Beard of the Week LX: Spock's Theremin
This week's beard belongs to Mr. Spock, the venerable half-Vulcan who served as the science officer aboard the Enterprise in "Star Trek", the original television series. It is thought that he has another name that is unpronounceable by humans. In grade school I identified quite a bit with Mr. Spock. Personally I hoped to develop the cool, rational demeanor and analytical outlook he displayed; outwardly, it was because my ears were too big for my head and looked vaguely pointy.
It seems that this episode in which Spock had this beard ("Mirror, Mirror"), is the only time Spock was ever portrayed with a beard (and, in fact, the bearded version is a mean, anti-Spock in a parallel universe–his beard kept viewers clued in about which universe events were happening). I think that's too bad because he looks quite dashing in a beard, but apparently NBC already found the Spock character too "sinister" looking to begin with, and everyone knows beards make men look more sinister.
"Spock's Beard" is also the name of a progressive rock band I'd never heard of until this morning. Isn't it splendid to learn new things?
Surely, in addition to the main characters, one of the most recognizable things from the "Star Trek" series was the theme song. Last night, for reasons we may or may not get to, the conversation happened to turn on the question whether the familiar and unusual timbre of the melody was 1) a woman singing; or 2) a theremin, which sounded like a woman singing?
Happily, Wikipedia was there with the answer:
Coloratura soprano Loulie Jean Norman imitated the sound and feel of the theremin for the theme for Alexander Courage's theme for the original Star Trek TV series. Soprano Elin Carlson sang Norman's part when CBS-Paramount TV remastered the program's title sequence in 2006.
I was relieved. I had always thought it was a woman singing, but it did sound remarkably like a theremin. And now we've arrived at my real object for this piece: Theremin and his theremin. (He never had a beard, it seems, but I would not be thwarted!)
Léon Theremin (1896–1993), born in Russia, started out as Lev Sergeyevich Termen. His name is familiar to many people these days because he invented the "theremin" (here's an interesting short piece about the theremin; or course there's Wikipedia on the theremin, not to mention Theremin World). Theremin invented the instrument in 1919 when he was doing research on developing a proximity sensor in Russia. Lenin loved it. Some ten years later Theremin ended up in New York, patented his instrument, and licensed RCA to build them.
The theremin (played by a "thereminist") is generally deemed to have been the first ever electronic instrument. It also claims the distinction that it is played by the thereminist without being touched. Instead, the thereminist moves her hands near the two antennae of the instrument, one of which controls pitch and the other of which controls volume; capacitive changes between the antennae and the body of the thereminist affect the frequency of oscillators that alter the pitch and volume of the generated tone.
It is a very simple device and the musical sound is not very sophisticated, and yet there's something beguiling in watching a good thereminist perform, and something haunting about the sound.
Most people have heard a theremin and typically haven't recognized it. Most popularly, perhaps, is its appearance in the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations", by Brian Wilson (YouTube performance), although this appears to be a modified theremin played by actually touching it!
My favorite theremin parts are in the score Miklós Rózsa wrote for the Hitchcock film "Spellbound"–fabulous film, fabulous music, for which Rózsa won an Academy Award. (In a bit, a link where you can hear the "Spellbound" music, with theremin). This movie was the theremin's first outing in such a popular venue–"Spellbound" was the mega-hit, big-budget, highly marketed blockbuster of its day. Later on, of course, the theremin was widely used in science-fiction movies, famously The Day the Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet. (On the use of the theremin in film scores, here's a fascinating article by James Wierzbicki: "Weird Vibrations: How the Theremin Gave Musical Voice to Hollywood’s Extraterrestrial 'Others' ").
There seems to have been a resurgence of interest in the theremin in the past few years, or else I've just noticed other people's interest more–the internet can make such things much more visible and seemingly more prevalent. One recent development: a solar-powered theremin that fits in an Altoids box. (Heard, by the way, in the radio program mentioned below.)
Some claim that the new interest began following the release of Steven M. Martin's 1995 documentary, "Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey". I don't know about that, but we did watch this film a few weeks ago (we got a copy for rather few dollars–we couldn't pass it up because of the rather lurid cover art more suitable for something like "Plan Leon from Outer Space" perhaps), and it is an outstanding documentary. It's about Theremin and the theremin, and the story is very, very engaging. There's a lot of weird stuff that went on in Theremin's very long life, like the time in the 1930s (I think) when he was snatched from his office in New York City by Russian agents and spirited away to the Soviet Union. Friends thought he was dead, but he reappeared years later. He'd been forced to work for the KGB developing small listening devices.
