A message on the topic of creativity lion term. Lev Theremin - inventor of electronic music, Soviet intelligence officer, political prisoner and Stalin Prize laureate
If you ask the question: “Who is Lev Theremin?”, then 9 out of 10 people will answer that he is the creator of the theremin. But who this scientist is, how he lived, where he worked, what he invented, only a few know.
Lev Sergeevich Termen was born on August 28, 1896 in St. Petersburg in the noble family Orthodox family with French and German roots. From his youth he was fascinated by physics and astronomy. Theremin sought to know the inexhaustible the world"deeply, without any mysticism and fantasy through the senses and logical thinking" .
Lev Theremin and his theremin
Lev Theremin had diverse interests, was interested in both science and music. He graduated from the Conservatory (cello class in 1916), 3rd year at Petrograd University, and the Higher Officers' Electrotechnical School (1916, second lieutenant engineering troops), Faculty of Physics and Mechanics of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute named after M. I. Kalinin (1926). Since 1920, he was an employee of the X-ray (Physical and Technical) Institute (PTI), from 1925 to 1931. - was the head of the laboratory of electrical oscillations of the Physicotechnical Institute.
Being the inventor of the musical instrument theremin, Theremin in 1924-1927. committed concert tours across Russia and Europe. In 1928-1938 carried out assignments for Soviet intelligence services in the United States. In 1939 he was repressed (rehabilitated in 1957). From 1947 to 1951 was the head of the MGB laboratory. Laureate Stalin Prize in 1947. In 1952-1967. collaborated with the KGB. From 1964 to 1968 he was an employee of the sound recording laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory and the department of acoustics of the Faculty of Physics of Moscow University.
Participated in festivals experimental music(France, 1989), "Schoenberg-Kandinsky" (Netherlands, 1991). Since 1991 - member of the CPSU.
Invented the following musical instruments.
- Theremin (1920). We will talk about it below.
- Light theremin (1923) - an instrument that uses light and shadows to create sound.
- Cello Fingerboard theremin (1930) - fingerboard electronic instrument.
- Terpsiton is an instrument that allows the dancer to combine body movement with music and light.
- Rhythmikon (1932) - the first rhythm machine, that is, a device for creating periodic drum fragments.
- Theremin Harmonium (1930-60s) - an electronic instrument for working with choral performances.
- Polyphonic theremin (1960s) – polyphonic theremin.
Besides musical instruments the scientist created contactless security alarm systems and radio watchmen (1922); far-vision device (forerunner of television, 1925); listening device "Buran" (1945).
Lev Theremin and the Polytechnic University
The connection between the legendary Theremin and the Polytechnic Institute is mentioned briefly everywhere. But the period of scientific formation of the scientist is associated with this place.
Theremin came to the Polytechnic in 1920 at the invitation of A.F. Ioffe, who was the dean of the Physico-Mechanical Faculty of the Polytechnic Institute and at the same time the director of the Physico-Technical Institute.
Lev Termen began working at the Department of Physics of the Polytechnic Institute. For his laboratory, he was given “an empty, cold drafting room with 14 windows, some of them blocked with plywood.” The first thing he started his work with was placing two brick stoves in the middle of the hall, and leading the pipes from them to the windows. It was in this laboratory, on one of the drawing tables, Theremin created the first theremin. And it was at the Polytechnic Institute that he first introduced the theremin to the public.
Lev Theremin demonstrates his invention (1928)
Theremin and his laboratory at the Polytechnic
Theremin – voice of Theremin
The most unusual and interesting invention scientist of that time - this is a theremin.
Since Lev Theremin was also a musician (he mastered playing the cello as a child), he came up with the idea of trying to control the frequency of sound by making passes with his hand near the antenna, and thus play a melody. Playing the theremin involves the musician changing the distance from his hands to the antennas of the instrument, due to which the capacitance of the oscillating circuit and, as a result, the pitch of the sound changes.
He combined “physics and lyricism, science and art, electricity and sound” in this instrument.
The very first demonstrations made a huge impression on the public. An empty stage on which stands a small box with a short shiny antenna sticking out of it. A musician approaches him and begins to conduct. To conduct the music itself, which is born from his hand, out of nothing, out of thin air. An instrument without keys and without strings. The connection between the instrument and the musician’s hands is immaterial, it is at a distance. This is truly a great miracle!
Theremin sounds: in the album "Territory" of the group "Aquarium", the composition "Good Vibrations" by the pop group "Beach Boys", on the disc Led Zeppelin "Lotta's Love"; in films: Spellbound ("Enchanted", Hitchcock), "The Lost Weekend" (B. Wider), "Alice in Wonderland" (Disney). Based on the biography of L. Theremin, the film “The Electronic Odyssey of Leo Theremin” was made (USA, 1993, directed by Steve Martin).
One of the first photographs of the theremin and its inventor
Modern theremin
Book gallery
Exhibition bibliography
Theremin, Lev Sergeevich (1896 - 1993). Physics and musical art/ L.S. Termen.- Moscow: Knowledge, 1966.- 31, p. ; 21 cm - (New in life, science, technology. Ser. 9. Physics. Mathematics. Astronomy; 8).
