theremin
Was Albert Einstein a Fan of Electronic Music?
“We’re excited to announce Tomorrowland’s final headliner… Albert Einstein.” Believe it or not, if the man behind the theory of relativity were alive today, that ridiculous music festival announcement could’ve been a reality. A quote attributed to Einstein in 1929 confirms that the most influential physicist of all-time could’ve take a much different career path: musician. It was the height of the “Roaring Twenties,” a period that saw jazz and dance music permeate Western culture. “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician,” Einstein said at the time. “I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” Einstein was a friend of the legendary inventor Leon T...
What the Heck Is the Theremin?
Analog music instruments were rendered largely outdated by the 1960s, anachronistic just as the advent of electronics fundamentally changed what music could be virtually overnight. With the creation of new instruments there comes new conduits to summon new sounds it taps into from the beyond, playing and teasing sonics into novel shapes, sizes and textures previously impossible. And no, I’m not talking about the synthesizer. There existed an earlier, more obscure electronic instrument, called the theremin. It was accidentally invented by Russian physicist Léon Theremin in 1919 while he was attempting to engineer proximity sensor devices for the Soviet government. His experiment was unsuccessful in what it sought to achieve, but its byproduct surpassed any other possible outcome, inte...
