Added: 4 years ago
From: yaoikan1981
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  • WAOW !! *o*

  • There are lots of people playing theremins these days, some of them quite well. I own one myself and hack away at it with mixed results. Will someone explain to me why no one even approaches the combination of precision and passion of Ms. Rockmore? Not to take anything from the fine players we have, from Dr. Hoffman to Lydia Kavina. But Rockmore remains the celestial standard. Why?

  • found this after hearing it on npr simply boootiful

  • Japanese TV program "IKARI SINTOU" uses this song.

  • People tell me how electronic music is soulless, how it is void of any real emotion.

    To these people, let me warn you now. I do not hide my contempt for ignorance nearly as well as I used to. Its an ability that's drifting with age.

  • this really has went through my heart.I am almost weeping. GOD BLESS CLARA

  • She left me speechless.

  • it reminds the main theme from "One flew over the Cuckoo's neck"

  • "Mum, I want a theremin for Christmas!" That's me then and now. :)

  • Almost cried, this is too beautiful

  • Stunning.

  • If I have 10 thumbs I will give them all to her. Pure musical enjoyment. 

  • It's all in the eyebrow movements. Absolutely beautiful.

  • Sounds like a ghost, a lady's voice, an insect, and a laser rifle all had a hipster instrument baby and here it is. Marvelous performance.

  • <3<3<3

  • this thing is, about Theremins... it's so amazingly, incredibly, unbelievably, incomprehensibly, inconceivably difficlult to play and sound like she does, that it's almost other worldly. The fact she can make it sound like she does is nothing short of a miracle.

  • Thumbs up if you came just to see this woman's face.

  • i heard that she plays this perfectly. and its also impossible to play a theremin perfectly. unless you're Clara Rockmore

  • Just got Mine today! Leonne Theremin Is a GOD!

  • I AM GETTING ONE OF THESE.

  • Woah, a theremin sounds like a cross between a ghost woman humming to herself, and a violin made out of jelly...

  • @Munkydude150 That's really high-quality jelly, I might add. :-)

  • @Munkydude150 I love that image, thank you sir

  • @Munkydude150 wow, what a GREAT analogy! :)

  • Makes me want to take the old UFO out for a spin.

  • she could school jimmy page on the theremin!

  • @bluestate69 Anyone could school Jimmy Page on the theremin. ;)

  • Sentimiento puro. Pure feeling.

  • Is this what your greeted by in when you die??

  • if the theremin was available to Tchaikovsky at the time, he would have had the same exact composition, only that it would not feature a Violin as the main instrument.

  • @TodHeartsound It's not Tchaikovsky, it's Saint Saens.

  • @TodHeartsound This was written by Saint Saens - and was played by a cello.

  • Gypsy...

  • Just awsomely beautiful sound

  • She played the theremin so magnificently, it seemed to hover halfway between a violin and a human voice.

  • Singing voice + violin = Theremine. Somehow it sounds to me this way :D Love that instrument… it's so interesting!

  • My voice teacher uses this amazing video to show what the voice is supposed to sound like in your head- kind of metallic...this video is amazing!!!

  • It's a steering wheel!

  • Vovaloid + theremin = intresting...

  • I've always wondered, how does a Theremine work? o:

  • @mooncristalpower it has a magnetic field around the metal wires and the electric field is amplified to make sound. when a hand is put in the field it changes the field and therefore changes the pitch

  • @jimiforpres No. There is two oscillators. One with a fixed capacitor eg a fixed frequency. The other oscillators capacitor is connected in parallel with the antenna and the frequency will change when the hand changes position eg the capacitance changes. The two ocillators frequency is then mixed and the difference between them are then sent to the volume changing ocsillators and then amplified.

  • @ceedjay yeah.. what he said. thanks.

  • what instrument is she using?

  • @awchouchou0506 piano.

  • @awchouchou0506

    She is using an instrument called 'Theremine' :)

  • I play her violin :)

  • I just discovered this instrument today...It's amazing! Why didn't I know about this?! Now I really want one. But I play the cello so I feel like I might have to get a left handed one haha

  • What's with the aluminium foil headband?