A few people of interest also show up in the film: Brian Wilson (enjoy watching him try to finish one thought or get to the end of a sentence), Nicolas Slonimsky, Todd Rundergren, Clara Rockmore, and Robert Moog (of the Moog Synthesize–he started out making theremin kits). Of particular interest, I thought, was Clara Rockmore (1911–1998), thought of as probably the greatest thereminist of all time. Listening to her talk in the film is interesting, but more interesting is watching and listening to her play the theremin. Check out her technique! It's great stuff.
Now for one last treat. Here is a link to a 90-minute radio program (and information about it), called "Into the Ether", presented by a British thereminist who performs under the name "Hypnotique". The program is nicely done and filled with audio samples of theremin performances in a wide variety of genres. If you don't have the time for the entire thing, I'll point out that the "Spellbound Concerto", by Miklós Rózsa, from his music for the film, is excerpted at the very beginning of the program and that's a must-hear for thereminophiles, whether new or seasoned.
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on Tuesday, 2 December 2008 at 23.46
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This is one of the most fascinating Beard of the Weeks yet. I had to check out all of your links and now I want the movie and Clara's album. You find such interesting stuff to share!
on Wednesday, 3 December 2008 at 00.51
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Thanks for the kind words. What could possibly be better than provoking someone else to discover new things?
on Wednesday, 3 December 2008 at 20.58
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Thanks for the mention in your article! The theramin is a fascinating instrument. The effect with the voice in the Trek theme was created by mixing it with organ and vibraphone. Live long and prosper!
on Wednesday, 3 December 2008 at 23.27
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When I saw the picture of a goateed Spock (couldn't makeup even have made the beard the same colour as his head hair?), I was immediately reminded of The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord. Shirley you've heard of this list. The first two items on items are:
# My Legions of Terror will have helmets with clear plexiglass visors, not face-concealing ones.
# My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.
The actual point that came into my head first was:
# I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.
closely followed by the Evil-Spock-Relevant one:
# I will not grow a goatee. In the old days they made you look diabolic. Now they just make you look like a disaffected member of Generation X.
on Thursday, 4 December 2008 at 00.30
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Elin, it was my pleasure since the Star Trek theme was the impetus for the essay. Thanks for stopping by and leaving the link to the page so that we could hear you sing it. Brilliant!
Chris, you know we've both seen men with beard colors that differ from head-hair colors. The disaffected gen-X thing is about right, although I still like some facial hair in preference to none. And the pointy ears are so sexy!
on Friday, 5 December 2008 at 00.46
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I've not often seen beards lighter than head-hair, unless (as in my case) the lighter colour comes from grey/white.
however, as Willyum will tell you, I'm heavily in favour of facial hair as adding to a man's allure. and as to unusual ears: did I ever tell you of my proclivity for aural aurigami? when I was little (as in: not yet walking reliably), I had an aural fixation; but because I couldn't spell yet, I didn't suck my thumb, but instead played with my ears. the lugs are, as a result, very flexible with no discomfort to moi. They'll even tuck in [a process I need my fingers for] and pop out [which I can do with no digital interference]. I don't have the photos, but they will also roll backwards and make me look decidedly Spock-like. Usually only one side at a time, though.
on Friday, 5 December 2008 at 01.12
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We have touched on your aurigami before, and I'm sure I've seen some pictures. I suppose this youthful Spockiness is yet another thing we have in common. I didn't fold mine, but I could wiggle them with some dexterity, even one at a time. I also learned to raise my eyebrows–one at a time or both simultaneously–around the same time. Between those things and the pointiness–Spockiness.
I have seen a few, a very few instances of facial hair lighter than atop the head. Of course, greying is the more common reason; it's my look these days, but I've become rather a fan of all the many variations some grey can add to a man's color palette.
on Tuesday, 27 January 2009 at 07.54
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The theremin is not used in the still-wonderful Louis and Bebe Barron soundtrack to Forbidden Planet. Louis Barron created handmade analog electronic circuits which were overloaded until they burned out and produced sound. His wife Bebe recorded these sounds and edited them into final form to create the 'tonalities' that formed the score. Their 1956 work for the film is the first all-electronic soundtrack for a film.