Memoria. Lev Theremin

Lev Sergeevich Termen ( -) - Soviet inventor, creator of a family of musical instruments, the most famous of which is the theremin (1920).

Biography

Carier start

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.

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 the State Institute of 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 a 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 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 human voice, as if “grown from distant times and spaces.”

American period

In 1928, Theremin, remaining a Soviet citizen, moved to the United States. Upon his arrival in the United States, he patented the theremin and his security alarm system. He also sold the license for the right to serially produce a simplified version of the theremin to RCA (Radio Corporation of America).

Lev Termen 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.

From 1931 to 1938, Theremin was director of Teletouch Inc. At the same time, he developed alarm systems for the Sing Sing and Alcatraz prisons.

Soon Lev Theremin became a very popular person in New York. George Gershwin, Maurice Ravel, Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein visited his studio. His circle of acquaintances included financial tycoon John Rockefeller, future US President Dwight Eisenhower.

Lev Sergeevich divorced his wife Ekaterina Konstantinova and married Lavinia Williams, a dancer of the first American black ballet.

Repression, work for state security agencies

In 1938, Theremin was recalled to Moscow. He secretly left the United States, having issued a power of attorney to the owner of Teletouch, Bob Zinman, to dispose of his property and manage patent and financial affairs. Theremin wanted to take his wife Lavinia with him to the USSR, but he was told 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.

In Leningrad, Theremin unsuccessfully tried to get a job, then he moved to Moscow, but did not find a job there either.

In March 1939 he was arrested. There are two versions of what charge was brought against him. According to one of them, he was accused of involvement in fascist organization, according to another - in preparation for the murder of Kirov. He was forced to incriminate himself 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. A special meeting of the NKVD of the USSR sentenced Theremin to eight years in the camps, and he was sent to a camp in Kolyma.

At first, Theremin served time in Magadan, working as a foreman of a construction team. Theremin’s 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. Here his assistant was Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, later - famous designer space technology. One of the areas of activity of Theremin and Korolev was the development of unmanned aerial vehicles controlled by radio - prototypes of modern cruise missiles.

One of Theremin’s developments is the Buran listening system, which uses a reflected infrared beam to read glass vibrations in the windows of the room being listened to. 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. [ ]

Not without difficulty, Theremin got a job in a laboratory at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University. In the main building of Moscow State University, he held seminars for those who wanted to listen to his work and study the theremin; Only a few people attended the seminars. Formally, Theremin was listed as a mechanic at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, but in fact continued to work independently Scientific research. Active scientific activity L. S. Termen’s work continued almost until his death.

In 1989, a trip took place (together with her daughter Natalya) to a festival in the city of Bourges (France).

In 1991, together with his daughter Natalya and granddaughter Olga, he visited the United States at the invitation of Stanford University and there, among other things, he met Clara Rockmore.

In March 1991, at the age of 95, he joined the CPSU. When asked why he was joining a collapsing party, Termen replied: “I promised Lenin.”

In 1992, unknown persons destroyed a laboratory room on Lomonosovsky Prospekt (the room was allocated by the Moscow authorities at the request of V.S. Grizodubova), all his instruments were broken, and part of the archives were stolen. The police did not solve the crime.

In 1992, the Theremin Center was created in Moscow, with its main goal being to support musicians and sound artists working in the field of experimental electroacoustic music. Lev Theremin had nothing to do with the creation of the center named after him.

In 1989, a meeting took place in Moscow between two founders of electronic music - Lev Sergeevich Termen and the English musician Brian Eno. The latter then included in his album “Music For Films 3” a composition for theremin, recorded Russian musicians Mikhail Malin and Lydia Kavina.

In 2006, the Perm theater "U Mosta" staged the play "Theremin" based on the play by Czech playwright Petr Zelenka. The performance touches on the most interesting and dramatic period of Theremin’s life - his work in the USA.