  • @thebiggestsquirrel hehehe:D strange condition

  • @thebiggestsquirrel well obviously, it's so that the radioactive gamma radiation coming from the theremin doesn't interfere with her mind and cause severe damage to her brain. I would think that to be obvious.

    ....i hope everyone realizes I'm kidding

  • It sounds like an electronic violin, and because it takes alot of skill to play it properly i love this instrument alot..

  • wow

  • violin please.

  • Nice Theremin Face!

  • Obviously a master of this way cool instrument! Looks like she is plucking on imaginary strings. Amazing how she is accurately controlling this oh so difficult instrument to control.

  • David Firth.

  • awesone...a dream...delicate...

  • dope.

  • shes in my family im saul rockmore i never met her

  • Today, March 9, 2011 is Clara's 100th Birthday. We all miss her and her sister Nadia Reisenberg with whom she is playing here. Beneath the stern faces of these to most serious performers were warm, vibrant, funny and carefree people. As a grandchild/grandnephew... what a way to grow up.

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  • The has GOT to be the hardest instrument to play. EVER!!!!

  • @anxiovert The trautonium doesn't seem any easy to me either.

  • I love her

  • Something about this piece, this instrument and her musicianship brings a tear every time I hear this. Beautiful

  • Fantastico!!

  • Thumps up if you, like me, cry almost every single time you listen to this song.

  • Amazing! And a rare example of PERFECT tune and virtuoso Theremin technique!

  • Amazing! And a rare example of PERFECT tune and virtuoso Theremin technique!

  • Magic

  • The music is hauntingly beautiful and the vision of Clara absolutely mesmerising to watch. Check out other theremin videos. Only Clara Rockmore can get the note everytime. Amazing.

  • Too much vibrato? I dont know, it sounds weird...

  • ( O.o) cool...and,that instrument seems a bit hard to play '(._. )

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  • This is far more fascinating than any sound modern technology could produce. I'm 16 and I heard about this instrument in one of my Music classes; I feel privileged to have heard one of the first instruments to produce sound electronically... how come it's so unheard of? It's genius how it manages to sound like human vocals too. Why did we give up on developing this music? :(

  • @pelicanbirdyface I agree with you that the theramin is an absolutely amazing instrument. It was invented in the 1920s. Its inventor Leo Theramin was a Russian who travelled to the USA with Clara Rockmore (the women playing in the video). They played some exhibition concerts in an attempt to try and market it commercially as a novelty instrument for American households. The reason it never took off was because they are extremely difficult to play. As hard as any classical instrument.

  • @pelicanbirdyface (cont) .....the reason it sounds so awesome in this youtube clip is because Clara Rockmore was 'THE' theramin virtuoso. There was/is none better then her. Sad thing is that the inventor pissed off the Russian authorities because he tried to defect to the USA so they kidnapped him and sent him to Siberia to rot. He was later discovered living in a flat somewhere in Moscow as an old man. There is a movie called 'The Amazing Theramin' which tells the story better then I can.

  • @seablackk You dont know shit!

  • @FikretCekic - AND? Is that it ? thats so lame, you may as well have typed 'na na goo goo'.

  • @seablackk You were right i apologize.

  • @seablackk Leon Theremin went back to the USSR on his own volition mostly because he acquired massive financial debt in the US. Once he returned, he was sent to forced labor camps for several years before he was recruited to do research in Soviet laboratories.

  • Is this a zombie? (... sorry this is an only recent funny "anime title" of japan) )lol.

    she is not sing but manipulate "electric waves" by finger... it is great music!

    yes i know about theremin. i appreciate this music. thanks for up!

  • Ainda consigo ver aquele lugar, onde fui machucado no alto do vale, após longos clamores, voltei para minha casa em febre intensa, Tu estavas lá sempre me protegendo. Aquela ferida jamais seria um ferida mortal. O que são esses números, me diga o que são estes números e este que se repete incessantemente!? Porque estes Estados se digladiam entre si. Porque as notas deste Teremim desatou todos os nós da minha mente que já não pertence mais a esta Terra? Pergunte a Martina!

