video,youtube_link,musiccaps_caption,youtube_published,youtube_channel,youtube_description,musiccaps_names,musiccaps_aspects,musiccaps_author,youtube_id,musiccaps_rowid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XQN9XDnRm4&start=80&end=90,"{""label"":""THE INNER LIGHT / STAR TREK (TNG) / THEREMIN"",""href"":""https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XQN9XDnRm4&start=80&end=90""}","The song is led by a theremin whistle which plays high pitched tones and a harp playing arpeggios in the background. The feel of the song is soothing, tranquil, ethereal - and makes you feel as if you are peacefully sitting in an otherworldly environment.",2010-11-16T05:39:56Z,Peter Pringle,"This is the theme from ""THE INNER LIGHT"", the 25th episode of the fifth season of STAR TREK - THE NEXT GENERATION. In the story, this melody is played by Captain Jean Luc Picard on a ""Ressikan"" flute (named after the fictitious village of Ressik).

In STAR TREK fan surveys, this episode has been consistently voted one of the two most popular ever made.  The music was written by Jay Chattaway and has a decidedly Scottish flavor to it.

Since the story concerns a civilization that existed on a planet orbiting a star that went supernova a thousand years ago, I thought it would be fun to use a Hubble deep space photo of what is left of a star that exploded a billion years ago. That is the background for the video. 

The instrument I am playing is the Moog Ethervox theremin. It has a range of nearly 10 octaves (comparable to the greatest cathedral organs). I have tried to adjust the waveform to give the timbre of the instrument's voice a more whistle or flute-like sound.","[""Music"", ""Musical instrument"", ""Theremin""]","[""theremin"", ""harp"", ""soothing"", ""atmospheric"", ""gentle"", ""tranquil"", ""ethereal"", ""heavenly"", ""high pitched whistle tone""]",3,7XQN9XDnRm4,855
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6KbEnGnymk&start=30&end=40,"{""label"":""THEREMIN - Over The Rainbow"",""href"":""https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6KbEnGnymk&start=30&end=40""}","The low quality recording features a live performance of mellow arpeggiated piano melody playing in the background and theremin sad lead melody playing on top of it. It sounds emotional, sad, muffled and dull, as the recording is lacking some high frequencies.",2009-01-10T15:32:36Z,Peter Pringle,"This song was written by Harold Arlen for the 1939 MGM classic THE WIZARD OF OZ. It is widely believed to be the most loved and enduring popular song of the 20th century. It is played here on the 1929 RCA theremin that once belonged to the late Hollywood thereminist, Dr. Samuel Hoffman.","[""Music"", ""Theremin""]","[""low quality"", ""mellow arpeggiated piano melody"", ""live performance"", ""theremin sad lead melody"", ""muffled"", ""dull"", ""emotional""]",4,K6KbEnGnymk,2059
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIL_xrqjo1g&start=30&end=40,"{""label"":""Samuel Hoffman's RCA Theremin"",""href"":""https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIL_xrqjo1g&start=30&end=40""}",This is a classical music performance. There is a gentle piano tune playing in the background while there is a theremin playing the main melody. The performance has a unique feel to it. The atmosphere is out of the ordinary but also heart-touching. This piece could be used in the soundtrack of an animation movie/TV series.,2007-07-15T11:34:12Z,Peter Pringle,"Dr. Samuel Hoffman took his 1929 RCA theremin with him when he moved from New York City to Los Angeles, California, in 1941. He eventually became world famous as ""The Hollywood Thereminist"" and the distinctive sound of his instrument can be heard on the soundtracks of over 40 major motion pictures of the 1940's and 50's. Alfred Hitchcock's SPELLBOUND (music by Miklos Rosza), the SciFi classic THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (music by Bernard Herrmann) and Cecile B. deMille's perennial THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, are just a few of the movies in which this theremin can be heard. I acquired this unique vintage instrument from the Hoffman family in 1998 and have carefully maintained it and enjoyed playing it ever since. It sounds today just the way it sounded when the late Dr. Hoffman played it at the ""Casino In The Air"" on top of mid-town Manhattan's Hotel Montclair in the 1930's. 

In order to give the camera a better view of the inside, for the purpose of this video, I removed the two cabinet doors (which normally remain closed). I am playing French chanteuse Edith Piaf's hit from the 1940's, LA VIE EN ROSE.","[""Music"", ""Musical instrument"", ""Theremin""]","[""classical music"", ""no singer"", ""instrumental"", ""piano"", ""theremin"", ""emotional"", ""unique"", ""eccentric"", ""heart-touching""]",9,nIL_xrqjo1g,4530
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDoV3sMgDhE&start=130&end=140,"{""label"":""Hoffman Theremin - O MIO BABBINO CARO"",""href"":""https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDoV3sMgDhE&start=130&end=140""}","The low quality recording features a short snippet of theremin solo melody, after which there is a complete silence, as the performer turned off his microphone. The recording is noisy and in mono.",2010-04-02T12:59:34Z,Peter Pringle,"The videos I have posted to YouTube in the past that show me playing Samuel Hoffman's RCA theremin were made when YouTube quality was not as good as it is today. Here is a theremin transcription of O MIO BABBINO CARO from Giacomo Puccini's opera, GIANNI SCHICCHI. As you can see, I have taken the doors off the cabinet so I could zoom in on the old vacuum tubes that give the instrument its distinctive voice. 

