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Hi folks, <br><br>As a thereminist and Zappa fan, I'd like to know if Frank has ever done anything with the theremin. <br><br>best, <br>Wilco

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Wilco Botermans

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Er, with WHAT, with WHOM?<br> ???<br><br>Well, if he had, I surely would know what you are talking about... no idea so far. Would say: nope!<br><br>More ideas?

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Good Lobna!

i may be mistaken, but i think the device that Jimmy Page jacks off onstage in "The Song Remains The Same" film is a theremin?<br><br>i'm sure that FZ could've done some serious damage on one of these.  or George.  or Ruthie.<br><br>i had to look up the spelling of theremin in the dictionary, as the internet community seems to shift between "theramin" and "theremin" at will.  frenzy got it right, it's "theremin".<br><br>ronnie montrose owns one.  go figure.<br>"Get on your bad motorscooter and ride WOOOWOOWOOOWOOYYYEYYEYYEYYONGYONG"

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have you NEVER been mellow?!
have you never TRIED?!

Indeed, the theremin, or "termenvox" (Voice of Theremin), was used by Jimmy Page in Whole Lotta Love, and the Beachboys exprerimented with it in the late sixties. However, the eventual recording does not have a theremin in it, but a so called Electro-theremin, which works  more like an ondes martenot, or a modern day ribbon controller as seen on many synths these days. A jazz trombone player called Paul Tanner, member of the Glen Miller Orchestra, had this instrument built for him after seeing the theremin, and wanting to use it, but not expecting ever to be able to master the instrument. He is the one playing the supposed --theremin melody-- in Good Vibriations. Robert Moog then built a similar instrument for the Beachboys, to use on stage. Mike Love is the one playing it at live shows. (usually seated on the right of the stage...)<br><br>Well, that's about all the Beachboys stuff I dare offer you guys <br><br>Someone who did work with the theremin is Captain Beefheart. He uses it on the Safe As Milk album, on the songs 'Electricity' and 'Autumn Child', and has it played by "Hollywoods only thereminplayer who could actually read music...", Dr. Samual Hoffman. He can be heard in many movies from the fifties and sixties, like Spellbound, and The Day the Earth Stood Still.<br><br>Anyway, I was hoping anyone would know if maybe through Beefheart, Zappa might have encountered the theremin in any which way. I also know of no recordings, but who knows if any experiments are still stashed away in the vaults of the UMRK...<br><br>Thanks for all your responses!<br><br>Wilco

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Wilco Botermans

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Apparently, a theremin was part of Don Preston's early synthesizer gear when he was playing with the Mothers, at least: it says so on this picture:<br><br><br><br>Can't think of any example in the FZ catalogue where it's audible, though...

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"When you hear music, after it's over, it's gone in the air. You can never capture it again." -- Eric Dolphy

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Hi frenzy. I was thinking maybe "The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet".....maybe?  <br><br><br>[quote author=Studebaker link=board=legends;num=1037208194;start=0#8 date=11/13/02 at 17:54:08]Apparently, a theremin was part of Don Preston's early synthesizer gear when he was playing with the Mothers, at least: it says so on this picture:<br>[/quote]<br><br>Don Preston interview- <br><br> I thought you were referring to the pic on my home page of the Moog. If you are talking about the photo of my 1st 'homemade synth,' then that was my own design and was built before any other commercial synthesizer. It had about 50 oscillators, 3 filters, 2 Ring Modulators, a tape delay, a theremin and a mixer. Along with that I used several metal sculptures and a truck spring to create 'electronic' sounds. <br><br>Here's the rest of the story.<br>http://www.stevemoore.addr.com/donpreston.html<br>

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Close your eyes and visualize a glockenspiel(*,*)

I love the way Captain Beefheart used the theremin on his ''Safe as milk'' album....the sound it makes is just awesome and fits the Captains extraordinary voice really good...<br>Talking about theremins and Beefheart....:<br>There is a rumour that The Captain was friends with the guy who invented the theremin...is this true ???

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Alan Thicke: ''Now Frank, for those of us who have seen you as some kind of guru over the years, that's a kind of nihilistic assesment of music. Where's the hope ?''
Frank Zappa: ''Well, there isn't any...''

