Theremin and Back Again

The musical world suffered a tragic loss this past weekend, as pioneering engineer Bob Moog died of brain cancer Sunday at the age of 71 at his home in Asheville, NC. Moog is best known for his invention of the first analog synthesizers to find common use by professional musicians. Moog instruments have found their way into everything from psychedelic rock to art music, and many of the earlier examples of Moog’s instruments have in recent years become collector’s items. In the 1980s, as digital synthesizers began to supplant their analog counterparts, Moog’s production slowed, but many musicians have since come again to value the unique feel of the analog units.

My first up-close experience with a Moog-style analog synthesizer came when I was in high school, working a low-budget light-design gig with a close friend of mine. One of the acts in the evening of puppetry featured musical accompaniment by a fellow in his early twenties tweaking the dials on a four-octave keyboard—probably a MiniMoog, in retrospect—that looked to my untrained eyes like a reject from Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory. It was a stubby thing, not at all elegant, but the sounds it produced were something from another world. As a child of the 1980s, I was no stranger to electronically-produced sounds in music, but this was something totally new to me. I was surprised not only by its unique warmth but also by its astounding flexibility and expressive range. Hearing it employed as a solo instrument was a musical experience that I’ll never forget.

It wasn’t until recently that I learned that Moog was a theremin enthusiast, a fact that I should have surmised long ago by the sound of his synthesizers. Invented in 1919 by a Russian engineer, Lev Sergeivitch Termen, the theremin was the first real electronic musical instrument—Termen developed it while researching proximity sensors. The instrument itself is controlled by variances in the proximity of the player to the instrument’s two metal antennae, with one hand typically controlling pitch and one controlling dynamics. This, of course, makes the theremin somewhat unique—the player at no time actually touches the instrument. The sounds that result can be eerie, almost like a supernatural performance on a musical saw.

Initially, Moog’s instrument manufacturing company specialized in the theremin, but Moog took Termen’s idea one step further by creating synthesizer modules that allowed the player to manipulate the shapes of the soundwaves in addition to their length and amplitude. He started with single-effect modular synthesizers that were controlled by a central keyboard, and eventually moved on to integrated units like the MiniMoog I saw as a wide-eyed teenager. Now, Moog Music not only makes synthesizers but is also the industry standard in theremin manufacturing. Moog’s influence is pervasive in modern music—everyone has heard his sounds, but very few people know what went into creating them.

Music lovers will certainly miss Bob Moog and his “magical connection” to musicians and music-making. I can only hope that his unfortunate passing will reignite an appreciation for the electronic music on which he had such a profound effect.