Danilov, Sergey. About theremins and paradoxes / S. Danilov // Technology for youth: monthly popular science and literary-art magazine. - M.., 2012. - No. 6 (945). - P. 20-24: phot. .- (World of Hobbies) .- ISSN 0320-33IX.
Repressed polytechnics: [in 2 books].- St. Petersburg: LLC Printing House "Beresta", 2008-2009.- ISBN 978-8-91492-023-1.
Book 1 / [compiled by: V. A. Smelov, N. N. Storonkin, preface: L. P. Romankov] .-, 2008 .- 439, pp., l. portrait ; 23 cm.- With a dedicatory inscription from V. A. Smelov SPSTU: 8012462 .- Donated by D. Yu. Raichuk SPSTU: 390663 .- Donated by Yu. P. Goryunov SPSTU: 0 (OBF) .- Bibliography. in footnotes. - ISBN 978-8-91492-023-1.
Memories of A.F. Ioffe / USSR Academy of Sciences; Physico-Technical Institute named after. A. F. Ioffe; [rep. ed. V. P. Zhuze] .- Leningrad: Science. Leningr. department, 1973 .- 250, p., l. portrait .- Rep. ed. indicated on the back tit. l..
Khoteenkov, V. The cunning one wins / V. Khoteenkov; artist S. Novikov; V. Blinov // Around the World: monthly popular science magazine. - M.., 2003. - No. 7. - P. 154-163.
Galeev, Bulat Makhmudovich. Soviet Faust: (Lev Theremin - pioneer of electronic art) / Bulat Galeev. - Kazan, 1995 .- 96 p. : ill., portrait, fax. ; 22 cm.- (Panorama. Library of the magazine "Kazan", No. 9-12/94).- Gift of I. A. Bryukhanova SPSTU: No. 7481442 .- With a dedicatory inscription from the author. SPSTU: 7253722 .- Bibliography. in the footnotes...
Figures of Russian science of the 19th-20th centuries / Russian Academy Sciences, Institute of History of Natural Science and Technology named after. S. I. Vavilova, St. Petersburg branch; [ed. I. P. Medvedeva] .- St. Petersburg, 2000-2008 .- ISBN 5-86007-259-7.
Issue 3: Russian science in biographical sketches / comp. T.V. Andreeva, M.F. Hartanovich.-: Dmitry Bulanin, 2003.- 507 p. : ill. .- Bibliography in note .- ISBN 5860073917.
Revich, Yu.“I promised Lenin...” / Yu. Revich // Knowledge is power: monthly popular science and scientific-art magazine. - M.., 2003 .- No. 8 .- P. 102-107 .- ISSN 0130- 1640.
10.
Cheparukhin, Vladimir Viktorovich (1938-2012). L. S. Termen and the Polytechnic Institute (Petrograd-Leningrad, 20s) / V.V. Cheparukhin, Yu.I. Ukhanov // Science and technology: Questions of history and theory: Theses of the XVIII year. conf. SPb. departments of the National com. in history and philosophy of science and technology. (24-26 Nov. 1997). Vol. XIII .- St. Petersburg, 1997 .- P. 102-103 .- (History and philosophical problems physics) .- Bibliography: p. 103.
11.
Berezhkov, A. You don't know theremin? Then get acquainted! / A. Berezhkov // Echo of the planet: General-political. ill. weekly. - Moscow., 2002. - No. 34 (749). - P. 34-35: ill. - (Fates).
Termen Lev Sergeevich (Teremin Leon) (1896-1993). Physicist, inventor, musician. In 1920 he created the Theremin electromusical instrument with a completely unusual sound.
In 1926 he invented the electromechanical television. In 1923-1929. worked at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. In 1927, he showed Stalin a television of his own design. In 1931-1938. was director joint stock company for the production of various Theremin models in the USA. These instruments were used to score many motion pictures in America. Musical works Theremin was performed by the best musicians of the New World (N. Slonimsky, L. Stokowski). D. Shostakovich knew him well.
In 1935, Termen was kidnapped by the OGPU (according to other sources, he collaborated with the OGPU) and taken to the USSR with all his equipment. In Moscow, he worked in a closed design bureau, where he developed equipment for an unmanned aircraft.
According to Theremin’s memoirs, published in 1989 in the newspaper “Top Secret”, on the instructions of L.P. For Beria, he created the “Buran” listening device and installed microphones to listen to Stalin’s apartment.1 Theremin was charged with not only listening to the recorded tapes, but also clearing them of interference and extraneous noise. The equipment designed by Theremin made it possible to record conversations taking place on any floor of the building. The membrane was used window glass, the light beam read the sound vibrations of the glass and converted them into electrical signals. The range of the device is one kilometer. Using Theremin's invention, Beria thus tracked Stalin's conversations at his nearby dacha.
The idea of eavesdropping was probably borrowed from Stalin himself. As the head of the NKVD, Beria could not help but know that the leader was listening to telephone conversations even on a “turntable” (an automatic telephone exchange with a limited number of numbers, designed to ensure the confidentiality of conversations between government and party leadership). Such telephones were installed in the offices of members of the Central Committee, people's commissars and their deputies; members of the Politburo - also in their apartments. B.G. Bazhanov writes: “In Stalin’s struggle for power, this secret is one of the most important: it gives Stalin the opportunity, by listening to the conversations of all the Trotskys, Zinovievs and Kamenevs among themselves, to always be aware of what they are up to, what they think, and this weapons of colossal importance. Stalin is the only sighted one among them, and they are all blind” (Bazhanov B.G. Memoirs of Stalin’s former secretary. M., 1990. P. 56-57).
