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THEREMIN / 2004

THEREMIN

Etheral Music and World History

2004



View All Performances

Credits
PARTICIPANTS

Performer Sarah Boberg, Bo Madvig, Laurie Grundt, Niels Eric Grunnet
Musicians Anna Svideniouk Egholm, Igor Svideniouk Egholm, Adam Emme Jørgensen, Sophus Moseholm.
Theremin virtuoso Lydia Kavina

Concept, Direction Kirsten Dehlholm & Willie Flindt.
Libretto Michael Valeur
Stage and Light Design Steffen Aarfing
Music, Sound Design Gert Sørensen
Costume Design Anne Mette Sørensen
Stage manager Jesper Sønderstrup / Andreas Buhl
Sound Engineer Mogens Laursen / Jes Brander Theede
Performance manager Lise Klitten

Reviews
Information
Once more, Kirsten Dehlholm and Willie Flindt havebeen highly ambitious and uncompromising in a performance that glitters with international self-esteem, though also with long, full lives. Death is important in Theremin, at least as important as life, and the blurred distance between sound and listening, between life and non-life, envelops the onlooker in a painless anticipation of death.
– Anne Middelboe Christensen
Read the full review here

Weekendavisen
The complex narrative of the interweaving of the personal life-story and the major account of modernity is presented – as always with Pro Forma – with great solemnity – only when the boy talks about sweaty palms when practising, or when the dumb dancer almost talks, do we laugh, almost from a sense of relief.
– Mette Sandbye
Read the full review here

Program text
Leon Therin says:
I began studying electricity at seven, and when I was nine I played the cello. But I noticed a vast difference between the actual music and the mechanical way in which it was produced. In some way or another I wanted to link my beloved electricity with music.
As a young man I was interested in high frequencies and in magnetic forces via transformers. I became a physicist and the head of a radiological laboratory in St. Petersburg. Here I developed electric systems that reacted to a human being that approached within 4-5 metres of a wire.
Based on the same principles of interference between high-frequency waves I developed a musical instrument with a range of sound that varied from three to four octaves, depending on the distance of the hands from the electrode. In such a way, sound is produced on an invisible string by varying the distance of the hand from 10 to 50 centimetres for each octave, or by moving wrist and fingers. A movement reminiscent of that of the conductor when conducting an orchestra.

This was in 1920. One of the first electro-acoustic instruments had been dis-covered. It has since become known as Theremin.

The Theremin performance is the tale of the Russian physicist and inventor Leon Theremin (1896-1993). He was a pioneer within the physical sciences and the first electronic music apparatus in the early Soviet Union, which still believed in Utopia. He achieved fame in a Europe where world expositions were casting representatives for the new age. He traveled to USA and settled in New York in order to proliferate and develop his inventions – there where all the great artists and scientists of the world met.

At the outbreak of the Second World War he went back to the Soviet Union, where he disappeared into thin air. Caught in the political system, he had to endure a period in a prison camp in Gulag, after which he was forced to work for the state, developing eavesdropping equipment for espionage purposes and working on the Sputnik space programme, etc.

He never returned to his musical instruments even when working as a technical employee at the Moscow Academy of Music. ‘Electricity is not good for music – electricity should be used to execute people in the electric chair,’ was the official attitude, and all his instruments at the academy were destroyed.

Until his death, he continued to work with electronics that was unrelated to music – whilst the musical instruments he had invented were developed into new electronic tools by others.
The Theremin itself was initially used for producing classical music, then for terrifying sounds in the B films of the 1940s and 1950s and for breakthrough sounds in the pop and rock music of the 1970s.
Now it is being used as an experimental instrument in films, plays and present-day noise-bands.

Voices and music combined in a wide range of electronic modulations, shaped by a skillful listening. A journey through the musical landmarks of the 20th century has begun.

