The Theremin: Theatrical, Threatening, and Therapeutic Star of the Sci-Fi Soundtrack

Have you ever heard of the theremin?  Even if you haven’t, you’ve probably heard it.  With its odd, wavering tone, evocative of a near-human moan or an alien contralto, the theremin is one of the most iconic instruments in the sci-fi repertoire—and, as I hope to convince my readers, tragically underutilized outside of it.  Invented by a Soviet spy and played by conducting electricity through the player’s own body, the theremin deserves more notice not simply because of the beauty and versatility of its sound, but also because of the sheer drama that pervades every aspect of this one-of-a-kind instrument.

French thereminist Grégoire Blanc, whose videos introduced me to the theremin, performing “Claire de Lune” on the instrument’s centennial.

THE SCIENCE

The theremin doesn’t just sound like the engine of a flying saucer; the device itself is also like something out of a sci-fi novel.  Going by the technical name “aetherphone,” the theremin is the only instrument played entirely without physical contact.  One article describes a classic theremin as “a wooden box, mounted on four legs, with a straight antenna rising up from its top and a P-shaped loop antenna extending horizontally from its left side. Inside the box, the antennas [a]re connected to very high frequency oscillators made with vacuum tubes” (“Leon Theremin”).  The two antennae create an electromagnetic field, which the musician interrupts by “form[ing] a capacitor between his hands and the antennas” (Eyck).  In other words, the player’s body becomes a conduit for an electrical current.

Parts and interior of an RCA (original) Theremin, courtesy of RCATheremin.com; circuit diagram for a basic theremin, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

By waving one hand near the upright antenna, the player controls pitch, while the other hand’s distance from the horizontal, looped antenna modulates volume.  Partly because of the lack of keys, frets, or virtually any visual reference for the player, the theremin is notoriously difficult to play, requiring perfect pitch as well as years of painstaking practice.  It’s punishing and unwieldy; innovative new instruments have disappeared from history for less.  So where did the theremin originate, and how has it managed to cling to relevance until today?

THE FACTS

As a fantastical instrument, the theremin has a fittingly fantastical history.  It was invented by accident in October of 1918 by Lev Sergeyevich Termen, a Russian physicist and engineer.  At the time, he was trying to develop soundwave-based proximity sensors, or possibly measure the density of gasses (sources differ).  He was surprised to discover that the proximity of his hands to the his prototype changed the device’s responses in testing, modulating an odd sound reminiscent of a human voice.  Termen, who was also a trained cellist, pursued this unusual angle to develop the theremin’s first functional model, which he immediately began publicizing.

A young-ish Lev Termen, courtesy of the Linda Hall Library.

Termen/Theremin demonstrates his own instrument.

Nora McGreevy, writing for Smithsonian Magazine, reports, “Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin was so impressed by a 1922 demonstration [of the theremin]…that he sent the inventor on a tour of Russia, Europe and the United States to share his modern, Soviet sound with the world (and surreptitiously engage in industrial espionage)” (McGreevy).  Termen toured major US cities from 1927 to 1938, going by the name León Theremin while delighting audiences in numerous concert halls.  In this time, he gathered a dedicated following, further cultivated in this and subsequent decades by Clara Rockmore, a Russian émigré who became the theremin’s best-known and, in the opinion of many online fans, best-ever virtuosa.

Theremin himself gifted Rockmore her first theremin after seeing her affinity for the instrument (and later proposed to her—he was shot down).  Rockmore then developed her own finger technique, allowing for far greater pitch control, and later convinced Theremin to design a new, more responsive model with a five-octave range, rather than the original three.  Over the next few decades, several lines of theremins were produced for sale, selling for the equivalent of $2,600 today.  Jayson Dobney, a Metropolitan Museum of Art musical instruments curator, asserts that the theremin was “the first successful electronic instrument” (McGreevey).  It would go on to inspire the most famous electronic instrument, the commercial synthesizer, in 1964.

Unfortunately, Theremin’s grand tour would not end as well for him as it did for his instrument.  By some accounts, Theremin’s travels were abruptly cut short when he was kidnapped by the KGB and forcefully returned to the USSR.  Other sources maintain that he traveled home voluntarily, but either way, it’s certain that he was no longer trusted by the Soviet government upon his return.  He was sent to a work camp upon his return in 1938, where he was forced to develop covert listening devices.

Clara Rockmore’s performances helped to legitimize the theremin in its early days.

THE FICTION

The first movie to use the theremin in its soundtrack was the 1931 Soviet film Odna, or Alone, directed by Leonid Trauberg and Grigori Kozintsev.  There were no aliens to be found in this feature; instead, the theremin was used to evoke the whirling winds of a treacherous snowstorm.  The theremin debuted in Hollywood through Mitchell Leisen’s 1944 musical Lady in the Dark, after which it became associated with the eerie psychological thrillers of the late ’40s due to its prominence in Miklós Rózsa’s score for Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945).  In all of these films, it served to amplify the audience’s sense of a character’s mental and emotional distress through the constant, dissonant wavering of its tones.  It would thereafter be used in The Spiral Staircase (1945), The Red House (1947), and Impact (1949).

In this scene of Hitchcock’s Spellbound, the theremin creates a sense of constant, humming tension as the protagonist contemplates murder.