In 1938, Theremin was arrested and spent seven years in the camps. For some time he worked in Tupolev’s sharashka on the Yauza. After his release, he worked on secret projects for the military-industrial complex. Since 1966 - researcher at the Department of Acoustics, Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University. Lomonosov. At the same time he worked at the Moscow Conservatory.
In 1974, Theremin was accidentally recognized on the street in Moscow by a correspondent for the New York Times newspaper and wrote an article about him (in the USA it was believed that he died in the Gulag). As a very old man, he came to America again, visited his former studio, met his students. He received a prize for his inventions.
In the early 1990s in Moscow, opposite the Cheryomushkinsky market, a 97-year-old old man lived in a tiny room in a communal apartment. One day, in the old man’s absence, someone destroyed his closet, which served him not only as a home, but also as a scientific laboratory: he broke his instruments and destroyed his notes. The old man was forced to move in with his daughter, and there he soon died. The crime remained unsolved. But it’s unlikely that anyone would be interested in destroying the laboratory, except for the neighbors in the communal apartment - who would like it when an ancient old man occupies a room, and even carries out some incomprehensible experiments?
This old man's name was Lev Theremin.
Perhaps not everyone reading these lines is familiar with this name. First, let's briefly talk about what he invented. Theremin Lev Sergeevich (1896-1993) - inventor, physicist, musician. Creator of the world's first electronic musical instrument, the theremin (1919-20), one of the first televised vision systems (1925-26), the world's first rhythm machine, Rhythmikon (1932), security alarm systems, automatic doors and lighting, the first and most advanced listening devices, etc. The principles of the theremin were also used by Theremin when creating a security system that responded to a person approaching a protected object. The Kremlin and the Hermitage, and later foreign museums, were equipped with such a system.
Lev Theremin was born on August 15, 1896 in St. Petersburg into a noble Orthodox family with French Huguenot roots; his father was a famous lawyer. In 1916 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in cello. And in parallel - the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Petrograd University. The revolution found him a junior officer in a reserve electrical battalion serving the most powerful Tsarskoye Selo radio station in the empire near Petrograd.
Already in 1919, the legendary professor A.I. Ioffe, with whom Lev studied at the university, invites him to head the laboratory of the Physico-Technical Institute. A year later, a young scientist, based on an electrical measuring instrument he developed, invents the famous theremin - an instrument that could be played simply by the slightest movements of the hand in the air. The musician moves his hands slightly closer or away from the instrument's antennas - the capacitance of the oscillatory circuit changes and, as a result, the frequency of the sound.
Worldwide famous virtuoso playing the theremin Clara Rockmore performs “The Swan” by Saint-Saëns
Soon the device was demonstrated to Lenin. The young scientist explained how a security alarm would work based on a theremin, and Lenin tried to perform Glinka’s “Lark” on the instrument. It is not known whether he succeeded, because to play the theremin you need to have a perfect musical ear. However, the leader appreciated the scientist’s work and Theremin continued to invent.
In those years, he invented many different automatic systems: automatic doors, automatic lighting, security alarm systems. And in 1925 he invents one of the first television systems - “far vision”.
Lev Theremin, conductor Sir Henry Wood and physicist Sir Oliver Lodge, London, 1927.
In 1927, Theremin was invited to an international music exhibition in Frankfurt am Main. His report and demonstration of the theremin simply evoke resounding success: “The virtuoso touches space,” newspapers write, his music is “the music of the spheres.” After this, Termen, remaining a Soviet citizen, moved to the USA: on the one hand, as great inventor, on the other hand, of course, “on instructions from the Motherland.”
In the USA, he patented the theremin and his security alarm system. Developed alarm systems for Sing Sing and Alcatraz prisons. He organized the companies Teletouch and Theremin Studio and rented a six-story building for a music and dance studio in New York for 99 years. This made it possible to create trade missions of the USSR in the United States, under whose “roof” Soviet intelligence officers could work.
Soon Theremin became a very popular person in New York. In the mid-1930s, he was one of the world's twenty-five celebrities and a member of the millionaires' club. George Gershwin, Maurice Ravel, Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein visited his studio. His circle of acquaintances included financial magnate John Rockefeller and future US President Dwight Eisenhower.
Theremin also divorced his wife Anna Konstantinova and married Lavinia Williams, a dancer of the first American black ballet. Obviously, it was this step that caused discontent Soviet authorities- after all, having married a black woman, Theremin lost his status as persona non grata in many houses and lost a significant part of his informants.
Lavinia Williams in 1955
In 1938, Theremin was recalled to Moscow. They did not allow me to take my wife with me - they said that she would arrive later. When they came for him, Lavinia happened to be at home, and she got the impression that her husband was taken away by force. They never saw each other again.
Then events unfold in a completely unpredictable way for Theremin. In Leningrad he tries to get a job - unsuccessfully. He moves to Moscow - and there is no work for him, a world-famous scientist. In March 1939 he was arrested.