  • I meant to say: single-handedly rescues the Theremin

  • She was a violin virtuosa- she almost single-handedly requires the theremin form the demimonde of Science Fiction movie special effects

  • It's strange... The theremin was THE pioneering electronic instrument yet you hardly ever hear about it. It's a shame, really.

  • What is she doing? I don't understand!

  • @HelenaKoonings the instrument creates an electro-static field and putting your hand up and down, left and right affects the field creating pitch and volume changes. She is basically playing the air around her ! it's called a Theremin and was the first ever 'electric' instrument!

  • Immediately after this, she was placed in her coffin and driven to her wake.

  • I think of snow and trees and love and my cat.

  • my grandma says she was an awsome aunt. im jericho rockmore lol

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  • @Montekarlos1 rockmore is actually a brittish name :D

  • @JAYWALKERS3000 I'm writing a book about your great-aunt. Contact me if you want to. Better yet, have your grandma contact me! Your great-uncle Bob Rockmore was an amazing person too!

    dmcvegan@juno.com

  • @JAYWALKERS3000

    I am writing a book about your great-great-aunt Clara. I would love to contact your grandmother. I am the principal bassoonist of the Chicago Symphony and have loved Clara's playing for 25 years. Email me if you feel like it: dmcvegan@juno.com

    Thanks, Jericho! I need more connections with the Rockmore family. The Shermans (Clara's blood relatives) have all been so helpful to me but the story of Bob and Clara will not be complete without more Rockmores.

    David

    David McGill

  • @JAYWALKERS3000 then Nadia Reisenberg was also an aunt.

  • @JAYWALKERS3000 Bet she give a cracking handjob.

  • @merseynational cool story, bro :)

  • She feel it. How beautiful is...

  • I played a cheap thremin in a night club and the people loved it but the owner did not so he confiscated it..........Now I will get another one after hearing this

  • she blinded me with science fiction

  • Just wow.

  • It weird how these things have been around for 100 years more or less yet a lot of people have never seen or heard of them and they still remain a novelty. I really want one!

  • beautiful

  • @tutor432 lol how?

  • @tutor432 How's that then?

  • I like theremins but I absolutely hate the sine wave tone that they have

  • @RPBiohazard That's an oxymoron.

  • @tymime I mean I appreciate the instrument and their difficulty and such, but they sound annoying to me.

  • @RPBiohazard Steven Hobley has developed an interface for a discreet note mode tuned to a blues scale. Maybe thats more your thing...

  • First electronic instrument invented by Sergeïevitch Termen in 1919 before Maurice Martenot (Ondes Martenot)

    Amazing !

  • [o.O]  wow

  • a novelty instrument, if it didn't sound like an alien frankenstein it would be more popular on the times not halloween, yes

  • It sounds really cool...but what is she trying to do? Is she trying to be a violin? (Kind of like an old version of beat boxing? lol...sorry about my, um, stupidity? lol)

  • @corgiluver26 She's playing a Theremin - by moving her hands near those antennae she can control the pitch and volume of the instrument. Look it up, they're really interesting.

  • @RPBiohazard Oh, wow, I didn't realize that it was something she was playing, i thought it was here like humming. But thanoks!

  • Underrated and utterly beautiful! Mezmerizing.

  • She's using her hand positions to help her reach the proper frequencies. To be honest, this is just her technique. When I play theremin, I have a different set of hand positions. In the end, when you learn theremin, you learn how to play it in a way that is comfortable for you.

  • Can anyone explain the various 'shapes' she makes with her Right Hand and how she uses them to achieve such accurate intonation? I'd really like to know more about this. The film of Theremin himself I just saw shows a similar technique.

  • i had to look up what theremin is cuz i had no clue. that is pretty cool. they music was beautiful. I really liked this video.

