{"id":525,"date":"2022-03-02T11:46:42","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T17:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/novamediaweb.com\/?p=525"},"modified":"2024-06-01T19:26:36","modified_gmt":"2024-06-02T00:26:36","slug":"learning-to-play-a-theremin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novamediaweb.com\/?p=525","title":{"rendered":"Learning to play a Theremin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>For me composing paintings and music are two parallel processes where articulation of space is one of the important aspects. I embrace dissonance and polyphony, focus on vectors of movement and speed of sounds that are tactile and spacious, through air and time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>My initial inspiration for a Theremin voice sound in 2016 came from &#8220;Pierrot Lunaire&#8221; and since then the voice is drifting towards ambience and thoughtfulness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/R4LgN93s-js\" width=\"\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this piece I am not playing a melody. I am making sounds in response to my drone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why I am playing with a drone? A long time ago I heard such phrases: \u201cmusic was born from noise\u201d and \u201cyou can hear music in the rhythmic sound made by wheels of a moving train.\u201d And, yes, I do hear music in noise. I remembered these phrases suddenly when by chance (unintentionally) I made a train sequence on my synthesizer\u2026 Soon I set up a droning sound on my eurorack and then listened and played what I heard in this drone. This is how my music is born out of noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J8bjeR4x30g\" width=\"\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have to admit, I practiced playing Theremin every day and by 2020 I was finally able to play classical arias in pitch and in tempo. I practiced \u201cO mio babbino caro\u201d since 2016, before I could publicly share this recording:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zIY52seAoyI\" width=\"\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As it became much easier to play the instrument I was wondering what else can I play and experiment with. I made my previous tasks a little bit more complicated by playing with evolving eurorack sequence. The difficulty here is in not knowing before hand where the next sound will be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/910SPwzWpG8\" width=\"\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2019 I composed my first large-scale work for Theremin and Synthesizers \u201cMono Opera In Dust\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2018 I had three interesting thoughts. I can play Theremin with a drum sequence, I can use an effect pedal to improvise with a classical piece, and I can play with a drone sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My first recording of the year was \u201cOccasion\u201d \u2013 it later became a part of my \u201cMono Opera\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Olea Nova - &quot;Occasion&quot;. Theremin and Synthesizers.\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PLDCPGFc3ls?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I was learning to play classical pieces at the same time and I was gradually getting better with staying \u201cin pitch\u201d and I was increasing my speed. At the moment I was practicing Mozart\u2019s Symphony No.40 in G minor K550 and you can hear a motive from it in my solo improvisation with effects pedal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TnWGZb6NYdI\" width=\"\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The question was \u2013 what to do with the instrument that can play a melody and make electroacoustic noise. I was enjoying finding simple solutions. The easiest solutions at the start were to play a melody and make electroacoustic noise, and this is what I continued with in 2017. I recorded several solo sound improvisations, improvised Theremin solos with other synthesizers and with another prerecorded Theremin solo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Olea Nova - Tide - Theremin Improvisation\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Vyipm5XJRfo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I bought my first Theremin in August 2016. I started gradually learning how to play the instrument and parallel with that I was experimenting with different ideas for sound compositions. I played Theremin with electroacoustic wind sound and with a long soundtrack I made for the occasion in my painting studio. It worked great, people were coming and going, and they listened to me playing for a few minutes, and I could stop and start playing at any point in time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Theremin Etude 1. Theremin Solo.\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6enqvnloXwg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>My interest in Synthesizers was prompted by the work \u201cSteam\u201d by A. Schnittke, he wrote it on the ANS Synthesizer in 1969. After I heard this work I started to look for a synthesizer that can possibly emulate ANS sounds and I bought my first Synthesizer in 2014. I also became interested in the history of synthesizers and that brought my attention to Theremin. I had no idea whether I will be able to play the instrument.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For me composing paintings and music are two parallel processes where articulation of space is one of the important aspects. I embrace dissonance and polyphony, focus on vectors of movement and speed of sounds that are tactile and spacious, through &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/novamediaweb.com\/?p=525\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[8,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novamediaweb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novamediaweb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novamediaweb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novamediaweb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novamediaweb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=525"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/novamediaweb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":579,"href":"https:\/\/novamediaweb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions\/579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novamediaweb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novamediaweb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novamediaweb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}