There are two versions of what charge was brought against him. According to the first, he was accused of involvement in a fascist organization, according to the other, of preparing the murder of Kirov. He was forced to testify that a group of astronomers from the Pulkovo Observatory was preparing to place a landmine in the Foucault pendulum, and Theremin was supposed to send a radio signal from the USA and detonate the landmine as soon as Kirov approached the pendulum.
The investigator was not even embarrassed by the fact that Foucault’s pendulum was not in the Pulkovo Observatory, but in St. Isaac’s Cathedral. A special meeting of the NKVD of the USSR sentenced Theremin to eight years in the camps, and he was sent to Kolyma.
At first, Theremin served time in Magadan, working as a foreman of a construction team. However, his numerous rationalization proposals attracted the attention of the camp administration to him, and already in 1940 he was transferred to the Tupolev design bureau TsKB-29 (to the so-called “Tupolev sharaga”), where he worked for about eight years. His assistant here was Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, who later became a famous designer of space technology. One of the activities of Theremin and Korolev was the development of unmanned aircraft radio-controlled prototypes of modern cruise missiles.
Another development of Theremin is the Buran eavesdropping system, which uses a reflected infrared beam to read glass vibrations in the windows of the room being tapped. It was this invention of Theremin that was awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree in 1947. But due to the fact that the laureate was a prisoner at the time of presentation for the prize, and the secretive nature of his work, the award was not publicly announced anywhere.
Soviet endovibrator inside a copy of the Great Seal of the United States, National Museum cryptography at the US National Security Agency. Photo: Wikipedia
Finally, here he created the Zlatoust endovibrator, a listening device without batteries and electronics based on high-frequency resonance. Such a device was installed in the office of the American ambassadors (it was hidden in a wooden panel that was given to the embassy by Soviet pioneers) and worked undetected for eight years. Moreover, the principle of operation of the device remained unsolved for several years after the discovery of the “bug”.
In 1947, Theremin was rehabilitated, but continued to work in closed design bureaus in the NKVD system of the USSR, where he was engaged, in particular, in the development of eavesdropping systems. Then he married for the third time, to Maria Gushchina. They had two daughters, Natalya and Elena. Natalya today is one of the world's most famous performers of theremin music.
Lev Theremin plays the theremin. 1954
In 1964, Theremin got a job in the laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory. Here he devotes himself entirely to the development of electromusical instruments. However, in 1967, he was recognized by someone who found himself at the conservatory. musical critic Harold Schonberg. He writes an article about him in the New York Times. In the USA, the article becomes a sensation - after all, everyone there has long been convinced that Theremin was shot back in 1938. And he, it turns out, is alive and well, only now the greatest scientist is working in some forgotten by god place. In the USSR, this article also attracted attention - and Theremin was fired from the conservatory.
After this Theremin, already very old man, not without difficulty got a job in a laboratory at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University. Formally listed as a mechanic at the department, he held seminars in the main building of Moscow State University for those who wanted to hear about his work and study the theremin. But now his performances, which once thrilled audiences in Europe and the United States, attracted only a few oddballs.
Theremin did not lose heart, he continued to work and was generally distinguished by a rare love of life. When, in the 1970s, his second wife Lavinia, having learned that her Leon was still alive, began corresponding with him, he even asked her to marry him again. He joked about his own immortality - and as proof he suggested reading his last name backwards: “Theremin - does not die!” And the world did not forget about him. In the late 80s - early 90s, he finally got the opportunity to travel abroad, he was invited to the festival in Bourges (France) and to Stanford University.
Lev Theremin at Stanford University. 1991
In his homeland he finds it difficult, with the help of Hero Soviet Union, the legendary pilot Valentina Grizodubova, managed to knock out a tiny room for a research laboratory. The same one that was destroyed by unknown vandals. Theremin died on November 3, 1993. Later newspapers wrote: “At ninety-seven years old, Lev Theremin went to those who made up the face of the era - but behind the coffin, except for his daughters with their families and several men carrying the coffin, there was no one ...”
LEV SERGEEVICH TERMEN (1896–1993)
Russian and Soviet inventor, creator of the original musical instrument - theremin
Lev Theremin was born on August 15 (August 28 - new style) 1896 in St. Petersburg into a noble Orthodox family with French Huguenot roots (in French family name was written as Theremin). His mother, Evgenia Antonovna, and his father, the famous lawyer Sergei Emilievich, spared no money on Lev’s education.
First independent experiments in electrical engineering, Lev Theremin carried out his studies at the St. Petersburg First Men's Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1914 with a silver medal.
In 1916 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in cello, and at the same time studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University. At the university, Lev Theremin had the opportunity to listen to lectures on physics by private assistant professor A. F. Ioffe.
From his second year at the university, in 1916, he was drafted into the army and sent for accelerated training to the Nikolaev Engineering School, and then to officer electrical engineering courses.
Invented:
1. Group of electric musical instruments:
Theremin
Rhythmikon
Terpsitone
2. Security alarm
3. Unique system eavesdropping "Buran"
4. The world's first television installation - far vision
Worked on:
Speech recognition system
Human freezing technology
Military sonar
Died November 3, 1993. As the newspapers later wrote: “At ninety-seven years old, Lev Theremin went to those who made up the face of the era - but behind the coffin, except for his daughters with their families and several men carrying the coffin, there was no one ...”
He was buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery in Moscow.
