Editing Theremin (section)

{{Short description|Electronic musical instrument}}
{{About|the electronic musical instrument|its inventor|Leon Theremin|the Covenant album|Theremin (album){{!}}''Theremin'' (album)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox instrument
| name           = Theremin
| background     = electronic
| image          = Etherwave Theremin Kit.jpg
| image_capt     = A ''[[Moog Music|Moog]] Etherwave'', assembled from a theremin [[Electronic kit|kit]]: the loop antenna on the left controls the volume while the upright antenna controls the pitch.
| hornbostel_sachs = 531.1<ref>{{cite web|url=http://folk.instruments.edu.pl/en/classification-|title=Revision of the Hornbostel-Sachs Classification of Musical Instruments by the MIMO Consortium|access-date=12 March 2019|archive-date=22 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022221609/http://folk.instruments.edu.pl/en/classification-|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| hornbostel_sachs_desc = [[Electrophone]]
| inventors      = [[Leon Theremin]]
| developed      = 1920; patented in 1928
}}
{{listen|type=music
| filename     = Epro theremin middle bach.ogg
| title        = Epro theremin in middle range
| description  = [[Johann Sebastian Bach|J. S. Bach's]] "[[Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring]]" played by Italian thereminist Fabio Pesce on a Moog Etherwave theremin
}}

The '''theremin''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|θ|ɛr|əm|ɪ|n}};<!-- This reference says nothing about the pronunciation of the word.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thereminworld.com/theremin-faq|title=Theremin FAQ|work=Theremin World}}</ref> --> originally known as the '''ætherphone''', '''etherphone''', '''thereminophone'''<ref>''[[London Mercury]]'', vol. XVII, no. 99 (1928){{full citation needed|date=May 2025|reason=Article title, author, page numbers.}}</ref> or '''termenvox'''/'''thereminvox''') is an [[electronic musical instrument]] controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a 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 which function not as [[radio antennas]] but rather as [[position sensor]]s. Each antenna forms one half of a [[capacitor]] with each of the thereminist's hands as the other half of the capacitor. These antennas [[Capacitive sensing|capacitively sense]] the relative position of the hands and control [[oscillation|oscillators]] for [[frequency]] with one hand, and [[amplitude]] ([[Loudness|volume]]) with the other. The electric [[signal]]s from the theremin are [[amplifier|amplified]] and sent to a [[loudspeaker]].

The sound of the instrument is often associated with [[wikt:eerie|eerie]] situations. The theremin has been used in movie [[soundtrack]]s such as [[Miklós Rózsa]]'s ''[[Spellbound (1945 film)|Spellbound]]'' and ''[[The Lost Weekend]]'', [[Bernard Herrmann]]'s ''[[The Day the Earth Stood Still (soundtrack)|The Day the Earth Stood Still]]'', and [[Justin Hurwitz]]'s ''[[First Man (film)|First Man]]'', as well as in [[Theme music|theme songs]] for [[television show]]s such as the ITV drama ''[[Midsomer Murders]]'' and the [[Disney+]] series [[Loki (TV series)|''Loki'']], the latter composed by [[Natalie Holt]]. The theremin is also used in concert music (especially [[Experimental music|avant-garde]] and 20th- and 21st-century [[Contemporary classical music|new music]]); for example, Mano Divina Giannone is a popular American thereminist<ref>{{Cite web |title=Theremin {{!}} Divine Hand Ensemble |url=https://www.divinehand.net/ |access-date=2024-06-01 |website=Singing Electricity |language=en}}</ref> who along with his orchestra, The Divine Hand Ensemble, regularly holds said concerts. It is also used in popular music genres, such as [[rock music|rock]].
[[File:Leon-Theremin-playing-Theremin.ogg|thumb|Leon Theremin demonstrating and playing the theremin]]
[[File:Theramin-Alexandra-Stepanoff-1930.jpg|thumb|Alexandra Stepanoff playing the theremin on [[NBC Radio Network|NBC Radio]]]]