ALL SCI-FI

Ticket2theMoon · Site Admin Joined: 02 Mar 2015 Posts: 25

Have you used Google today? Did you see the graphic at the top of the young woman playing the theremin? Click it and you'll get a fun, interactive "theremin lesson" and several links to some really fascinating information about Clara Rockmore, a pioneer of electronic music. For those who don't know, the theremin provides that ethereal wail in the Star Trek theme. It was also used by The Beach Boys (Good Vibrations), Led Zepplin and The Rolling Stones. Anyway, check it out. One of the articles it links to has a video of her playing the violin part for Saint-Saens' The Swan and her sister playing the piano and it's just gorgeous. We tend to think of it as just a "spacey" sound, but she was a virtuoso and proved how much artistic potential there is in electronic music. So cool![/quote]
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"All of space and time, everything that ever happened or ever will -- where do you want to start?" -- The Doctor

Custer · Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 2:50 pm Post subject:

That's really nice, I've been making suitably otherworldly noises, courtesy of Google, for the last few minutes...

Ticket2theMoon · Site Admin Joined: 02 Mar 2015 Posts: 25

Isn't it fun?? It doesn't really have the right notes to do the Star Trek theme, but you can do the theremin solo from Good Vibrations if you start on the low C and slide up to the high D. Love it!
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"All of space and time, everything that ever happened or ever will -- where do you want to start?" -- The Doctor

Bud Brewster

Custer · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 8:39 am Post subject:

It's like a vitamin, but you keep it over on the far side of the room, right? Over there...

Embarassed

Ticket2theMoon · Site Admin Joined: 02 Mar 2015 Posts: 25

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"All of space and time, everything that ever happened or ever will -- where do you want to start?" -- The Doctor

orzel-w · Galactic Ambassador Joined: 19 Sep 2014 Posts: 1876

I'm Wayne DeBac.
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...or not...

WayneO
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scotpens

Bud Brewster · Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 2:22 pm Post subject:

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You're right, David, but even before the electric violin was used, the music employed other ways to create it's signature sounds.

When I Googled the question "Was a theremin used in the Star Trek theme?" here's what I got from the Wikipedia article about the theremin.

The Alexander Courage theme music composed for and employed on the original Star Trek was performed by a mixture of instruments with vocals to get "unearthly" sound. The theremin-like sound theme was actually provided by renowned studio soprano Loulie Jean Norman until her voice was removed in later seasons.

But there was a heck of a lot of tinkering with music as the series progressed. Here's an excerpt from the Wikipedia article about the theme itself.

The unaired pilot "The Cage" used a wordless rendition of the melody line, sung by soprano Loulie Jean Norman with flute and organ, over an orchestral arrangement. When originally composed (and as heard in "The Cage"), Courage had Norman's vocalizations and the various instruments mixed equally to produce what Courage described as a unique "'what is that that I'm hearing?' sound."

According to Courage, however, Gene Roddenberry had the mix changed to bring up the female vocal, after which Courage felt the theme sounded like a soprano solo. Finally, for the third season it was remixed again, this time emphasizing the organ.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)