Doctor Hoffman used this theremin on the soundtracks of such classic films as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, SPELLBOUND, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and many other suspense and SciFi movies of the late 1940's and 1950's. At that time, he modified the instrument for use in the recording studio by putting special audio output jacks on it so that external speakers could be plugged into the RCA theremin amplifier. For this recording, I used a CLARATONE speaker that was specially built by Florida vintage theremin expert Reid Welch (aka ""Mr. Trubble""). 

This speaker was designed to emulate the sound of the Jensen speaker used by the late, great theremin virtuosa, Clara Rockmore. Because Reid had been a personal friend of Clara Rockmore, he had the opportunity to study her instrument and her speaker set up. His CLARATONE has a 10 inch cone and a particularly warm, sweet and definitely human voice. Unfortunately, Reid only made a limited number of these custom speakers and I was lucky to get the very last one (which I purchased in 1998).

The speaker that is built into the cabinet of this unique theremin was placed so that it was facing away from the thereminist and on the floor. This is the very worst possible place for a theremin speaker because when you play, your speaker is the only way you can hear what you are doing. For best results, your theremin speaker should be placed at head level, behind or beside you, pointing toward you, and no further away than about six feet. 

A friend of mine who was well acquainted with vintage radio technology used to call vacuum tubes ""magical Inca fire bottles"".","[""Theremin""]","[""low quality"", ""noisy"", ""mono"", ""silence"", ""theremin solo melody""]",4,sDoV3sMgDhE,4930
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRfbWrI03gc&start=30&end=40,"{""label"":""Vulcan Harp & Theremin"",""href"":""https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRfbWrI03gc&start=30&end=40""}",Someone is playing a Theremin on a very high pitch going up in pitch and with a lot of vibrato. This song may be playing at home while enjoying your instrument.,2011-01-19T00:59:37Z,Peter Pringle,"This is called THE KATRIC ARK and it is one of a series of 12 compositions for Vulcan harp and theremin. Since the Vulcan harp was introduced by artist and visionary Wah Ming Chang more than 40 years ago, it has evolved considerably, along with the technology involved with its manufacture. It is acoustic, electroacoustic and electronic (it is the electronic component that permits such things as the playing of complex harmonies, glide pitch shifts, etc.).

As a sculptor, Chang molded the instrument to fit the human body, and it is great to hold because it is so wonderfully ergonomic. This particular harp has 26 strings (copper, brass and silver) and is played with finger picks. There are no steel strings and the instrument does not use magnetic pickups like electric guitars. It also does not need to be plugged into anything so there are no annoying cables to get in the way. It transmits directly to its amplifier and speakers by means of an antenna integrated into the pin column (the extended curved vertical arm that holds the tuning pins). The two speakers you see in the video are JBL  JRX-125 monitors.

As a concept, the characteristics of ""Vulcan music"" are determined by the remarkable capabilities of the Vulcan harp which include many of the possibilities of the classical instruments of India. The sound of the Vulcan harp has been described as a combination of harp, lute, violin and sitar. If you add to this everything that is possible with the use of the shift disc and the harmonic valves (the seven button controls - one for each note of the diatonic scale - riding above the brass plate) you have an extraordinary number of combinations that can be explored. The harmonic valves are all level-sensitive (each responds to three degrees of left hand finger pressure applied to them: touch, half, and full) and this determines the harmony applied to the vibrating strings. Octave displacement is played by multiple valve configurations depending on the register in which the harpist wants to play.

There is also a ""tapper control"" incorporated into the Vulcan harp for generating complex polyrhythms but it is not used in this particular composition. The ""tapper"" is the knob that sits just behind the lowest bass strings on the upper edge of the instrument facing the harpist. It can be silently programmed just before a piece is played by drumming the fingers of the left hand on the knob in the exact rhythm combination you want to hear applied to your sound once you begin to play. The instrument will loop the rhythm continuously throughout the piece (or until you squelch it). 

The theremin in this video is the 1929 RCA that once belonged to Hollywood thereminist Dr. Samuel Hoffman. It was used by Dr. Hoffman on the soundtracks of many classic science fiction films of the 1950's, so I thought it would be appropriate to use it here. If you are curious about this 1929 theremin, I am featured in the 20TH CENTURY FOX  2-disc DVD ""special edition"" of the re-issue of  the original 1951 science fiction masterpiece, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. There are already several videos on YouTube of me playing this instrument (and some from the 1950's of Dr. Hoffman as well) so after the solo theremin section at the beginning of the composition, I concentrated entirely on showing the Vulcan harp. There are very few Vulcan harps in the world and even fewer musicians who can actually play them, so I thought people might might like to see it.

PLEASE NOTE: the recording of this composition was done directly to a Roland VS-2400CD. There were no FX added to the instruments other than the usual EQ and a small amount of reverb. No peripherals, no MIDI modules, overdubs or computers were used at any time in the recording process.","[""Music"", ""Musical instrument"", ""Theremin""]","[""vulcan harp/theremin"", ""slow tempo"", ""emotional""]",6,xRfbWrI03gc,5329