Leon Theremin

It skewed from conventional thinking of using sounds like the theremin.

Now the theremin was a fun little electronic instrument invented by a Russian physicist, Leon Theremin, in 1920.

You play it without touching anything and for some reason it became the sort of default sound of space.

The day the Earth stood still was the cornerstone of that theremin sound.

a mysterious instrument mostly used in horror films, thrillers of the 40s and 50s.

The theremin was the brainchild of Soviet inventor Leon Theremin in 1919.

Perhaps the most famous use of the theremin in popular music was in the Beach Boys' classic, Good Vibrations.

In fact, in my interview with Brian Wilson, he talked a little bit about it.

He started off as a doctorate student in engineering physics and was making theremins on the side, something he had been doing since he was 14 years old.

And for anyone in the audience who may not know what a theremin is, a theremin is an early electronic musical instrument, one of the earliest that was invented in 1920 by a Russian physicist named Leon Theremin.

And when Bob was just a kid, he and his electrical engineer father would make electrical – hobby projects together.

And Bob at that time just fell in love with the theremin and made one.

This is a contemporary instrument.

We bought this, uh, about 10 years ago, but the theremin was invented by Leon Theremin, or Lev Theremin, really the, one of the first, if not the first electronic musical instrument.

And where people encountered the theremin, spontaneous reactions of, like, great, uh, shock, dismay, awe, uh, celebration were multiple.

When I read about Theremin and his life, um, often he would show up and he would do a demonstration concert, and people would, like, faint or they'd scream.