My favorite instrument/and it's maker

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My favorite instrument/and it's maker

I have always been a fan of obsolete instruments. I'm one of those people who sort of values the maker of the instrument more than the person who plays the instrument. It's always amazed me how we really think we've come this incredibly long way in such a short time as far as instruments go. When in fact the first music made by electronic machines was in the 1870s by the Italian Futurists.

But my favorite instrument wasn't invented by the Italian Futurists. It was invented by Leon Theremin. He created this instrument called the Theremin/Aetherophone(sound from ether), named after himself in 1917 in the USSR. The sound is very ethereal in fact Alfred Hitchcock used the sound of the Theremin in several movies.

Theremin left the Soviet Union in 1927 for the United States where he was granted a patent for the Theremin in 1928. The Theremin was marketed and distributed in the USA by RCA during the 1930's and continues, in a transistorized form, to be manufactured by Robert Moog's 'Big Briar'company.
In 1938 Theremin was kidnapped in the New York apartment he shared with his American wife (the ballet dancer, Iavana Williams) by the NKVD (forerunners of the KGB). He was transported back to Russia, and accused of propagating anti-Soviet propaganda by Stalin.

Theremin helped spy on America and other countries. He actually invented and helped work on the first form of 'bug' (electronic listening device planted to obtain information for the purpose of spying).

If you want to know more about Terermen and his life you should go to your movie store and ask for Theremin an Electronic Odyssey, if you like documentaries you won't be disappointed.

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