Family

• Lavinia Williams - wife in second marriage (no children);
• Maria Gushchina - wife in her third marriage;
• Elena Termen - daughter;

Natalya Termen - daughter;

Olga Termen - granddaughter;

1. Maria Theremin - granddaughter;
2. Pyotr Theremin is a great-grandson.
3. The operating principles underlying the theremin were also used by Theremin when creating a security system that reacts to a person approaching a protected object. The Kremlin and the Hermitage, and later foreign museums, were equipped with such a system. In 1991, at the age of 95, a few months before the collapse of the USSR, Lev Theremin joined the CPSU. He explained his decision by saying that he had once made a promise to Lenin to join the party, and that he wanted to hurry to fulfill his promise while it still existed. To join the CPSU, Lev Sergeevich, at the age of 90, came to the party committee of Moscow State University, where he was told that to join the party he needed to study at the department of Marxism-Leninism for a year, which he did, passing all the exams. Until his death, Lev Theremin was full of energy and even joked that he was immortal. As proof, he offered to read his last name backwards: “Theremin - does not die.” see also Notes
4. BNF ID: Open Data Platform - 2011. SNAC - 2010. Termen Lev Sergeevich // Simon - Heiler. - M.: Soviet encyclopedia : Soviet composer, 1981. - (Encyclopedias. Dictionaries. Reference books: Musical Encyclopedia: [in 6 volumes] / main ed. Yu. V. Keldysh
5. ; 1973-1982, vol. 5). Termen Lev Sergeevich// Musical encyclopedic dictionary / ch. ed. [ ]
6. G. V. Keldysh . - M.: Sov. encyclopedia, 1990. - 672 p. - 150,000 copies - ISBN 5-85270-033-9.
7. Date of birth of Lev Theremin - August 15th Julian calendar 150,000 copies was recalculated according to the Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic, but it was not taken into account that in the 19th century the difference between the calendars was 12 days, not 13. However, it was August 28 that became the official birthday of Lev Theremin.

Zhirnov E.

But the other one will be so deliciously smeared across the canvas of history, across the world map, across the intricacies of everyday life, that such a thing would be enough life experience for a whole dozen people. At the same time, it is absolutely not necessary to have an adventurous character and a round-the-clock readiness for adventure: the role of an individual with a bright destiny may well fall to calm people, armchair scientists, and quiet bores.

Stormy Overture

Lev Theremin plays a musical synthesizer of his own invention (theremin), 1930s.

Levushka Theremin has been exactly like this since childhood. The thoughtful, calm boy learned to read at the age of three and loved this activity most of all. I started studying music at the age of five. And from the age of seven, he became addicted to experiments in his home physics laboratory, which doubled as an engineering workshop. The parents equipped the laboratory especially for Levushka - they could afford to encourage a gifted child. The Theremin family was ancient, of French roots, and managed to advance in Russia. Since the 14th century, the existing Theremin motto sounded like

“No more, no less” and fully reflected the moderation characteristic of the family that chose him. Theremins were rich, but avoided pomp; noble, but did not strive to move in high society. Levushka graduated from a regular metropolitan gymnasium with a silver medal and entered two educational institutions: to the conservatory for cello class and to the physics and mathematics department of the university. He managed to finish the conservatory, but did not succeed in science. The year 1916 began, the war was on, and the twenty-year-old student was drafted into the army.

He was lucky enough not to end up on the German front - by the beginning of the revolution, Lev was still working at the Tsarskoye Selo radio station, where he was sent immediately after graduating from the Nikolaev Military Engineering School. After the Bolsheviks seized power, he, along with the entire staff of the radio station employees, was enlisted in the Red Army, without being particularly interested in political views newly minted Red Army soldiers.

Changes in fate young Leo, like a true scientist, he accepted with praiseworthy calm. However, this did not save him from the attention of the new government, and in 1919 he was arrested as a nobleman, an officer and a possible participant in a possible rebellion. The years of the Red Terror passed, and Lev was quite likely to get a bullet in the back of his head after a minute farce at the revolutionary tribunal, but he was lucky. The death lottery held back Theremin's black ticket, and six months later the bureaucratic-punitive institution spat out its victim on the cobblestones of the St. Petersburg street - more or less free and not quite understanding what, in fact, happened to him.

Having looked around and appreciating the scale of the changes that had taken place in the world, the young technical genius directed his steps in the only direction available to him - to the first physics laboratory he came across. A month after his release, he was already working in the physical and technical department of the Radiological Institute.