  • i definitly just died and cried all over the floor<3

  • 24 people have no soul. :(

  • She don't move anything except her hands and her eyebrow.lol

  • @2KEKER2

    she should not. even a small movement would change the entire sound output.

  • Indescribable!

  • Purely sublime. Wonderful. Incredible. Insert extra adjectives here....

  • Goosebumps........ :O

  • it's pretty scary o_o

  • this is sooo beautiful...

  • UNEXPECTED EQUAL inesperado, secreto, hermoso, intrigante, tragico, vivificante, lejano, ESO, narvales plateados del pasado, una sombra, un matiz, un suspiro, un velador de la mesa de luz de la casa de tu madre, un cajon abierto que desvela un breve secreto, una nada

  • @ihateEffexor Knock it off, Geeeeeze! Thomas Grillo is a really nice guy! He's the 21st century Leon Theremin. Why do you hate the theremin so much anyway? Hate something else like the devil, diseases or poverty -- those are the real enemies!

  • @ThereminWeirdo the devil? lol

  • @ihateEffexor Take your theremin negativity elsewhere, sheesh!

  • @ihateEffexor YOU ARE FUCKING EVERYWHERE, go suck your musically opinionated bullshit elsewhere, oh wait your on just about every video about a theremin. Good thing your account is closed...

  • @ihateEffexor Then don't watch theremin videos.

  • I wish I could have seen her play... she's pretty fantastic

  • i thought she was singing at first. that's how good she is.

  • Wunder - wunder - wunderbar!

  • SHES A WITCH!!

  • few people knows how to work with theremin, is so beautiful, and so plug-direct in to the brain, so close.....

  • It's just like the Holophono from futurama. hehe.

  • What a wonderful interpretation! A real Mistress of the Theremin...

  • so awesome!

  • After a lifetime of music, and just when you think you have heard everything, it is great to have your world shaken, by something as unexpected, and as beautiful as this.

  • @halloerde Tell me about it!!! I'm 38 and I never knew such an instrument existed although I would hear it in the background of sci-fi films of the 50s and 60s. I started the documentary on Theremin last night and came across this hidden treasure. To think the human body could act as a conductive for the electromagnetism of the machine.

  • @Boudosaved It was invented by Leon Theremin in the 30s or 40s (I think) for Clara Rockmore.Clara played the violin but had headaches really bad because of her neck,finally she had to quit & Leon Theremin invented this music played by hands & air. If you punch in Leon Theremin theremin it will tell you pretty much about it. He was inlove with Rockmore but she wouldnt marry him because he had ties to the nazi government.If you punch on utube Claire de Lune you can hear great music.

  • Clara was already in her eighties in this clip(ca '91). And for anyone who doesn't know her bio, here goes. She was an accomplished ballet dancer as well as an accomplished thereminist when Leon Theremin met her in New York City in the late 'twenties/early 'thirties. They were smitten with each other right away, and became close friends, even though Leon had a wife at the time. Notice the instrument in this clip - it was one Leon gave her, complete with lozenge-shaped speaker (behind).

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  • @MuSixramper lies! Whistling. You use your lips. No touching.

  • @jose121495 but lips doesn't are an musical instrument...in that case the theremin is ONE of the few unique instruments which are played without touching!!!

  • and this was later in life.  Imagine how fearsome she must have been in the flower of her youth. :)

  • the best theremin player i've heard so far!! simply great!!

  • Her hands having seizure lol jk!!!

  • this woman used to eat cats. thats why the song is so sad.

  • @cullyvan , No, she did not eat cats.

  • @Mjolnir125 Okay, Sorry, I was thinking of someone else.

  • I accually got to play one of these things at music camp :))) It's a pretty cool device ;D

  • On croirait entendre un fredonnement humain...C'et incroyable! quelle concentration et quelle oreille cela doit demander!

  • HER FACE!!! (now seriously, awesome stuff)

  • beautiful and genius :' )

  • Some of the great classical artists in New York used to go hear Ms. Rockmore play in the 1940's--in the same way that they went to hear Art Tatum play.

    She was simply the best--not just as a technically proficient player--but as a supreme artist.