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.
...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.
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...
Fievel hears the violin which makes him think he has found his Papa. But, what Fievel really hears is a recording being played by the gramophone. This was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison.
Although Thomson set up the first electric system, it was Edison who invented the phonograph in eighteen seventy-seven. Editors at Scientific American, who were some of the first to experience Edison's newest creation, were startled. "The machine began by politely inquiring as to our health, asked how we liked the phonograph, informed us that it was very well, and bid us a cordial good night." (RCA Online 2)
Next we come to a point in time where a great leap had to be made. Musicians had made positive steps forward in the way of pitch and time but of only one or two notes at a time. What was needed was an in instrument that gave players control of many pitches simultaneously. The mechanism ...
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...
trumpet or flute. It was the right hand corner that filled in the material during the rhythmic
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 inner workings of the turntable may seem complex at first but after reading this paper it should become clear that, like all things, the record player works on basic principals of physics. In fact, the turntable is remarkable in that the basic physical principles behind it are quite simple. Some of these will be explored here. Please enjoy your visit.
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.
Thomas Edison has to be credited with starting the recording industry, because without his invention of the phonograph, there might not be music on the radio, or on tapes and CD’s today(Biagi 143). In 1887, a man by the name Emile Berliner replaced Edison’s phonograph with the gramophone and in 1947 Goldmark introduced the LP, or Long-playing record(143-4).
Every invention ever known to man had pioneers or people who contributed to the creation of the product. Radio had many pioneers that allowed for its creation and their names are Heinrich Hertz, Nikola Tesla, Ernst Alexander, Edwin Armstrong, Guglielmo Marconi, Lee DeForest, Frank Conrad, Reginald Fessenden, and Edward Armstrong. It all started with a German physicist named Heinrich Hertz who in 1884 proved that you could transmit and receive electric waves wirelessly. Hertz thought that the work he had done had no use whatsoever but little did he know that what he done is considered the fundamental building block of radio, and that is the reason why every frequency measurement is named after him (Short). In that same year a Serbian-American inventor named Nikola Tesla came to the U.S and sold patents to his inventions to a man named George Westinghouse. After that Tesla established his own lab which is where he built the tesla coil , an induction coil that is still used in radio today (Short). The next progression of radio focused on more than just the transmission of waves, the new focus was transmission of speech. The first to begin to add speech into the radio mix was Ernst Alexander, a Sweden born inventor who developed the first alternator to make speech transmission possible (Short). This was so new to the s...
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.
For centuries instruments have been an important part of human culture, however there was little record kept before the Middle Ages. What we do know about ancient music has been collected through artifacts. Evidence of musical instruments has been found in most ancient civilizations including the Mediterranean, Chinese, Germanic, and Egyptian cultures. Luckily the ancient Egyptians are unique in that they clearly show the use of instruments in hieroglyphics. These drawings give us a glimpse of the instruments played, and the cultural aspects surrounding them.
The introduction of sound to film started in the 1920’s. By the 1930’s a vast majority of films were now talkies. ‘If you put a sound consistent to visual image and specifically human voice you make a “talkie”’ (Braun 1985 pg. 97). In 1926 Warner Brothers introduced sound to film but, other competing studios such as FOX, didn’t find it necessary to incorporate sound to their motion pictures production, as they were making enough money through their silent movies. Warner Brothers decided to take what was considered a risky move by adding sound to their motion picture, a risk taken, as they weren’t as successful in the silent movie department. But this risk paid off with the hit release of ‘The Jazz Singer’ in 1927. Though sound in films was then acceptable and successful it wasn’t until the 1950’s that it became feasible to the public as sound was introduced to cinema by the invention of Cinerama by Fred Waller. The Cinerama used 35mm film strip and seven channels of audio.