The theremin is an electronic musical instrument that is played using electrical fields. When it was first introduced, people were shocked to see this instrument that could be played without even touching it. The theremin unsually is tuned so that it has a range of three and a half octaves. The theremin's operation is based on the theory of beat frequencies. Two antennas stick out on each side. Usually a vertical antenna is located on the right which controls the pitch. The closer the players hand is, the higher the pitch. A horizontal loop antenna is located on the left and controls the volume. The closer the hand is, the louder the volume.
Patented in 1928 by Leon Theremin, the theremin has not escaped its original status as a novelty instrument. Most people have heard the theremin, even though they may not recognize it. The theremin is a staple of sci-fi films, particularly classic ones. It is not as prominent today but it has featured in recent movies such as Mars Attacks and Ed Wood.
The theremin was invented in 1921 by Leon Theremin (nee Lev Termen). It is one of the most important musical instruments of the twentieth century because it is the first electronic intsrument. Leon Theremin first came up with the idea for the theremin when in high school. He noticed depending on how close a person stands to a Tesla coil, the coil hums in different pitches. After its inveiling in 1921, Theremin toured his instrument around Russia, sparking the curiosity of almost everybody who saw it.
The theremin made its way to America in 1928, where it gained more popularity. In 1929, RCA bought the rights to manufacture the instrument. Leon Theremin stayed in America, where he met Clara Rockmore, the theremin's first virtuoso. Theremin worked on many variations of his original instrument including the Terpsitone (controlled by the entire body), an electric cello, and a theremin controlled only by the eyes.
In 1954 Robert Moog (famous for his synthesizers of the same name) started production of the theremin. His company, Big Briar Inc., still produces them today. It also produces kits for those who wish to build their own theremin. The popularity of the theremin started to rise again and it was included in several movies (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Spellbound, and Lost Weekend). The Beach Boys and Led Zeppelin both used it in their hit songs "Good Vibrations" and "Whole Lotta Love," respectively.
Radio waves were first discovered in 1887, but radio itself was initially invented by Italian Guglielmo Marconi in 1895 (1). His biggest mentioned success was in 1901, when he managed to broadcast the letter “S” across the Atlantic Ocean (1). However, he focused primarily on point-to-point transmissions, not large scale broadcasts from one point (F). As such, three American inventors - Lee De Forest, Edwin Howard Armstrong, and David Sarnoff - took credit for making radio as it is today a success (F). De Forest was born and raised in Alabama and he thought of everything in terms of patents and eventually held more than 300, but many claimed that he simply stole the inventions of others (2). In 1900, he patented a device to enhance weak signals and in 1902, he formed the De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company (1). In the same year. Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian, invented the “electrolytic detector”, which later became the spade detector that brought De Forest so much fame (F). In 1904, John Fleming invented the oscillation valve, which later became De Forest’s audion, and De Forest won the gold medal at the St. Louis World’s Fair for his “spade detector” (F). De Forest gained quite a bit of fame by broadcasting music live from the Eiffel Tower and from the Metropolitan Opera; however, many believed that this was a scam and that he had actually had the device broadcasting the signal only a few blocks away (F). In 1906, he envisioned bringing music and voices to all American households, but as it turns out Canadian inventor Fessenden had already broadcasted a Christmas greeting and music to the crew of a ship off the coast of Canada on Christmas Eve a year earlier (F). In 1912, Armstrong became prominent by inventing regeneration, wh...
The turntables are originally derived from the invention of the phonograph in 1877 and has been improvised since its announcement. Thomas Edison, a famous scientist, created the phonograph, an innovation which could essentially play sounds. Edison’s motive was to simplify relaying messages and daily activities. Although another invention had been concepted in France, Edison’s invention was entirely original. In 1881 Emile Berliner, a German scientist, created the gramophone which had better quality than the phonograph and played rubber discs. This replaced the use of cylinders and was optimized for multiple plays unlike the phonograph. The discs were mass produced and easier to create, and its popularity (which hadn’t sprouted until the 1950’s) spread like wildfire. Their inventions made record playback possible and Emile made it easier by simplifying the usage of records. The simplification of distribution made innovation and creation easier to culturally progress; this gave more people in the future access to such technology.
Everything in the universe involves some type of physics. Even the universe itself does, but have you ever wondered about the physics of simpler items? Physics is vital for all musical instruments, if it wasn’t; they probably wouldn’t produce the beautiful sounds that they do. One of these instruments is acoustic guitar. By looking at the instrument, it doesn’t look very complicated, but if you delve deeper into its composition, you’ll find that it’s very complicated. Physics takes part in the making of acoustic guitars, all the way to how it produces its beautiful music.