First performances
Premiere on 9 March 2004 at The Radio House, Studio 2, Copenhagen, Denmark

They stand on the gleaming floor, calling music out of the air. A Theremin band, a woman with many voices, an avantgardist and an old man fashion the story of the Theremin instrument and its Russian inventor. Polyphonic sound images and electroacoustic sounds add color to the b/w scenes of the narrative.

In 1920 the Russian physicist Leon Therin (Lev Termin) invented one of the first electro-acoustic music instruments, later known as ´theremin´.

The performance Theremin brings us through the inventions and developments of the electronic music of one century, the world history and a personal life course. An energized story about the ma, who conquered the world with his sound and later became an eavesdropper. Electronic soundscapes gives the perspective and brings us into the musical universe of the 20th century.

A Theremin band features in the performance. They stand like silhouettes on a gleaming floor and pluck live music out of the air. The Theremin is played solo or along with a violin and a cello – seeking a common tonality. Three children as musicians concentrate on finding the right note.
A woman speaks with many voices and tells the story of the inventor’s life. A young man visualizes the force-field through motion and position. An old man listens and imagines it all to himself: I will live forever.

Compositions of polyphonic sound-images fill the room, continue the narrative and transform the monophonic sound of the Theremin into a musical journey, inspired by the curiosity that led to the discovery of the instrument.

You are listening to the sound of a century.

Theremin virtuoso
As a special guest theremin-virtuoso Lydia Kavina from Moscow performs at the end of each performance. As a child she learnt to play the instrument by her grand uncle Leon Theremin himself. She gives examples of classical music and new music composed by herself. Her presence and performance give the performance true authenticity.

Duration 80 min. no intermission


Danish
THEREMIN
Ætermusik og verdenshistorie
2004

På et lysende gulv står de og kalder levende musik ud af æteren. Et theremin-orkester, en kvinde med mange stemmer, en stiliseret danser og en gammel mand formgiver historien om instrumentet theremin og dets russiske opfinder. Polyfone lydbilleder og elektroakustiske toner sætter farve til fortællingens sorthvide scener..

I 1920 opfandt den russiske fysiker Leon Theremin (Lev Termen) et af de første elektroakustiske musikinstrumenter, siden kendt som ‘theremin’.

Forestillingen Theremin bringer os igennem et århundredes opfindelser og udvikling af den elektroniske musik, verdenshistorien og et personligt livsforløb. En strømførende fortælling om manden, der erobrede verden med sin lyd og siden blev aflytter. Lyden af thereminen både ses og høres. Elektroniske lydbilleder sætter historien i relief og bringer os ind i det 21. århundredes musikalske univers.

I forestillingen optræder et theremin-orkester. Som silhuetter står de på et lysende gulv og kalder levende musik ud af æteren. Thereminen spilles solo eller finder sammen med en violin og en cello søgende efter en fælles tonalitet. Tre børn er musikere, koncentrerede om at finde tonen.
En kvinde taler med mange stemmer, beretter historien om opfinderens liv. En danser formgiver fortællingen gennem bevægelse og position. En gammel mand lytter og ser det for sig: Jeg vil leve evigt.

Kompositioner af polyfone lydbilleder fylder rummet, indrammer fortællingen og forvandler thereminens monofone klang til en musikalsk rejse, inspireret af den nysgerrighed, der skabte instrumentet.

Vi hører lyden af et århundrede.

Theremin-virtuos

Som en særlig gæst optræder Lydia Kavina, theremin-virtuos fra Moskva, ved hver forestilling. Som barn har hun lært at spille theremin af sin grandonkel Leon Theremin selv. Hun giver eksempler på klassisk musik samt på ny musik, komponeret af hende selv. Hendes nærvær og optræden giver forestillingen autenticitet.

Varighed 80 min. uden pause

Hotel Pro Forma Tomsgårdsvej 19 2400 København NV Denmark Tel. + 45 51 27 87 47 mail@hotelproforma.dk

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