The theremin warbled its way into sci-fi through Ferde Grofé’s score for 1950’s Rocketship X-M, in which its eerie tones accent the moment when the protagonists’ spaceship first lands on alien terrain.  However, the film that cemented its associations with sci-fi and sci-fi horror with its iconic theremin riffs was unquestionably 1951’s The Day the Earth Stood Still.  Bernard Herrmann’s score fully foregrounded and explored the theremin’s musical possibilities in a new way, igniting interest that led to its inclusion in a slew of ’50s sci-fi classics including Phantom From Space (1953), It Came From Outer Space (1953), Project Moonbase (1953), The Bride of Frankenstein (1955), and The Day The World Ended (1955).

Dr. Samuel Hoffman was the thereminist for many of these scores.  Originally a violin prodigy and podiatrist curious about the intersection of music and medicine, he learned about the theremin through its inventor himself, when León Theremin was living in New York in the ’30s.  Having acquired an unusual, oversized model early in that decade, he studied it extensively and, beginning in 1936, formed or participated in a series of small orchestras and bands incorporating the instrument.  His 1947 orchestral album Music Out of the Moon was a favorite of Neil Armstrong, so much so that he brought a recording to play on the Apollo 11 mission—yes, Music Out of the Moon was actually played on the moon.  This album was probably the original inspiration for the composer for Rocketship X-M and the enduring link thereafter between the theremin and sci-fi.  Hoffman’s movie music career ended on a slightly embarrassing note: a 1966 horror western titled Billy The Kid Vs. Dracula, whose Dracula famously said of his career “I only regret Billy The Kid Vs. Dracula. Otherwise, I regret nothing” (Brend).  Still, there is no denying that his movie work and orchestral recordings were essential to the theremin’s survival as a little-known but, for all that, much-beloved instrument.

THE FUTURE

The cult classics of the ’50s fueled the theremin’s heyday.  Between then and the ’90s, it was used only sporadically until a 1993 biopic on León Theremin reignited interest in the instrument.  Since then, the theremin has featured in films such as Tim Burton’s retro ’90s homages Ed Wood and Mars Attacks, the original Ghostbusters, the second season of Hannibal, and American Horror Story.  As a theremin lover myself, I was especially excited to recognize it taking center stage in Marvel’s Loki series, backing up the series’ retro sci-fi aesthetics while also perfectly capturing the protagonist’s awe when faced with the existential implications of the Time Variance Authority.

However, due as much to its association with pulpy sci-fi monsters as to its unique sound, the theremin has struggled to gain recognition outside of the sci-fi and horror genres.  Will Bates, composer for the documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, spoke to interviewers about the problems that the theremin’s sound (and reputation) posed for his soundtrack: “The other thing that was really important for Alex [the director] was that at no time should there be any kind of poking fun [at Scientologists].  We’re not here to judge anyone or anything….[and] the Theremin, midi sax, and harpsichord can sound cheesy, so that was something I was really aware of.  Everything had to be played in a certain way and treated very seriously” (Tiedemann “Interview”).

Could the theremin ever be truly respected and incorporated into mainstream orchestral music?  Following in the footsteps of Rockmore and Hoffman, contemporary thereminists like Dorit Chrysler and Grégoire Blanc have made some inroads in this direction.  The theremin will likely never be more than a novelty outside of its home genres, but it could certainly afford to be a better-known novelty, as it provides composers with a unique resource for creating fresh and interesting orchestral pieces.  If we don’t want the theremin to disappear into history, we need to popularize it, to create more space for the musicians who invest so much time and effort into learning to play it.  Perhaps NASA’s Artemis II space mission in 2024 could provide a good opportunity.  After all, who could pass up the poetry and, most of all, drama of sending Music Out of the Moon to the moon once more?

-Paige Elliott

Grégoire Blanc performs Rachmaninoff live on the theremin with the Ensemble Orchestral de Bruxelles.

SOURCES

Adapted from Gray, Anne K. “Clara Rockmore Biography.” Nadia Reisenberg/Clara Rockmore Foundation, https://nadiareisenberg-clararockmore.org/clara-rockmore-biography/.

“Block diagram Theremin.” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Block_diagram_Theremin.png.

Brend, Mark. “The Sound of Early Sci-Fi: Samuel Hoffman’s Theremin.” Reverb, https://reverb.com/news/the-sound-of-early-sci-fi-samuel-hoffmans-theremin.

Eyck, Carolina. “Theremin.” Carolina Eyck, https://www.carolinaeyck.com/theremin#:~:text=How%20does%20the%20theremin%20work,his%20hands%20and%20the%20antennas.

“Leon Theremin.” Lemelson-MIT, https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/leon-theremin.

McGreevey, Nora. “The Soviet Spy Who Invented the First Major Electronic Instrument.” Smithsonian Magazine, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/theremin-100-years-anniversary-instrument-music-history-180976437/.

Norelli, Clare N. “5 Gripping Examples of the Theremin in Cinema.” TheScriptLab, https://thescriptlab.com/features/main/8788-the-sound-of-the-theremin-in-cinema/.

“RCA Theremin Service Notes.” RCATheremin.com, https://rcatheremin.com/servicenotes.php.

“Scientist of the Day: Leon Theremin.” Linda Hall Library, https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/leon-theremin/.

Tiedemann, Garrett. “A History of the Theremin in Movie Music.” YourClassical, https://www.yourclassical.org/story/2016/07/15/theremin-movie-music.

—. “Interview: ‘Going Clear’ Composer Will Bates.” YourClassical, https://www.yourclassical.org/story/2015/04/06/will-bates-going-clear-interview.