THEREMIN MP3'S!
The thing I enjoy doing most in life is playing the theremin....well, it's in the top two or three things I enjoy most. What follows on this page are some of my theremin experiments in mp3 format. As a musician, I do not particularly like the mp3 sound because it does not compare in quality with the sort of wave file you find on a regular CD. It has the advantage, however, of being easy to download. If you like any of these recordings, put this page into your FAVORITES list because I am constantly posting new mp3's that you might also enjoy.
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**NEW - January 25, 2007**
This is a classic song from
the works of the 19th century American songwriter Stephen Foster.
Here is what the Library of Congress website has to say about it. “Composed
late in his life and published posthumously, Stephen Foster's BEAUTIFUL
DREAMER (1864) is one of the composer's most memorable ballads. It
was written at least six months before Foster's death, when he was destitute
and in poor heath, and survived by selling songs (at extremely cheap rates)
that were written in haste. While prolific in number, these last songs, for
the most part, were less inspired than his earlier efforts such as OH! SUSANNA
which had launched his career as a songwriter.
For his songs composed after 1860, Foster turned his creative energy to the
parlor ballad, a type of song noted for its sentimental or narrative text, frequently
at a slow tempo. With its lilting triplet rhythm, BEAUTIFUL DREAMER
exemplifies Foster's final sentiments and has become one of America's most beloved
serenades.”
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Persephone, in ancient Greek mythology, was the name of the Queen of the Underworld. It is also the name of a relatively new musical instrument. If you are curious about it, you can read more (and see a photo of it) on my Persephone page. This composition, which I wrote myself, is for Persephone, theremin, piano and synthesizer. Since this instrument is a cousin of the theremin (both are continuous portamento electronic devices) I thought it might be interesting to hear them both in the same piece of music, although the theremin's appearance is brief.
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Joaquin Rodrigo (1901 - 1999) is one of my favorite 20th century Spanish composers. Most people are familiar with his very popular Concierto De Aranjuez (for guitar and orchestra) but the list of his compositions is filled with treasures that are heard less often. Here is a theremin transcription of a piece Rodrigo wrote in 1923 called CANÇONETA FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA. It is a simple composition but like all Rodrigo's music it works because it is so deeply felt. It is also unmistakably, deliciously Spanish, with its distinctive harmonies which have their origin in the amazing world of the Flamenco guitar. I used the Moog Music Etherwave Pro theremin for this recording.
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The 19th century German composer, Siegfried Ochs, arranged this piece of music and attributed it to Handel. Music historians, however, maintain that it was not written by Handel and the real composer of the theme remains a mystery. In spite of this it is a perennial favorite and has been recorded by a number of singers......and now by the theremin.
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This old show-stopper was introduced by “America's singing sweethearts” Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in the 1936 MGM film, ROSE MARIE. This song is so schmaltzy and over-the-top that it was responsible for destroying the Martians in the Tim Burton 1996 science fiction spoof, MARS ATTACKS! Apparently the alien invaders were so overwhelmed upon hearing this tune that it stopped them in their tracks. I performed this version on my Etherwave Pro theremin.
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We have many beautiful examples of the musical instruments of ancient Egypt which have been excavated from temples and tombs. The problem is, we do not really know exactly what the music sounded like that these beautiful artifacts were intended to play. There are all sorts of ancient harps (both 'C'-shaped and triangular), lutes, zithers, flutes, trumpets, drums, bells, etc. that can be seen in the Egyptian collections of museums all over the world but we can only speculate about what these instruments played. One thing for sure, they did not have theremins - BUT WHAT IF THEY DID? I have some modern reproductions of ancient Egyptian instruments, including a 16 string 'C'-shaped harp and assorted lutes, bell trees etc. Just for fun, I put them alll together with the Moog Etherwave theremin in this short composition called THE BLUE LOTUS. This recording is entirely acoustic, and no effects (other than a bit of reverb) were used on any of the instruments. Many years ago, I had a great interest in a technique of ancient Persian singing called “tahrir”, so to spice things up a bit on this mp3, I added a little of that as well. It is entirely possible that in the time of the pharaohs the Egyptians used vocal techniques similar to this. We will never know. If you are curious about the instruments used in this recording, here is a picture of them.
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Although many people are familiar with the “Gymnopédie #1” of French composer Eric Satie, few seem to know much about his other works. Satie (1866 - 1925) made his living as a piano player in bars and cafes in and around Paris. As a composer, he was way ahead of his time and much of his keyboard music can be transcribed very effectively for the theremin. Satie's music often sounds deceptively simple. This “Little Overture”, in the space of only about a minute and a half, uses 20 major and minor chords of the chromatic scale (in other words, all of them except four) while a haunting melody (for which I used the Moog Ethervox theremin) wanders beguilingly between them. One night in 1891, Satie was playing the piano in a bar in the section of Paris known as Montmartre, when he met a young musician on whose music he was to have an influence. The musician's name was Claude Debussy. (Debussy later orchestrated two of his friend Satie's compositions).
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I wrote this piece for a project based on the epic poem SAVITRI by the Hindu philosopher and author, Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950). This composition is written for MIDI theremin and surbahar and it is a musical representation of the moment in which Time is born and the mythical goddess Savitri awakes from the great cosmic Silence. The Moog Ethervox MIDI theremin (which is no longer in production) is actually two instruments in one. It is a traditional theremin, and it is also a gestural trigger device which can be used to control other electronic instruments that are able to receive digital MIDI (“Musical Instrument Digital Interface”) commands. In the case of this particular piece of music, I used the Ethervox (in its MIDI mode only) to play a ROLAND JV 2080 and provide a background for the deep and totally acoustic voice of the surbahar. Music of this sort is intended to create a mood, and I hope that people listening to it will be able to play it through speakers (or headphones) that are able to reproduce its frequency range. The built-in speakers on most computers are no bigger than a 50 cent piece, and cannot adequately reproduce the low frequencies on this mp3.
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Here is a “pavane” written by Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924), the teacher of Maurice Ravel. I have arranged this piece for harp and two theremins. The French composer Debussy once said of the music of Gabriel Fauré, “The play of the graceful, fleeting lines described by Fauré's music may be compared to the gesture of a beautiful woman, without either suffering from the comparison”. It is interesting to note that Fauré was a student of the composer Camille Saint-Saëns.
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