The alto saxophone was invented by a man named Adolphe Sax. The alto saxophone is classified as a woodwind instrument. Almost all woodwind instruments have a reed, or a little piece of wood that vibrates to make the sound. One of the few exceptions to this is the flute. The first trace of the alto being invented was in 1846 when Mr. Sax filed for a patent. The alto saxophone was not the first instrument that Mr. Sax invented however. He had invented a few instruments prior to the alto, but the very first invented was the bass clarinet. The very first alto sax was different than the ones we see nowadays. The first saxophones had a few less keyes and could not go as high or low as today's saxophones can.(AltoSaxophone.us)
It was invented in 1658 by the one and only Christiaan Huygens(source 3). While he was an astronomer he looked at Saturn with his telescope hoping to study
...ums in the percussion section. It does not have a definite pitch like the timpani. (Jason) Bass drums cannot be tuned like you can tune the timpani. Concert bass drums usually have loose heads that vibrate more for a darker tone. Drums aren’t the only types of instruments in the percussion category; they are just a couple of the instruments that fall into the untuned percussion category. These untuned drums are used for rhythmic patterns of the composition. These untuned instruments don’t have a distinct note, but they only make one sound, and that is the sound this stick with. Untuned percussion instruments are not the only instruments that are played in the orchestra. Tuned percussion instruments are instruments that have distinct notes that you can play. Marimbas are tuned percussion instruments; they have four to five octaves of notes from A natural, to G sharp.
The piano is an instrument that can be traced back through the centuries; there are no debates about that statement. Nevertheless, there are several different views on what begins the history of the piano. In his book, Pianos and their Makers, Alfred Dolge begins with the Monochord in 582 B. C., which was used by Pythagoras. However, Ernest Closson begins his History of the Piano with the clavichord and gives only five paragraphs to the influences from before. Everyone has their own interpretation of what the history of the piano is; however an instrument is just a piece of mechanical parts without the music that was played on it.
Since people wanted to take the violin seriously to make and play, they started to learn from the unsuccessful past to improve it. To play the violin with rich sound is necessary to violinist to have technology with the certain quality of violin. The quality of instruments built nearly 300 years ago. The quality of violin and performance is improved. The natural scientists have undertaken research into string instruments and some string-instrument builders are now beginning to take advantage of scientific methods of measurement and calculation (Hutchins 1962).
On February 19, 1913, the Kinetophone premiered at the Colonial, a vaudeville theatre on Broadway. The film opened with a lecturer who proceeded to explain the system. He also smashed a plate, played the violin and piano, and had a dog bark-all of which demonstrated the power of Edison’s technology (28). A minstrel act followed, and the film eventually ended with the chorus of the “Star Spangled Banner.” It was a huge hit, and the audience gave the film a 15 minute standing ovation.
‘In retrospective it looks like it was meant to happen. I was building and selling Theremin kits, because of that I met Herbert Deutsch who was a musician, using them in his music classes; because we met he invited me to his concert; because I went to his concert I learned about electronic music; because Herbert and I talked about making electronic music I got ideas about the synthesizer; because I got some ideas for the synthesizer we built the equipment; we showed it to one person who then told an official of the audio engineering society about it and then was invited to display the equipment… My favorite way of
After years, instruments started looking more and more like the guitar. The first instrument that started to look like the guitar was around in the 1200s-1300s. It was found in Mediterranean Europe. Sources refer to this as this as the guitarra latina. Two of the earliest forms after the guitarra latina are the lute and the vihuela. The lute is a small instrument that is shaped somewhat like a pair. It had twelve strings and a very short neck. The vihuela is shaped more like a guitar. It is larger and also has twelve strings (Chapman).
The idea of the phonograph came from the man who invented the light bulb. Thomas Alva Edison is one of the greatest inventors of all time decided to create this invention. In 1877, Edison was working on a machine that would decipher telegraphic messages to paper tape. He used a diaphragm with an embossing point. This would be held onto a moving paraffin paper. Thus when spoken into it, the vibrations made indentations on it.
In 1846 Adolphe obtained patents for his 14 variations of saxophones. Among them were: E flat sopranino, F sopranino, B flat soprano, C soprano, E flat alto, F alto, B flat tenor, C tenor, E flat baritone, B flat bass, C bass, E flat contrabass and F contrabass. In 1881 Adolphe extended his patent for the saxophone; while doing this he also made some improvements to the instrument by lengthening the bell to include Bb and A and extended the instruments range to F# and G using the fourth octave keys. In 1886 the saxophone underwent changes again, this time adding in the right hand C trill key and the half-hole system for the first fingers of both hands. In 1888 the single octave key for th...
The electric guitar was first made in the Oklahoma. This electric guitar design that was made in Oklahoma was the first of its kind and changed music for everyone. The simplicity of the electric guitar surprised many people. All electric guitars since then have been based on this simple guitar design. Many famous musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and many other have made electric guitar more affordable and widely available.
Before the use of synthetic materials in the development of guitars, a guitar was defined as being an instrument having “a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and flat back, most often with curved sides” (citation). The oldest known guitar-like instrument that displayed these features was the string instrument a Hittite bard was holding in a stone carving, showing how much guitar-like instruments had already gained popularity within societies of the past.