Theremin, Leon

▪ 1994

      (LEV SERGEYEVICH TERMEN), Russian scientist and inventor (b. Aug. 24, 1896, St. Petersburg, Russia—d. Nov. 3, 1993, Moscow, Russia), created one of the first electronic instruments; originally called the etherophone but later renamed for its inventor, the theremin provided the eerie, otherworldly sound in numerous motion pictures, the works of several composers, and such pop recordings as "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys. The instrument was designed to be played without being touched—the movement of the player's hands above the antenna and near a metal loop controlled pitch and volume—and was considered to have been the first synthesizer. Theremin was educated in St. Petersburg—in physics and astronomy at the university and music at the conservatory—and took a post at the Physico-Technical Institute in that city. He invented the theremin in 1920 and demonstrated it at the Kremlin for Lenin in 1922 and in Berlin for Albert Einstein in 1927. Later in 1927 he went to New York, and the next year he patented his instrument. He continued working on inventions, creating a variety of other musical devices and developing an electronic security system for prisons. In 1938 he was forced to return to the Soviet Union and was sent to a Siberian labour camp, but during World War II he was transferred to a military laboratory, where he worked on ship- and submarine-tracking systems and remote-control systems. Theremin also invented a miniature eavesdropping device for the KGB, for which he was secretly awarded the Stalin Prize. He was released from prison and went to Moscow, where he continued as a scientist for the KGB and then became (1964) a professor of acoustics at the Moscow Conservatory. He was dismissed from that post after a New York Times article about him was published, and he thereafter worked as a technician at the Moscow Polytechnic Institute. Theremin was honoured at electronic music festivals in France in 1989 and at Stanford University in 1991.

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