AETHERPHON, global theremin family

Hello all,

I finally got around to sitting down and watching the DVD-R I bought off 
eBay of a video featuring Leon Theremin and others.  I wasn't sure what 
I was getting, because most of what I could find out of this visit 
centered on a concert that was given featuring electronic music.

The last paragraph of the press release (written by Olivia Mattis, it 
turns out) read:

"Another event in connection with Theremin's visit was a symposium about 
him on Sunday, Sept. 29, at the computer music research center, 
featuring Theremin, Slonimsky, Moog, composer and radio announcer 
Charles Amirkhanian, and Stanford composer Leland Smith, who created a 
computer simulation of the rhythmicon in 1971."

It turns out that this video is of this symposium.  I'm not sure where 
this recording came from.  The DVD-R case is simply labeled with a 
handwritten date of "9.29.91".  It bears a blurred rubber stamp that 
reads "Sun Ra Research Omni Press" and an address (this is the firm I 
bought it from on eBay, but I'm not clear on if they were involved in 
the filming or if they just acquired it and resold it).  It's mostly 
shot from a fixed camera in the back of the room, and you can see many 
other cameramen and sound engineers milling about.  It appears totally 
unedited.  Although the audio quality isn't the greatest (I could 
probably capture it and clean it up considerably) it is audible, and the 
video quality is  fair enough.  In some of it Mr. Slonimsky is speaking 
with his face obscured by an overhead projector.

The first 45 minutes or so consists of a presentation by Leland Smith on 
the rhythmicon.  After explaining the history of the instrument, and his 
recovery of composer Henry Cowell's composition of Rhythmicana and 
subsequent world premier in 1971, he presents an example of rhythmicon 
sheet music, and also plays part of a recording of it, pointing to the 
score as each phrase is played.  Smith observes that the score is more 
tabulature than a real score.  Later he asks Mr. Slonimsky to elaborate 
on some of the things he decided on in a composition, and Theremin 
speaks on the design and construction of the rhythmicon.  (I'll have to 
listen to it several more times.  He's difficult to understand in 
addition to the mediocre audio quality.)

Later on, they ran Theremin through a question and answer period, some 
of which is more audible than other parts.  In reply to a question on 
other instruments he developed, he discussed the terpsitone.  He was 
also asked if Lucie Bigelow Rosen was a good performer.  He answered 
yes, and mentioned that she was his first student.  He was asked a few 
other questions, including a couple on his demonstration for Lenin.  A 
student in attendance showed him a "maestro theremin" and asked him if 
he got payed royalties for it or if he got ripped off.  The student 
remarked that it was used by the Beach Boys, and Robert Moog piped up 
with a quick, "They did not!"  :-)  Moog also subsequently dismissed the 
student's repeated query about royalties as "a fatuous question".

I would write more commentary about Theremin's comments but this first 
time through I'm finding him fairly incomprehensible.  Not his fault, 
but he was 95 and had a thick Russian accent. :-)  He did speak a little 
bit about the idea of the polytheremin, and his feelings on Robert 
Moog's resurrection of and subsequent support for his  invention.

Then Mr. Moog spoke on "the realities of a musical instrument designer 
and manufacturer".  He discussed building his first theremin at age 14 
and selling them by age 19, though he dismissed his theremins from that 
era as "nothing compared to Theremin's instruments".  He mentioned his 
1961 cover story about building a theremin, which he didn't actually 
think would be published, and foolishly left his contact information and 
an offer to sell parts for it.  He had to drop out of grad school for a 
time while he worked to meet the demand of a couple thousand people who 
wrote him.  He spoke of "theremin nuts" and observed that several were 
in attendance.  He talked about the Beach Boys myth and that Moog built 
the fingerboard instrument actually used.  He talked about the company 
that made the "maestro theremin" -- his own old company, the 
Norlin-owned iteration of Moog Music -- in the context of the fact that 
during the '70s, a company could put "any old piece of ..." and then 
stopped himself, and tried a few nice words before settling on "stuff, 
into a box and sell it....today the musical instrument buying public is 
more...critical, selective."

Later in the recording Slavinsky discusses Joseph Schillinger.  And this 
is where I kinda started fading in and out. :-)  Later on I woke up (and 
so did Leon) when an audience member asked about the Ondes Martinot and 
if Theremin had any contact with him.  I had no luck understanding his 
reply (though it seemed to be "no").  Mr. Moog briefly explains the 
ondes martinot to the audience member and the similarities and 
differences between it and the theremin.

After the conclusion there is a handshot sequence showing Theremin and 
Moog signing autographs.  Moog briefly discussed an encounter with Sun 
Ra and his band around 1969, and that they left with a prototype 
miniMoog (which he noted they lost).  Then back to Theremin and 
Slovinsky signing autographs, but this part is largely unintelligible.


Other observations...the theremin set up in the room is one of the "twin 
towers" models....Leon Theremin appeared to doze off for several minutes 
at a time as other panelists were speaking...While I was watching this I 
sent an e-mail off to Olivia Mattis.  She was involved in this (at 
least, her name was on the Stanford press release announcing it) and so 
I asked her what she could tell me about it.  I don't know if I have 
something that is a curiosity and nothing more, or if I have stumbled 
across something truly historical.  How many copies of this recording 
are out there?  At the very least someone saw fit recently to put it on 
a DVD-R.  But I got the feeling watching this that I had come across 
something kinda special.  The unedited, uncontrolled nature of the 
recording really felt like it added to the recording's significance.

Anyway, that's my take on the whole thing.  I have no idea what the 
copyright status of this thing is, or if I should even be in possession 
of it. :-)  But it's a permanent part of my collection, at any rate. 
Don't ask me yet for copies of it until I determine what the recording's 
status is.  If it turns out to be free and clear, I'll be happy to make 
it available to other interested parties.







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DAVID VESEL -- synthetic music for humans
http://davidv.purplenote.com
davidv@...
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The Purple Note Radio Network:
Escape From Noise, vocal electronica, 10PM Sats http://efn.purplenote.com
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