Theremin - the wild voice of the era

On instructions from his supervisor, Professor Ioffe, Theremin worked in the laboratory to create a device for studying the properties of gases. According to the conditions of the experiment, the gases were placed in an electric capacitor, and Theremin was interested in the fact that the device began to react when the researcher’s hands approached it - the gases inside the capacitor changed their parameters when the mass approached from the outside. Eventually, Theremin connected a condenser to a microphone and began experimenting with the resulting sounds. They were very unusual; he had never seen anything similar in nature. The resulting hum was simultaneously reminiscent of the howling of the wind, the voice of a person, and the sound of a cello. Theremin was not only a talented physicist, but also an excellent musician. He was able to appreciate the wild beauty of this mechanical sound born of science.

This is how the theremin appeared - the very first musical synthesizer.

Although even before the first theremin (or etheroton, as Theremin first christened his brainchild) was finally modeled, the Radiological Institute had already reported on the creation of a sound signaling apparatus. Theremin led a group of specialists who were tasked with bringing the security system to fruition. Because music is lyrics, but a box that roars when someone approaches it is a politically correct, extremely important thing!

However, the music box was also not deprived of attention. At least in 1921, when Theremin and his invention were sent to the All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress, the general public was delighted and the newspapers did not skimp on praise. The theremin was called “an instrument of the proletariat,” “a device that can make anyone a musician,” and “a musical tractor.” (The word “tractor” did not mean exactly what it means then. To understand how it was perceived soviet man 20s, try to say out loud several times: “Processor for 500 gigs, RAM for 50, wireless, high technology...” Yes, something like this.) And in your iPhone the theremin sounded a ringtone called Sci-fi.

How it works?

The basis of this musical instrument is two electric generators. One of them creates an electrical signal of a constant (or reference) frequency Ch1 - about 100 kHz. The frequency of the signal from the second generator Ch2 can fluctuate depending on whether something affects the antenna protruding from it or not.

Both signals are fed to a frequency converter, which compares their parameters. When the device is quietly collecting dust in the corner, Ch1 is equal to Ch2. The transducer is inactive and the theremin is silent. But if someone passes their hand over the antenna, the parameters of the oscillating circuit of the second generator change. After all, the human body has its own electrical capacity. The hand in this case is a capacitor brought to the antenna. The converter registers the difference between Ch1 and Ch2 and creates a new signal with frequency Ch3 (Ch1 minus Ch2). The Ch3 signal is sent to the amplifier, and then to the speaker. This is how the sound is produced (quite disgusting if a beginner raises his hand).

Most theremins have two antennas. The straight line is responsible for the tone of the sound, the arcuate line is responsible for the volume. To play the instrument you need to have perfect pitch, because hand movements cannot be “adjusted” once you start playing. The device reacts to any movements and immediately shows trembling in the hands or falsehood.

And the leader is red

The invention of the 25-year-old genius so excited the country's public that Lenin personally expressed his desire to meet the scientist. Theremin was an easy-going person. It never occurred to him to screw a box of explosives to the theremin or otherwise hint to the head of the new government that Lev Theremin had not forgotten either about the prison or about the nationalized property of the family. On the contrary, Theremin happily performed several classical works in front of Lenin, and then excitedly controlled the clumsy hands of the leader, who tried to extract something more or less harmonious from the theremin.

Lev Theremin plays the theremin.

Lenin also expressed interest in the everyday reincarnation of the theremin - a sound alarm - and soon after the meeting he sent several letters to various organizations with a proposal to adapt the invention to the needs of the revolution. Ilyich strongly advised Theremin himself to join the party. He promised to think about it.

After this meeting, Theremin remained in reverence for Lenin for the rest of his life. A big shock for the scientist was the information that after the death of the leader, his brain was removed from his skull and placed in a jar of alcohol. Just at that time, Termen became interested in the ideas of freezing living organisms and begged to freeze Ilyich’s body in order to be able to soon resurrect the political genius for the common good. But alcohol killed brain cells, and Theremin perceived this as a fatal fact (after all, they knew almost nothing about genetics and cloning at that time).

When, in his decrepit age, Theremin was asked what particularly struck him about the leader, he answered: “The most unexpected thing for me was that he was bright red. On black and white photographs it’s not visible.”

No, all of me will not die!