THE MAN WHO COULD DO ANYTHING
On the evening of November 3, my friends and I drank a glass to commemorate the soul of the inventor and musician Lev Sergeevich Termen. I have never seen this man in my life, but I have been fascinated by his magical talent since childhood, when I first heard the amazing musical instrument theremin, from which all modern electronic music originated.
In the spring of 1926, engineer Lev Termen demonstrated at the People's Commissariat of Defense the world's first television installation - far vision. He installed the camera lens on the street, placed the screen in his office, and the Red commanders Ordzhonikidze, Voroshilov, Budyonny and Tukhachevsky cried out in delight: on the screen Stalin was walking across the yard!
It took Termen only a year to solve a fantastic problem - the creation of electrical foresight. However, for him, it seemed, there were no difficulties in life at all. WITH youth he amazed those around him with his talents: he was fond of mathematics, physics, and something was always exploding in his room. At the university, Theremin studied simultaneously in the physics and astronomy faculties, while simultaneously studying cello at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
Before the revolution, he managed to graduate from a military engineering school and even fought for the Tsar Father with the rank of second lieutenant in a radio engineering battalion. But the Bolsheviks did not shoot him, but, on the contrary, took him into service in the electrical battalion. And a year later he was appointed head of the most powerful radio station in the country, the Tsarskoye Selo radio station.
After demobilization in 1920, he was invited to work at the Physico-Technical Institute by Professor Ioffe. Theremin receives the task of doing radio measurements of the dielectric constant of gases at variable temperatures and pressures. During testing, it turned out that the device produced a sound, the height and strength of which depended on the position of the hand between the plates of the capacitor. Perhaps a simple physicist would not have attached any importance to this, but a physicist who graduated from the conservatory tried to compose a melody from these sounds. And it worked!
Thus was born the musical instrument theremin - the voice of Theremin. And a simplified version of the theremin - a security alarm - built on the same principle: as soon as the attacker found himself in the electric field, a sound signal was heard. By the way, in our time, expensive cars are still equipped with an alarm system, which is based on Theremin’s invention.
And in the life of Lev Sergeevich it became the first step on the path to fame. Although his colleagues chuckled: “Theremin plays Gluck on a voltmeter,” this did not bother the scientist at all. In 1921, he demonstrates his invention at the VIII All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress. The surprise of the audience knew no bounds - no strings or keys, a timbre unlike anything else. The Pravda newspaper published an enthusiastic review, radio concerts were held for wide audience. In addition, during the congress the GOELRO plan was adopted, and Theremin, with his unique power tools, could become an excellent propagandist for the plan for electrification of the entire country.
A few months after the congress, Termen was invited to the Kremlin.
Stop, whoever is coming!
In addition to Lenin, there were about ten other people in the office. First, Theremin showed the high commission a security alarm. He connected the device to a large vase with a flower, and as soon as one of those present approached it, a loud bell rang. Lev Sergeevich recalled: “One of the military says that this is wrong. Lenin asked: “Why is it wrong?” And the military man took a warm hat, put it on his head, wrapped his arm and leg in a fur coat and began to slowly crawl towards my alarm on his haunches. We got the signal again."
And yet the main “hero” of the audience was the theremin. Lenin liked the instrument so much that he gave the go-ahead for Theremin to tour and ordered that he be given a free train ticket “to popularize the new instrument” throughout the country.
By the way, another impressive feature of Theremin’s life is connected with Lenin.
Lev Sergeevich was passionate about the idea of fighting death. He studied studies of animal cells frozen in permafrost, and wondered what would happen to people if they were frozen and then thawed. When news of the leader’s death became known, Theremin sent his assistant to Gorki with a proposal to freeze Lenin’s body so that years later, when the technology had been worked out, he could be resurrected from the dead. But the assistant returned with sad news: the internal organs had already been removed and the body was prepared for embalming. With that, Theremin abandoned research on human revitalization. And decades later, his idea was embodied in America, and now dozens of frozen lucky people are waiting for resurrection.
An episode that could have been a milestone
After demonstrating the television installation at the People's Commissariat for Education, Theremin showed it on V All-Union Congress physicists in Moscow. The invention caused a sensation, Ogonyok and Izvestia wrote with delight: “Theremin’s name is included in the history of world science along with Popov and Edison!” It seemed that it was a stone's throw from experiment to serial production...
Theremin was offered to create a television system for border military units. But it did not reach the army: the country’s technical base was too poor.
Therefore, the developments were kept secret, and the title of pioneer in the field of television a few years later went to an emigrant from Russia, Vladimir Zvorykin.
Knocked out "Grand Opera" and others
In the summer of 1927, an international conference on physics and electronics was held in Frankfurt am Main. The young Country of Soviets needed to present itself with dignity. And Theremin with his instrument became the trump card of the Russian delegation. He amazed the Europeans with his report on the theremin and his concerts classical music for the general public: “heavenly music”, “voices of angels” - the newspapers were choking with delight.
Invitations from Berlin, London, and Paris followed one after another. Theremin's most enchanting concert took place in Paris: the conservative Grand Opera theater for the first time in its history gave the hall to some unknown Russian for the whole evening. Such an influx of spectators (even standing tickets for boxes were sold) and such success in the theater have not been seen for 35 years...
