- - - The theremin was named after its inventor, the Russian scientist Leon Theremin (1896-1993), whose fantastically improbable life and exploits could have issued from the mind of Jules Verne. The theremin is unique among instruments, because the performer is not playing on anything physical, like a keyboard or a fingerboard, but merely on air itself -- the electromagnetic fields around two antennas protruding from the box. Visually, the effect appears to be magic, but the principle is easily explained.

- - - The phenomenon is related to the squeals old radios gave off when the hand approached the tuning dial and interfered with the antenna's electrical field. By harnessing and controlling that squeal, the theremin produces discrete musical pitches using the heterodyne principle. The registral compass can be wide: the RCA instrument, for example, extended from the lowest range of a tenor (one octave below middle c) up to the highest soprano notes (3 &1/2 octaves above that).

- - - In short, the theremin allows the natural body capacitance of the hands to control electrical fields in the air that in turn regulate oscillators which send singing tones to an amplifier, and on to a loudspeaker.

- - - One hurdle for the theremin player is the unorthodox coordination required, somewhat like patting the head and rubbing the belly at the same time: the left hand moves vertically like an elevator over the loop antenna, while the right hand moves toward and away from the body in the horizontal plane -- trembling occasionally, as well, to inflect a vibrato. Perhaps the most daunting challenge is to simply find the pitches themselves. With no tactile point of reference, the right hand, guided by a keen ear, must fish the air for the location of each note near the vertical antenna. Compounding this, the basic gesture of the hand toward and away from the antenna makes only a continuous rising and falling siren sound. To slice that sound into separate pitches requires motions of the left hand to cut back the volume between notes in the right.hand.

 

The recording industry seized on the theremin mystique in the wake of it's use in the movie Spellbound. In 1947, Capitol records issued Music Out of the Moon, a set of three 78 r.p.m. disks (six sides) showcasing Hoffman's theremin in the foreground, in a silky blend with a small orchestra and a vocal choir. The music, by British-born songwriter and film composer Harry Revel, was arranged and conducted by Les Baxter. At home in England, Revel was celebrated for his nostalgic ballads about America ("I'm Going Back to Old Nebraska," "In Delaware"), written before the composer had ever set foot on American soil. In the U.S., Revel's calling card was a group of hit songs for the 1931 Ziegfeld.Follies.

- - - The six selections on Music Out of the Moon, with titles like "Lunar Rhapsody," "Celestial Nocturne," and "Radar Blues," were intended, according to the liner notes, to "play upon the more remote realm of human emotions ... . It is music that can affect the sensitive mind in a way that is sometimes frightening ... always fascinating." The racy jacket cover blazoned a scantily-clad ingenue sprawled in languorous pose over a spotlighted bed of moon rocks. The recording sold briskly, "breaking all Capitol sales records," according to one society columnist. Reviews were enthusiastic. "Here is an album to be commended," Variety wrote, "a lofty experiment which scores solidly ... . Revel ... has really hit here with stunt of using theremin, and could not have made a happier choice than Hoffman, whose memorable work in heightening emotional impact of film 'Spellbound' is equaled here. The harmonies are weird and modern andi ... intricate modern rhythms -- gamuting rhumba, three-quarters, swing and blues -- get excellent interpretation from well-trained choir, which blends beautifully with the theremin's ethereality. The music has character and meaning, and once the public becomes familiar with the unusual mode and structure, it is certain a demand for this fare will sprout ... . the sex-splashed album cover, probably the lushest art yet adopted by a waxery, will arouse a lot of curiosity as to.contents."

- - - In the postwar climate, light, effervescent music, with a hint of swing, was even more profoundly tied up with the human condition. No longer just a pleasant distraction, it became a necessity in the psychological healing process after seven years of global conflagration. Music Out of the Moon was a step in this direction, but its overtones of the "macabre, the fantastic," were still an inherent part of Revel's.conception.

- - - The need for pure, therapeutic, melodic charms bred the genre of 'Lounge music.' In 1948 Hoffman cut his second record for Revel and Baxter, playing selections in this new style -- a venture that became the largest commercial exploit involving the theremin since RCA mass-produced the instrument twenty years.earlier.

