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We stayed up late and watched a documentary that I came across in the video place, about the wacko Russian music/electronics genius Leon Theremin. I had heard about the video years ago, but it's the first time I've seen it. It's called "Theremin: an Electronic Odyssey". The "Theremin" is the first electronic instrument, from the 20s. Leon Theremin must have had perfect pitch, because he didn't have the kind of test equipment people today would need to build and tune such a thing. The instrument is played by waving your hands in the air to adjust the frequencies--one hand for volume and the other for the note. They had lots of examples of people playing it beautifully and precisely, very interesting. But then it got taken up by Hollywood and used to make the ooOOOooooWWwwwwEEeeeeooOOOO sounds in old horror movies, and after that was taken as just some sound effects machine, not the serious instrument that he had intended. Theremin knew Lenin in Russia and toured the US, then stayed for quite a few years. He married an African-American woman, a dancer that he arranged pieces for; and THEN while he was living in New York, Stalinist agents arrived and kidnapped him, right out of his New York City apartment, right in front of his wife, and he disappeared. How could that happen? And be so little-known? He was put in the Gulag (he had such a thick accent I wish they had put in subtitles) and everyone was told he was dead ("electricity is not for music, it is for putting people in chairs and killing them"). He was eventually found (pretty crazy though) and lived in fear of the KGB until the Soviet Union fell. His wife died, he never saw her again. He lived to be 97. Bizarre story, all strung through with this strange music. Jack thought it was too long and talky. But he liked the Theremins.
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