Wednesday, September 14, 2016

A handy instrument

Summertime - Charlie Draper with The Radio Science Orchestra from Gramophone Records on Vimeo.

I don't know this musician, or have any idea where he gets his tuxes. I just found this.

The theremin is the damnedest instrument. Your hands basically seem to be plucking strings and depressing keys that aren't there. It's almost a century old and still feels alien.

2 comments:

semiconscious said...

very nice. a quick check reveals that the 'godmother of theremin', clara rockmore, performed this song, as well...

really interesting instrument (well, in the hands of the right musician, anyway). sorta unfortunate that, for many of us, it's mostly familiar as the provider of unearthly background music for goofy sci-fi b-movies...

our last (& only) real life encounter with a theremin? cornelius (at the crystal ballroom in portland), on his 'nakameguro to everywhere' tour (skip to 2:30 if you just can't wait :) )...

Ben said...

Ooh, thank you for including the link to Clara Rockmore's version, which is even better. Draper must have known about it as well, playing his own version as an homage. It's kind of amazing, when you think about it, that her rendition, one of the earliest documents of electronic music, can be accessed so easily now.

It's true that the theremin has been typecast due to its association with B-movies. But really all instruments get pigeonholed to some extent. Probably even guitar, especially in the current EDM era.

Speaking of guitar, that was a cool bit of spacey guitar rock from Cornelius. Gotta love the element of audience participation he brought in. I wonder where the performance in the video took place. Somewhere in America or Europe I'd guess.