Day 313: Theremin

Today in history of western music II, we were talking about the fascinating age of electronic music. We of course discussed synthesizers, computers, and composers of the time, but the coolest part was when the teacher came in with an electronic instrument called a theremin. It's a motion detecting instrument mainly used in sci fi sounding scores. He let some people try to play it and who did the best would get exempt an automatic 100 on the final of course that was April fools but it was still cool to try to play it. It was so difficult. I may be a good pianist but I definitely can't play the theremin. It's so sensitive and as you move your hand the pitch changes and so does the volume. It's so complicated and seems too specialized for its purpose. Nevertheless, it was fascinating. Here is a photo of one.