Fantasy Girl Hilton Carter Pallo Zo David A. White Beard scenes deleted Amanda Dennis Fantasy Girl Keiyana Fordham Fantasy Girl Timothy Fowler The Lawyer Alexis Frasz Blonde Interrogator Sapna Gupta Fantasy Girl Eva Hagberg Fantasy Girl David Hittson German Wolf Heather Iandoli Arthur Zarek Ajay Kapur One of these electronics enthusiasts, Robert Moog , began building theremins in the s, while he was a high-school student. Moog subsequently published a number of articles about building theremins, and sold theremin kits that were intended to be assembled by the customer.
Moog credited what he learned from the experience as leading directly to his groundbreaking synthesizer , the Moog. Around , a colleague of Moog's, electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott , purchased one of Moog's theremin subassemblies to incorporate into a new invention, the Clavivox , which was intended to be an easy-to-use keyboard theremin. Since the release of the film Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey in , the instrument has enjoyed a resurgence in interest and has become more widely used by contemporary musicians. Even though many theremin sounds can be approximated on many modern synthesizers, some musicians continue to appreciate the expressiveness, novelty, and uniqueness of using an actual theremin.
THE INSTRUMENT VILLAGE
The film itself has garnered excellent reviews. Both theremin instruments and kits are available from manufacturers such as Moog Music Inc. Some inexpensive theremins may only have a pitch control and may be harder to play accurately because of a relatively non-linear relationship between the distance of the hand and resultant pitch, as well as a relatively short span of hand-to-antenna distance for producing the available range of pitch. The theremin is distinguished among musical instruments in that it is played without physical contact.
The thereminist stands in front of the instrument and moves his or her hands in the proximity of two metal antennas.
The distance from one antenna determines frequency pitch , and the distance from the other controls amplitude volume. Higher notes are played by moving the hand closer to the pitch antenna. Louder notes are played by moving the hand away from the volume antenna. Most frequently, the right hand controls the pitch and the left controls the volume, although some performers reverse this arrangement. Some low-cost theremins use a conventional, knob operated volume control and have only the pitch antenna. While commonly called antennas, they are not used for receiving or broadcasting radio waves, but act as plates of capacitors.
The theremin uses the heterodyne principle to generate an audio signal.
The instrument's pitch circuitry includes two radio frequency oscillators set below kHz to minimize radio interference. One oscillator operates at a fixed frequency.
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The frequency of the other oscillator is almost identical, and is controlled by the performer's distance from the pitch control antenna. The performer's hand acts as the grounded plate the performer's body being the connection to ground of a variable capacitor in an L-C inductance-capacitance circuit, which is part of the oscillator and determines its frequency. In the simplest designs, the antenna is directly coupled to the tuned circuit of the oscillator and the 'pitch field' that is the change of note with distance, is highly nonlinear, as the capacitance change with distance is far greater near the antenna.
In such systems, when the antenna is removed, the oscillator moves up in frequency. To partly linearise the pitch field, the antenna may be wired in series with an inductor to form a series tuned circuit , resonating with the parallel combination of the antenna's intrinsic capacitance and the capacitance of the player's hand in proximity to the antenna. This series tuned circuit is then connected in parallel with the parallel tuned circuit of the variable pitch oscillator.
With the antenna circuit disconnected, the oscillator is tuned to a frequency slightly higher than the stand alone resonant frequency of the antenna circuit. At that frequency, the antenna and its linearisation coil present an inductive impedance; and when connected, behaves as an inductor in parallel with the oscillator. Thus, connecting the antenna and linearising coil raises the oscillation frequency. Close to the resonant frequency of the antenna circuit, the effective inductance is small, and the effect on the oscillator is greatest; farther from it, the effective inductance is larger, and fractional change on the oscillator is reduced.
When the hand is distant from the antenna, the resonant frequency of the antenna series circuit is at its highest; i. Under this condition, the effective inductance in the tank circuit is at its minimum and the oscillation frequency is at its maximum.
The steepening rate of change of shunt impedance with hand position compensates for the reduced influence of the hand being further away. With careful tuning, a near linear region of pitch field can be created over the central 2 or 3 octaves of operation.
Musical instrument
Using optimized pitch field linearisation, circuits can be made where a change in capacitance between the performer and the instrument in the order of 0. The mixer produces the audio-range difference between the frequencies of the two oscillators at each moment, which is the tone that is then wave shaped and amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.
To control volume, the performer's other hand acts as the grounded plate of another variable capacitor. As in the tone circuit, the distance between the performer's hand and the volume control antenna determines the capacitance and hence natural resonant frequency of an LC circuit inductively coupled to another fixed LC oscillator circuit operating at a slightly higher resonant frequency. When a hand approaches the antenna, the natural frequency of that circuit is lowered by the extra capacitance, which detunes the oscillator and lowers its resonant plate current.
In the earliest theremins, the RF plate current of the oscillator is picked up by another winding and used to power the filament of another diode-connected triode, which thus acts as a variable conductance element changing the output amplitude. Modern circuit designs often simplify this circuit and avoid the complexity of two heterodyne oscillators by having a single pitch oscillator, akin to the original theremin's volume circuit. For example, while organs with multiple keyboards and pedals already existed, the first organs with solo stops emerged in the early fifteenth century.
