THEREMINS I HAVE KNOWN Hands-On Encounters with Models and Makes THE RCA THEREMIN

Whatever survives of Theremin's very early creations are all museum pieces. The customized instrument owned by Clara Rockmore is now in the care of a wonderful woman who teaches composition at the Boston conservatory. Lucie Bigelow Rosen's theremin is enshrined at Caramoor, her estate. The hardest working theremin in show business, originally played and owned by Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman is in the more-then-capable hands of theremin virtuoso, Peter Pringle. For the rest of us a small portion of the 500 Grandaddy theremins, made by RCA, are still occasionally attainable. Topping out at around $18,000 to $20,000 on ebay, I doubt I'll ever own one, but I've been lucky enough to play two of them. One, though in need of some adjustments, still worked. The second looked and behaved as if it had been built yesterday. The act of playing the RCAs was a unique experience. They responded very differently than their modern, solid stae counterparts. the response of the volume loop in particular took some getting used to. It required what I'd describe as a more sculpted technique, larger moves to control intonation. It makes the player look much more majestic – like Termen himself in early photos (also because the instrument is fairly massive it required more expansive posture and movement). With both instruments it was the sound that blew me away. There has yet to be any combination of settings on any theremin I own that can reproduce that sound. For those who dislike the buzzy quality of certain vintage recordings, I can only say that hearing it live makes a world of difference.