The instrument was invented in October 1920 by the Russian physicist Lev Sergeyevich Termen, known in the West as Leon Theremin. The theremin was the product of Soviet government-sponsored research into proximity sensors. It is also used in popular music genres, such as rock.Īlexandra Stepanoff playing the theremin on NBC Radio, 1930 History The theremin is also used in concert music (especially avant-garde and 20th- and 21st-century new music) for example, Mano Divina Giannone is a popular American thereminist who along with his orchestra, The Divine Hand Ensemble, regularly holds said concerts. The theremin has been used in movie soundtracks such as Miklós Rózsa's Spellbound and The Lost Weekend, Bernard Herrmann's The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Justin Hurwitz's First Man, as well as in theme songs for television shows such as the ITV drama Midsomer Murders and the Disney+ series Loki, the latter composed by Natalie Holt. The sound of the instrument is often associated with eerie situations. The electric signals from the theremin are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker. These antennas capacitively sense the relative position of the hands and control oscillators for frequency with one hand, and amplitude ( volume) with the other. Each antenna forms one half of a capacitor with each of the thereminist's hands as the other half of the capacitor.

The instrument's controlling section usually consists of two metal antennas which function not as radio antennas but rather as position sensors.

It is named after its inventor, Leon Theremin, who patented the device in 1928. The theremin ( / ˈ θ ɛr əm ɪ n/ originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/ thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). Problems playing this file? See media help.

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