Meanwhile, Joffe, who was in the USA at that time, received orders from several companies to produce 2000 theremins with the condition that Theremin would come to America to supervise the work. But instead of one business trip, Lev Sergeevich received two: from the People’s Commissar of Education Lunacharsky and from the Military Department.
Trump on the table!
And now the handsome young Lev Theremin sails on the ocean liner Majestic to America. World celebrity violinist Jozsef Sighetti, who was sailing on the same ship, became envious of the fees that America's largest businessmen offered Theremin for the honor of being the first to hear the theremin. But the inventor gave the first concert for the press, scientists and famous musicians. The success was impressive, and with the permission of the Soviet authorities, Theremin founded the Teletouch studio company in New York for the production of theremins.
Things went brilliantly. Theremin concerts took place in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Boston. Thousands of Americans enthusiastically began to learn to play the theremin, and General Electric Corporation and RCA (Radio Corporation of America) bought licenses to produce it.
The “great crisis” that broke out at the turn of the 1930s ruined many rich people. But he didn’t knock Theremin down. Of course, the people had no time for music, but the inventive Russian had one more trump card - a security alarm. Teletouch Corporation quickly refocused on its production, and Theremin volume sensors were torn off with their hands. They were even installed in the terrible US prison Sing Sing and in Fort Knox, where the American gold reserves were kept. So everything was fine with business, but there was a crisis in the music field.
Cake for a violinist with a theremin
In the enthusiastic chorus of Theremin's fans, voices of dissatisfaction began to be heard: at concerts he was shamelessly out of tune. The fact is that playing the theremin purely is incredibly difficult: the performer has no reference points (like, for example, the keys of a piano or the strings of a violin) and has to rely solely on hearing and muscle memory.
Theremin clearly lacked performing skills. A virtuoso was needed here. And then fate brought him together with a young emigrant from Russia, Clara Reisenberg. As a child, she was known as a miracle child, a violinist with a great future. But either she overplayed her hands, or because of a hungry childhood, she had to part with the violin: her muscles could not withstand the load. But the theremin was within reach, and Clara quickly learned to play it. There was also a whirlwind romance, especially since Theremin was free by that time.
For the first time, Theremin married the lovely Katya Konstantinova in 1921, and before coming to America, their family life was smooth and stable. But in New York, Katya was able to find work only in the suburbs and came home once a week. After six months of such “family” life, a young man came to Theremin and said that he and Katya loved each other. And then it became known that the visitor was a member of a fascist organization. And the Soviet embassy demanded that Termen divorce his wife. Which is what he did. Therefore, by the time of his meeting with Clara, Lev Sergeevich was open to new love.
He is 38 years old, she is 18. They were a luxurious couple, they loved to go to cafes and restaurants. Lev Sergeevich courted her very beautifully and loved to surprise his girlfriend with various miracles. For example, for her birthday, he gave her a cake that rotated around its axis and was decorated with a candle that lit up when approaching it.
The beautiful romance was not destined to end with a wedding. Clara chose someone else - Robert Rockmore, a lawyer and successful impresario, so she music career was provided.
Why do walls float?
And Theremin plunged headlong into his work. Upon his arrival in America, he rented a six-story mansion on 54th Avenue for 99 years. In addition to personal apartments, it housed a workshop and a studio. Here Lev Sergeevich often played music with Albert Einstein: the physicist on the violin, the inventor on the theremin. Einstein was fascinated by the idea of combining music and spatial images. And Theremin figured out how to do this: he invented the rhythmicon, a light-musical instrument. Huge transparent wheels with geometric pattern rotated in front of a stroboscopic lamp. As soon as the musician changed pitches
Sound, the frequency of strobe flashes and patterns changed - the spectacle was impressive. Well, the fantasy began when the studio walls rose and fell. Of course, not for real, but with the help of a trick of light. The spellbound visitors gasped in surprise!
Rumors about these experiments attracted many famous people to the studio. Among Theremin's guests were millionaires DuPont, Ford and Rockefeller. However, Termen himself by the mid-30s was included in the list of twenty-five celebrities of the world. And he was even a member of the millionaires' club.
Was he really a millionaire? It is not known for certain. Some say that it’s a huge amount of money for Theremin personally and Soviet Russia brought by Teletouch Corporation. And others claim that Theremin was financed by military intelligence. Because the true purpose of his business trip to America was espionage activity.
Famous spy
Every two weeks Lev Sergeevich came to a small country cafe, where two young men were waiting for him. They listened to his reports and gave him new tasks. However, these tasks were not burdensome and did not particularly distract Theremin from his work. And he was already completely captivated by the most fantastic of his ideas - an instrument that gave birth to music from dance. In fact, this is a type of theremin: the sound is created not only by the hands, but also by the movements of the whole body, and the name was given to it accordingly - terpsiton - after the goddess of dance Terpsichore. In this case, each sound corresponded to a lamp of a certain color. Can you imagine what an extraordinary spectacle it was, because any movement of the dancer was echoed by sounds and the flickering of multi-colored lights!
For creating concert program Theremin invited a group of dancers from the African American Ballet Company. Unfortunately, it was not possible to achieve harmony and accuracy from them, and the project had to be postponed. But in this troupe danced the beautiful mulatto Lavinia Williams, who captivated Lev Sergeevich not only as a ballerina, but also as a woman. Theremin decided to get married.
