscataway Television. The show subsequently aired a number of times in 2020.
In 2021, that particular program won a JAG (Jersey Access Group) “Award of Excellence.”
Cool beans, right?