These stops were meant to produce a mixture of timbres, a development needed for the complexity of music of the time. Beginning in the seventeenth century, composers began creating works of a more emotional style. They felt that a monophonic style better suited the emotional music and wrote musical parts for instruments that would complement the singing human voice. One such instrument was the shawm. In the mid-seventeenth century, what was known as a hunter's horn underwent transformation into an "art instrument" consisting of a lengthened tube, a narrower bore, a wider bell, and much wider range.
The details of this transformation are unclear, but the modern horn or, more colloquially, French horn, had emerged by This variation on the trumpet was unpopular due to the difficulty involved in playing it. Sachs viewed this trend as a "degeneration" of the general organ sound. During the Classical and Romantic periods of music, lasting from roughly to , a great deal of musical instruments capable of producing new timbres and higher volume were developed and introduced into popular music.
The design changes that broadened the quality of timbres allowed instruments to produce a wider variety of expression. Large orchestras rose in popularity and, in parallel, the composers determined to produce entire orchestral scores that made use of the expressive abilities of modern instruments. Since instruments were involved in collaborations of a much larger scale, their designs had to evolve to accommodate the demands of the orchestra. Some instruments also had to become louder to fill larger halls and be heard over sizable orchestras.
Flutes and bowed instruments underwent many modifications and design changes—most of them unsuccessful—in efforts to increase volume. Other instruments were changed just so they could play their parts in the scores. Trumpets traditionally had a "defective" range—they were incapable of producing certain notes with precision. Instruments such as the clarinet also grew into entire "families" of instruments capable of different ranges: Accompanying the changes to timbre and volume was a shift in the typical pitch used to tune instruments.
Instruments meant to play together, as in an orchestra, must be tuned to the same standard lest they produce audibly different sounds while playing the same notes. Beginning in , the average concert pitch began rising from a low of vibrations to a high of in Vienna. Despite even the efforts of two organized international summits attended by noted composers like Hector Berlioz , no standard could be agreed upon. The evolution of traditional musical instruments slowed beginning in the twentieth century.
Gradual iterations do emerge; for example, the "New Violin Family" began in to provide differently sized violins to expand the range of available sounds. The sheer variety of instruments developed overshadows any prior period. The proliferation of electricity in the twentieth century lead to the creation of an entirely new category of musical instruments: In other words, they have mechanical parts that produce sound vibrations, and those vibrations are picked up and amplified by electrical components.
Examples of electromechanical instruments include Hammond organs and electric guitars. The latter half of the twentieth century saw the gradual evolution of synthesizers —instruments that artificially produce sound using analog or digital circuits and microchips. In the late s, Bob Moog and other inventors began an era of development of commercial synthesizers. One of the first of these instruments was the Moog synthesizer. There are many different methods of classifying musical instruments. Various methods examine aspects such as the physical properties of the instrument material, color, shape, etc.
Most methods are specific to a geographic area or cultural group and were developed to serve the unique classification requirements of the group. For example, a system based on instrument use would fail if a culture invented a new use for the same instrument. Scholars recognize Hornbostel-Sachs as the only system that applies to any culture and, more important, provides only possible classification for each instrument. An ancient Hindu system named the Natya Shastra , written by the sage Bharata Muni and dating from between BC and AD, divides instruments into four main classification groups: Hornbostel and Sachs used most of Mahillon's system, but replaced the term autophone with idiophone.
Sachs later added a fifth category, electrophones , such as theremins , which produce sound by electronic means. The system has been criticised and revised over the years, but remains widely used by ethnomusicologists and organologists. Schaeffner believed that the pure physics of a musical instrument, rather than its specific construction or playing method, should always determine its classification. Hornbostel-Sachs, for example, divide aerophones on the basis of sound production, but membranophones on the basis of the shape of the instrument.
His system divided instruments into two categories: Musical instruments are also often classified by their musical range in comparison with other instruments in the same family. This exercise is useful when placing instruments in context of an orchestra or other ensemble. Some instruments fall into more than one category: Many instruments have their range as part of their name: Additional adjectives describe instruments above the soprano range or below the bass , for example: When used in the name of an instrument, these terms are relative, describing the instrument's range in comparison to other instruments of its family and not in comparison to the human voice range or instruments of other families.
The materials used in making musical instruments vary greatly by culture and application. Many of the materials have special significance owing to their source or rarity. Some cultures worked substances from the human body into their instruments. In ancient Mexico, for example, the material drums were made from might contain actual human body parts obtained from sacrificial offerings.
In New Guinea, drum makers would mix human blood into the adhesive used to attach the membrane. The Yakuts believe that making drums from trees struck by lightning gives them a special connection to nature. Musical instrument construction is a specialized trade that requires years of training, practice, and sometimes an apprenticeship. Most makers of musical instruments specialize in one genre of instruments; for example, a luthier makes only stringed instruments. Some make only one type of instrument such as a piano. Whatever the instrument constructed, the instrument maker must consider materials, construction technique, and decoration, creating a balanced instrument that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
Regardless of how the sound in an instrument is produced, many musical instruments have a keyboard as the user-interface. Keyboard instruments are any instruments that are played with a musical keyboard. Every key generates one or more sounds; most keyboard instruments have extra means pedals for a piano, stops and a pedal keyboard for an organ to manipulate these sounds. They may produce sound by wind being fanned organ or pumped accordion , [] [] vibrating strings either hammered piano or plucked harpsichord , [] [] by electronic means synthesizer , [] or in some other way.
Sometimes, instruments that do not usually have a keyboard, such as the glockenspiel , are fitted with one. The theremin , an electrophone , is played without physical contact by the player.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 February The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Piano Book, 4th ed.