It could never have occurred to him that marriage with dark-skinned woman will radically change his life. But as soon as the lovers registered their marriage, the doors of many houses in New York were closed to Theremin: America did not yet know political correctness. He lost informants, which caused serious discontent Soviet intelligence. And in 1938, Theremin was ordered to immediately leave for Russia. Lavinia was told that she would come to her husband on the next ship.
The spouses did not see each other again. And Termen kept the marriage certificate issued by the Russian embassy in America until the end of his days.
Kirov's killer
Ten years after leaving Russia, Theremin arrived in Leningrad. And it turned out that no one needed him: there were almost no old workers left at the Physico-Technical Institute. Theremin went to look for work in Moscow, but on March 15, they came for him to a hotel near the Kievsky railway station with an arrest warrant.
In the Butyrka prison, the investigator told Theremin that he, as a defector, would, of course, be shot if he did not cooperate. A month later, Theremin “confessed” that, together with a group of astronomers, he was planning the murder of Kirov. His version was this: Kirov (who was already dead by that time!) was going to visit the Pulkovo Observatory. Astronomers planted a landmine in a Foucault pendulum. And Theremin, using a radio signal from the USA, was supposed to blow it up as soon as Kirov approached the pendulum. The investigator was not even embarrassed by the fact that Foucault’s pendulum is not in Pulkovo, but in the Kazan Cathedral! Lev Sergeevich was given eight years and sent to Kolyma.
But Termen spent only a year in the camp. He was appointed senior over the criminals who carried stones from the mountain and paved the road with them. Theremin mechanized the process by building a wheelbarrow with a monorail. Work is in full swing! The brigade's rations were tripled, and the papers about the unusual prisoner were sent to Moscow.
In the winter of 1940, he was transferred to Omsk, to the Tupolev aviation sharashka, where throughout the war he developed equipment for radio control of unmanned aircraft and radio beacons for naval operations. But the crowning achievement of his time in the sharashka was the invention of the Buran listening system.
Trojan horse from the pioneers
...On Independence Day, July 4, 1945, the American Ambassador to Russia Averell Harriman received a wooden panel depicting an eagle as a gift from Soviet pioneers. The panel was hung in the ambassador's office. And then the American intelligence services lost peace: a mysterious information leak began. Only 7 years later, a mysterious cylinder with a membrane inside was discovered inside the gift. For a year and a half, engineers struggled to solve this trick. The secret turned out to be simple: an invisible ray was directed from the house opposite to the office window, and the membrane, oscillating in time with the speech, reflected it back, and it was recorded on a special device.
Then Theremin improved his Buran so much that the membrane was no longer needed - its role was played by window glass. Rumor has it that Buran is still in service with our secret services.
The Soviet government highly appreciated the merits of the inventor - in 1947, the prisoner (!) was awarded the Stalin Prize, 1st degree. And after his release, Termen was allocated two-room apartment on Leninsky Prospekt.
It seemed that the stupid and evil misunderstanding was over and now the inventor would be showered with honors. But Theremin did not receive any official titles; all his patents were covered with the stamp “Owls.” secret." And Lev Sergeevich continued to work in secret KGB laboratories. Soon he found himself there new wife- a young typist Masha Gushchina, who gave birth to twin daughters.
For almost twenty years, Theremin was engaged in specific developments for the all-powerful department. At first it was promising work- speech recognition systems, voice identification, military hydroacoustics. But over time, priorities have changed. As Theremin recalled, “supposedly in the West they came up with devices for determining where flying saucers were, and we also had to struggle with similar devices. I understood that this was a scam, and I couldn’t refuse - and one day I decided that it was better to retire.”
The employers did not object, considering that they could not take anything from the old man, and in 1964 Termen finally parted with the special services, under whose invisible eye he had been for almost 40 years.
Theremin doesn't die!
70 years old. It seemed like life was over. But Lev Sergeevich, true to his motto “Theremin does not die!” (this is how his last name is read backwards), gets a job in acoustic laboratory Moscow State Conservatory. Nothing disturbed the old man’s measured life until, in 1968, a New York Times correspondent, preparing a report on the Moscow Conservatory, learned that great Theremin alive
This sensational news in America was perceived as a resurrection from the dead: in all American encyclopedias It was stated that Theremin died in 1938. A flood of letters from his overseas friends poured into Lev Sergeevich’s name, and reporters from various newspapers and television companies tried to meet with him. The conservative authorities, frightened by such interest in the modest person of the mechanic, simply fired him. And all the equipment was thrown into the trash.
For the last twenty-five years, Theremin has worked in the acoustics laboratory of Moscow State University. Mechanic 6th category. He slowly worked on his theremins - he restored some, improved some, and even came up with one in which the sound through a system of photocells arose from just the musician’s glance.
Lev Sergeevich also frequented the Scriabin Museum, where he took part in the creation of a musical synthesizer. The long-awaited time has come - the era electronic instruments. Theremin seemed to catch ideas out of thin air that sometimes seemed utopian. And later it turned out that the Japanese company Yamaha was working on these ideas independently of him.
Well, Lev Sergeevich taught his niece Lida Kavina to play the theremin. By the age of twenty, she had become a virtuoso performer and toured all over Europe with concerts. In 1989, Theremin was invited to the Experimental Music Festival in France. And he, 93 years old, went!
