Rare Theremin recording of Lucie Bigelow Rosen

http://www.thorwaldjorgensen.com | Rare recording of Lucie Bigelow Rosen doing a practise session with her pianist (approximately 1939/1940). This recording served for study purposes for mrs. Rosen herself, and wasn't meant to be published. These days it's considered to be an interesting historical document of Theremin culture in the 30's. Listening to this recording you can't help but wonder what her playing would have been like during an actual concert. The recording is followed by an interview with the Dutch radio which mrs. Rosen gave during one of her European tours somewhere around 1936.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Theremin
• Lucie
• Bigelow
• Rosen
• Radio
• Interview

[viranilebeachcomber]

So cool. Thanks for posting Thorwald. Where's her accent from, I don't remember her being a foreigner ?

[thorwaldjorgensen]

@viranilebeachcomber She was American, so I don't know where the accent is from! maybe just a way to try to be more distinguished :-)

[bentleyr00d]

Lucie Bigelow Dodge Rosen was a member of two wealthy, well-educated and distinguished American families, and I imagine she was taught to speak this way. I know a younger (but now quite old) cousin of hers and he sounds sort of British to me, too. Lucie also spent part of her teenage years in England. She moved there after her mother divorced her father and married Sir. Lionel Guest, so that may have influenced her speech as well.

[thorwaldjorgensen]

@bentleyr00d Thanks for this info! Didn't know she spent some time in the UK as a child. Always good to know new info :-)

[ThomasZunk]

Thank you very much for posting it, Thorwald.

She indeed had style!

Beautiful photographs and just wonderful to hear her talk.

[GordonCharlton]

I love the first photo! The lady had *style*.

[manidig]

@viranilebeachcomber That's a "finishing school" accent. All young women of society spoke this way those days. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis also had this type of accent.

[CharlieDraper]

I had a copy of this exact same recording stored on my computer (timestamped to 2008, minus the interview), but have absolutely no idea where I downloaded it, or where it came from! The mysterious theremin strikes again...

[yzkwetch]

@viranilebeachcomber

Maybe she was trying to speak as clearly as possible, so that non-native English speakers would understand…

[jslasher1]

@misshypnotique When I produced a CD featuring the Theremin a few years ago I was unable to locate any recordings of Miss Rosen. The same holds true today.

[misshypnotique]

What a fantastic document and so wondefully put together, Miss Rosen is a very sophisticated player for this era, it's a shame there's no released recordings of her work (I think?), thanks for putting it together