- - - The project had its roots back in 1936 when Harry Revel was sitting at the bar of the Hotel George V in Paris, sipping an aperitif. Suddenly he caught a whiff of a captivating scent wafting by on a striking young woman. "Her perfume had a dreamy, beautiful fragrance that transposed itself into a melodic theme in my mind," he remembered. The composer followed her across the room to ask about the fragrance. The woman revealed it was Toujours Moi, the famous scent of the French perfumer Corday. Revel had her pose by the piano for a moment while he etemporized a quick musical sketch, and later that evening he jotted down ideas for a full composition he called "Toujours Moi." It occurred to him that other fragrances might also yield musical portraits, and before leaving Paris he spent hours examining essences at the Corday offces. He plotted out drafts for a suite, and returned to Hollywood, but finding himself "unable to score them in such a way that they would convey the actual ethereal quality of rare perfume," he set the project.aside.

- - - Ten years later, at a party, Revel again encountered a woman wearing Toujours Moi, and that same evening, he attended a premiere of Spellbound. "The sound track used the new Theremin," he recalled, "and the subtle fragrance of Toujours Moi returned. The Theremin was the key." After Revel produced Music Out of the Moon with Hoffman, he approached Corday with the idea of finishing the suite designed around its perfumes. The result was the RCA Victor album Perfume Set to.Music.

- - - The six compositions in the collection spin evocative tone poems around the Corday fragrances Toujours Moi, Jet, Tzigane, L'Ardente Nuit, Fame, and Possession. Supporting Hoffman's theremin, waltz and Beguine beats are scented with an ambrosia of choir, harp, strings, woodwinds, French horn, and the Hammond Novachord -- an electronic keyboard instrument. Les Baxter again arranged the pieces and conducted the sessions. RCA called it "the most unusual tie-in promotion in the history of the record.industry."

- - - The project was sponsored by Corday, which launched a $25,000 national advertising campaign in December 1948 to promote the album with 4-color, full-page consumer ads. "Inspired by six of Corday's most famous perfumes," the copy read, "here's an album of unusual, magical music! You hear the strange and hauntingly beautiful tones of the Theremin, with a full orchestra and.Chorus."

- - - The three-record 78 r.p.m. set soared to the number one position in Variety's chart of top selling albums for mid December, topping Bing Crosby's Merry Christmas album and Gene Kelly's Song and Dance Man. One week later Perfume had slipped to number seven in the Billboard survey, but still ran a respectable dead heat with Christmas Songs by Sinatra. "The ingredient which makes the difference is the theremin played by Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman," Variety wrote. "As a medium to project what Revel seeks to express, the theremin is ideal as well as showmanly; it also is new and exciting enough to captivate quite a few platter purchasers. Revel ... is to be commended for persisting in pioneering a musical form of vast, relatively new.interpretation."

- - - In 1949, Capitol records reconvened the Revel, Hoffman team for one more excursion into restorative, postwar lounge music, this time with conductor and arranger Billy May and his orchestra. "In everyday life there are times when things seem to go exactly right," the album notes mused. " ... Our troubled and complex world today offers all too few periods when we can relax in this happy mood ... . The music in this album is dedicated to such momente... It is written and played ... with simple relaxed harmoniee... of a flute in the low register, and themes on the exotic theremin ... . Turn down the lights, relax in an easy chair and listen. Then, for a few stolen hours, perhaps you will warm to happy memories and blissful hopes: yours, for as long as you may hold it, will be peace of.mind."

- - - Music for Peace of Mind layered the theremin over strings and woodwinds. In certain passages, Hoffman laid down multiple tracks to create the illusion of a trio of theremins. Variety named him "Man of the Week" when the album was released on September 1st, 1950. "This one just can't miss commercially," a reviewer for Down Beat.wagered.

> In the US: Order the Basta 3-CD THEREMIN set from Amazon.com
> In Europe: Order direct from Basta

> see also: Albert Glinsky's New Leon Theremin Book