page_title: Theremin
section_title: Concert music
hierarchical_section_title: Theremin / Uses / Concert music
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of thereminist Lydia Kavina playing in Ekaterinburg.
context_page_description: The theremin is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the thereminist. It is named after its inventor, Leon Theremin, who patented the device in 1928.
  The instrument's controlling section usually consists of two metal antennas that sense the relative position of the thereminist's hands and control oscillators for frequency with one hand, and amplitude with the other. The electric signals from the theremin are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.
  The sound of the instrument is often associated with eerie situations. Thus, the theremin has been used in movie soundtracks such as Miklós Rózsa's Spellbound and The Lost Weekend, Bernard Herrmann's The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Justin Hurwitz's First Man, as well as in theme songs for television shows such as the ITV drama Midsomer Murders. The theremin is also used in concert music, and in popular music genres such as rock.
context_section_description: Concert composers who have written for theremin include Bohuslav Martinů, Percy Grainger, Christian Wolff, Joseph Schillinger, Moritz Eggert, Iraida Yusupova, Jorge Antunes, Vladimir Komarov, Anis Fuleihan, and Fazıl Say. Another large-scale theremin concerto is Kalevi Aho's Concerto for Theremin and Chamber Orchestra "Eight Seasons" (2011), written for Carolina Eyck.
  Edgard Varèse completed the composition ‘’Equatorial’’ for two Theremin Cellos and percussion in 1934. His work was a stated influence throughout the career of Frank Zappa who subsequently composed classical style music for electronic orchestra in his post-rock career.
  Maverick composer Percy Grainger chose to use ensembles of four or six theremins (in preference to a string quartet) for his two earliest experimental Free Music compositions (1935–37) because of the instrument's complete 'gliding' freedom of pitch.
  Musician Jean-Michel Jarre used the instrument in his concerts Oxygen In Moscow and Space of Freedom in Gdańsk, providing also a short history of Léon Theremin's life.
  The five-piece Spaghetti Western Orchestra use a Theremin as a replacement for Edda Dell'Orso's vocals in their interpretation of Ennio Morricone's "Once Upon a Time in the West".
  Other notable contemporary Theremin players include Lydia Kavina, Pamelia Kurstin, Barbara Buchholz and Katica Illényi. Dutch classical musician Thorwald Jørgensen has been described as "one of the most important exponents of classical music on the theremin".
  On 20 July 2013, a group of 272 theremin players (Matryomin ensemble) in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan, achieved a Guinness world record as the largest theremin ensemble. The name Matryomin is a portmanteau of the words matryoshka and theremin.
caption: Lydia Kavina, protégée of Leon Theremin and instructor to other thereminists, in 2005
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