But most of all, at the end of his life, Termen surprised those around him with his entry into the CPSU: “I promised Lenin.” Lev Sergeevich tried before, but for “terrible crimes” he was not accepted into the party. So Termen became a communist only in 1991, simultaneously with the fall of the USSR.
a swan song
...In 1951, the future American director Steve Martin saw the film “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” But it was not the aliens that shocked him, but the unearthly sound of the theremin that accompanied the action. For several years he communicated with his brother using sounds similar to those produced by a theremin. And many years later, in 1980, Steve Martin was looking for music for his film. And his search led him to Clara Rockmore, who told the director about the legendary inventor. It was then that Martin had the idea to create a story about Theremin documentary. But 11 years passed before he was able to come to Moscow, meet Theremin and invite him to America. The elderly maestro walked confusedly through the streets of New York and had difficulty recognizing the places where ten years of his life had passed. The most exciting thing was the meeting with Clara Rockmore. Clara did not agree to her for a long time - years, they say, do not make a woman beautiful.
Hey, Clarenok, how old are we! - said 95-year-old Theremin.
After America, he went back to the Netherlands for the Schoenberg-Kandinsky festival, and, returning to Moscow, found his room in a communal apartment in complete destruction - broken furniture, broken equipment, trampled records. Apparently, one of the neighbors really needed his room. The daughter took Lev Sergeevich to her place. But vitality it ran out, and a few months later, on November 3, 1993, Theremin died.
Steve Martin's film "The Electronic Odyssey of Lev Theremin" was released after the death of the hero. But his theremins still live today. Among the many companies producing them is Moog Mugic, owned by the inventor of the first synthesizer, Robert Moog. He once said about Theremin: “He’s just a genius who is capable of anything!”
He failed in only one thing - to become the national pride of Russia...
Svetlana BAZHENOVA.
Lev Sergeevich Termen(1896-1993) - Russian and Soviet inventor, creator of a family of musical instruments, the most famous of which is the theremin (1920). Winner of the Stalin Prize, first degree.
Biography
Lev Theremin was born on August 15 (August 27), 1896 in St. Petersburg into a noble Orthodox family with French Huguenot roots (in French the family surname was written as Theremin). Mother - Evgenia Antonovna and father - famous lawyer Sergei Emilievich Termeny.
Carier start
Lev Termen carried out his first independent experiments in electrical engineering during his years of study at the St. Petersburg First Men's Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1914 with a silver medal.
In 1916 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in cello. At the same time, he studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Petrograd University, where, among other things, he attended lectures on physics by private assistant professor A. F. Ioffe.
From his second year at the university, in 1916, he was drafted into the army and sent for accelerated training to the Nikolaev Engineering School, and then to officer electrical engineering courses. The revolution found him a junior officer in a reserve electrical battalion serving the most powerful Tsarskoye Selo radio station in the empire near Petrograd.
After October revolution In 1917, he continued to work at the same radio station, and was later sent to a military radio laboratory in Moscow.
Career blossoming
In 1919, Lev Theremin became the head of the laboratory of the Physico-Technical Institute in Petrograd. As a specialist in radio engineering, A.F. Ioffe invited him to work at his institute. The new employee was given the task of measuring the dielectric constant of gases at various pressures and temperatures. The first version of Theremin's measuring installation was an electrical oscillation generator based on a cathode lamp. The test gas in the cavity between the metal plates was an element of an oscillatory circuit - a capacitor, which influenced the frequency of electrical oscillations. In the process of working to increase the sensitivity of the installation, the idea arose of combining two generators, one of which oscillated at a certain constant frequency. Signals from both generators were fed to a cathode relay, at the output of which a signal with a difference frequency was generated. The relative change in the difference frequency from the parameters of the test gas was much greater. Moreover, if the difference frequency fell into the audio range, then the signal could be received by ear.
In 1920, based on an experimental measuring setup, Lev Theremin invented the Theremin electromusical instrument, which later made it widely known.
In March 1922, a demonstration of Theremin's inventions was organized in the Kremlin, which was attended by Vladimir Lenin. Theremin presented the security alarm device, the theremin, explained the principle of its operation, and Lenin tried to perform Glinka’s “Lark” on the theremin.
Being a very versatile person, Theremin invented many different automatic systems (automatic doors, automatic lighting, etc.) and security alarm systems. In parallel, since 1923, he collaborated with State Institute music science in Moscow. In 1925-1926 he invented one of the first television systems - “Darnovision”.
In 1927, Theremin received an invitation to the international music exhibition in Frankfurt am Main. Theremin's report and demonstration of his inventions were enjoyed huge success and brought him worldwide fame.
The success of his concert at a music exhibition is such that Theremin is bombarded with invitations. Dresden, Nuremberg, Hamburg, Berlin saw him off with applause and flowers. There are enthusiastic reviews from listeners of “music of the air”, “music of ethereal waves”, “music of the spheres”. The musicians note that the idea of a virtuoso is not constrained by inert material, “a virtuoso touches spaces.” The incomprehensibility of where the sound is coming from is shocking. Some people call the theremin a “heavenly” instrument, others a “spherophone”. The timbre is striking, simultaneously reminiscent of both strings and wind instruments, and even some special one human voice, as if “grown from distant times and spaces.”