It was in the 1920s that Termen began to think deeply about immortality. This atheist, it must be said, treated death without any respect; he considered it physiological nonsense, harmful and unfair. In the depths of his soul he suspected that it would not affect him (however, we all suspect this, don’t we?), but he considered it wise to take measures in advance. Theremin saw a guarantee of immortality in freezing the bodies of the dead until the time when science could restore life to them again. In those years, Lev Sergeevich made his first will, in which he asked to bury himself in permafrost. Even though there are reliable signs that he is not in danger of death (for example, the surname “Theremin” is read backwards as “does not die”), but you never know what can happen!

Theremin began conducting biological experiments with freezing. Unfortunately, he was not a biologist, and this did not end in anything epoch-making. But at the same time, he continued to work at his place of duty and in passing almost invented a television - the first in the world. Or a “far vision system”, according to him own definition. It worked in much the same way as a modern TV, only very, very poorly. The image on the screen was shaking and extremely blurry, but in 1926 Theremin’s “visionary” seemed like a complete miracle. The leadership of the Red Army was the first to put its paw on the invention. Personally, Comrade Voroshilov shook Theremin’s hand for a long time, and then ordered the installation of a “far viewer” in his office.

Defector

Inventor Lev Theremin (left), conductor Sir Henry Wood and scientist Sir Oliver Lodge (right), at a demonstration of broadcast music, at the Savoy Hotel, London, 1927.

In 1927, Theremin was sent to the Frankfurt Music Exhibition to present to the world a Soviet musical innovation - the theremin. The decision to send was made by the leadership of the Red Army intelligence department, and before leaving the scientist, the head of military intelligence, Yan Berzin, personally instructed him. What tasks were set for Theremin? He never talked about it, but, apparently, he was ordered to spy a little - on Russian emigrants or German colleagues. Knowing Theremin’s character, we can suggest that he did not angrily refuse the dubious role of a spy, but chose to quietly and peacefully ignore the assignment, seemingly nodding respectfully to what was located between those ears.

The Frankfurt exhibition turned into a grand tour throughout Europe. Theremin and his fantastic musical apparatus were eager to be seen in Paris, Marseille, London, Berlin, Rome... Any of his concerts was accompanied by a full house, the audience swooned from the “inhuman music of the highest spheres.” Albert Einstein was enormously impressed by his performance in Berlin, and wrote later that he was “really shocked by this sound that came out of space.” The sound that arose from the void in front of the hands making mysterious passes seemed not so much technical progress, as much as a mystical action, communication with the spirits of composers of the past, seance. The image of Theremin began to smell fairly redolent of holiness and charlatanism, and therefore he became one of the most scandalous and desirable heroes. It is not surprising that at one point he began to receive tempting offers from US impresarios, who felt that the Old World seemed to be going to squeeze an extremely interesting thing from them.

This is how Theremin ended up in New York. The Motherland did not express its opinion on this matter. No cries of “Come back, you damn traitor!” did not follow, they sent him regularly Required documents from the Soviet consulate. And just as peacefully, without scandal, the US authorities accepted Theremin’s request for an immigration visa.

O brave new world!

In America, Termen gained even greater fame. The best musicians in the country took lessons in playing the theremin from him. The doors of the most respectable houses were wide open to genius. Manufacturing companies fought desperately for the right to acquire any of his patents. Money poured in like a river, and in a matter of months Theremin found himself: a) a member of the New York millionaires' club; b) director joint stock company; c) the owner of a multi-story building in New York.

Everyone tried to get to know him bright people era. Charlie Chaplin came to visit him. Albert Einstein, who emigrated from Germany, loved to play music with Theremin. Gershwin and Bernard Shaw, Rockefeller and Dwight Eisenhower were proud to know the brilliant Russian. Famous beauties were not at all against his company. The latter especially inspired the young physicist, especially since his wife, Ekaterina Konstantinova, who had arrived from Moscow, suddenly unexpectedly divorced him and married some young German, with whom she left for Germany. (Subsequently, Ekaterina Konstantinova became a member of the National Socialist Party and a convinced fascist - these are the interesting things that happened to people in the distant twentieth century). And then Theremin began to make mistakes - one after another.