Cool stuff about Don Preston! Thanks. I now of course want to try and contact him....<br><br>About Captain Beefheart meeting Leon Theremin, I am pretty sure they didn't. Leon Theremin was a Russian Scientist, who lived and worked in New York from late 1928, to 1938. I don't know the birth date of Don van Vliet, but I doubt he was in the right place at the right time..... well for meeting Leon, that is...<br><br>What might be a possibility is that the Captain met Robert Moog. Moog used to build theremins in the late 50s and sixties (he actually never really stopped), before he invented the Moog synthesizers. Since the early 90s, Bob has been concentrating on building theremins again, and is still doing that. www.moogmusic.com<br><br>Bob has been the most important manufacturer of theremins since the sixties.<br><br>Wilco

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Wilco Botermans

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[quote author=white_person link=board=legends;num=1037208194;start=0#12 date=11/14/02 at 19:50:33]<br><br>If he called them Moogemins, I'd buy one just for the name. Seriously, those things are pretty damn cheap and I'm going to buy one just to annoy the shit out of my friends, family, and neighbors. <br>We should each buy one, rehearse a mutually agreed upon FZ song or two, gather at Zappanale 14, and perform as the Abnuceals Emooga Theremin Orchestra. We'd probably drive away any and all rodents within a 5-mile radius, hot rats excepted.<br>[/quote]<br><br>I don't usually post "me too" 's but this is one of the coolest ideas I've ever heard. I nominate "Lucy's Seduction of a Bored Violinist and Postlude" as a possible piece.<br><br>- Mark

Just a suggestion for an album featuring the Theremin if anyone is interested:  The Day The Earth Stood Still<br><br>It is the soundtrack that made the Theremin popular for Sci-Fi movies.

[quote author=white_person link=board=legends;num=1037208194;start=0#12 date=11/14/02 at 19:50:33]If he called them Moogemins, I'd buy one just for the name. Seriously, those things are pretty damn cheap and I'm going to buy one just to annoy the shit out of my friends, family, and neighbors. <br>We should each buy one, rehearse a mutually agreed upon FZ song or two, gather at Zappanale 14, and perform as the Abnuceals Emooga Theremin Orchestra. We'd probably drive away any and all rodents within a 5-mile radius, hot rats excepted.<br>[/quote]<br>[quote author=jackal59 link=board=legends;num=1037208194;start=0#13 date=11/17/02 at 01:47:15]I don't usually post "me too" 's but this is one of the coolest ideas I've ever heard. I nominate "Lucy's Seduction of a Bored Violinist and Postlude" as a possible piece.<br><br>- Mark[/quote]<br>i love it!

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have you NEVER been mellow?!
have you never TRIED?!

Hey, i just have to respond to this....<br><br>As you could read in an earlier post, the Beachboys' theremin is not a theremin.<br><br>I think you're right about the mix-up between the theremin and teh jacobs ladder<br><br>The theremin generates an electro magnetic field around its antennas. Any thing with mass will disturb the magnetic field. (a glass of water, a microphonestand, etc). SO the human nervous system has nothing to do with it. (Would be cool though!)

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Wilco Botermans

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www.theremin.nl

----- Nice try. An electromagnetic field can only be upset by another electromagnetic field. Simple mass doesn't do it (go check Maxwell's laws).  ------<br><br>Hey, I'm not a physicist, just a thereminist...<br><br>Does the nervous system really generate that much electrical power? I doubt this can be of any influence. This might even mean that if i move my hand fast, the influence on the field changes.... (of course it does that with movement anyway, but by the movement of mass, in my opinion.)<br>Also, if i put a metal object in the field, it works as well as if i put my head in the field. <br>There is a difference in capacitance though, if a fat or a skinny person would play.<br><br>Wilco

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Wilco Botermans

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A theremin thread that might answer the Cheepnis question.

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You gotta give the people something good to read, on a Sunday

There are'nt enough theramin players around.

Ever heard of the Trans-Theriminian Mongolian Orchestra? Me neither, but that would be so cool.

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You gotta give the people something good to read, on a Sunday

Zappa used an Ondes Martenot, apparently. (It sounds exactly like a theremin, it's somewhat easier to play.) I assume it's in one of his 'symphonic' pieces...Sinister Footwear, perhaps?

EDIT: Yep, the musician list on 'A Zappa Affair' lists the Ondes Martenot as used. http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/docs/A_Zappa_Affair.html

hi, it's me again. the central thereminizer....

What a treat. to find this thread again after 9 years. I did get a chance to ask Don Preston himself about him using a theremin. In 2007 I believe it was, and he did indeed verify he had one in his setup. We didn't speak about pieces he used it in or anything. Just this.

Thanks for the info about the Ondes Martinot. I have heard of the performer who plays it, but didn't know about this project.

cheerio,
Wilco Botermans

Methinks Nemone from BBC 6-muzishall has a player on herSpace, i could look it up for ya. Weehoo-wowhie

and Cal is so cool, wossay?-)

Wow, great you got to talk to Don!

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