Firstly, he turned out to be a very bad businessman: money floated out of his hands at the speed of light.
Secondly, he hurried to sell the patent for theremins to a company that failed to implement them.
Thirdly, he married a mulatto. And in the 30s to marry blacks in America is approximately equivalent as if today you have to publicly speak there about how you despise all the black -haired bastards.

Spy passions

The mulatto was amazingly good. Her name was Lavinia Williams and she was a dancer. Especially for Lavinia, Theremin tried to invent an apparatus that could “extract music from the dancer’s movement.” But the invented “terpsiton” turned out to be a completely helpless accompaniment: he either wheezed, or squeaked, or was silent, no matter what dizzying steps the dark-skinned prima performed. The money was melting away with exceptional speed. Good friends began to communicate with the Theremin spouses in an icy voice. Termen was finally finished off by a series of newspaper publications about how hospitable New Yorkers had harbored a Soviet spy on their breasts. Theremin was accused of being an intelligence agent, collecting information about his high-society friends and prominent scientists.

The stupidest thing about this situation was that Termen actually went to the appearances. All these years, the Soviet consulate regularly contacted him and invited him to “conversations.” He walked obediently. I drank vodka with the “consuls”. It was impossible not to drink: they forced me in a very aggressive manner. Then there were conversations about nothing - about wives, performances, European politics, the successes of the socialist economy and other nonsense. It would have been easier to send consular friends a long time ago, but open confrontation was never in the nature of Lev Sergeevich. Moreover, they always willingly helped him with documents: they divorced him from Katya, married him to Lavinia. In general, no one took away Termen’s Soviet citizenship, and he himself did not refuse. Who knows?

Spy passions-2

So “you never know” has come. Debts were threateningly clicking their teeth, no new income was expected, the American intelligence services began to cut circles around the bush. As if Theremin hasn't done enough for America! Who, for example, installed the latest sound alarms on the most famous US prisons - Sing Sing and Alcatraz?

Secular acquaintances renounced him because of his black wife, scientific ones - because of his reputation as a spy. The only people, who understood him and valued him as they should - these are “our own”. It was in the Soviet consulate that Lev Sergeevich was encouraged, protected and protected during this difficult period. Because they won’t abandon their own. These were approximately the thoughts that tormented the poor genius’s head and tormented him to the point that in 1938, with his own feet, he boarded the ship “Old Bolshevik” and illegally (hidden in the captain’s cabin) went home. Lavinia remained in the USA. The consular guys promised to deliver her to the USSR immediately after the scandal subsided and Lev Sergeevich re-established himself in a flourishing and prettier homeland. Here he will receive the position of director of the Institute of Acoustics, honor and respect in society, and then his wife will fly openly and with dignity - to a happy country where free people live, who don’t care what color their skin is.

Bad memory, good nostalgia and the Soviet press do terrible things to the human brain. The American spy Theremin spent only a few months at large - almost in complete isolation, because “at home” everyone understood well what it was like to communicate with defectors, Americans and traitors. In 1939 he was arrested and received eight years in the camps.

Sharashka

Theremin spent his first year honestly laying the Magadan highway and almost exhausted the survival resource allotted to man. But he was lucky again: he ended up in the famous “Tupolev sharashka” - a special zone for prisoners-scientists, from whom, in return for more or less decent feeding, they were required to advance Soviet science to new horizons. Termen spent the entire war in the sharashka and felt relatively well there after Kolyma. His team performed the most noble work - they designed listening devices for the NKVD: microscopic, camouflaged, for radio beacons, for airplanes, for telephone lines, for embassies, for institutions, for citizens' apartments. All these years, Theremin’s wife attacked the Soviet consulate with a demand to immediately transport her to her beloved husband, but the consulate remained silent. Lavinia became aware of her husband's fate only in the late 50s.

The Bald Eagle Case

In 1947, Lev Theremin was not only released, but was even awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree for a brilliant operation involving the installation of wiretapping in the American embassy. Theremin's team has developed a unique “bug” of a completely new modification. It was a hollow metal cylinder, devoid of any electronic filling, with a membrane and a pin protruding from it. The secret was that when exposed to external electromagnetic field of a suitable frequency, the cavity of the cylinder came into resonance with it and the radio wave was re-radiated back through the pin antenna. The “bug” was built into the American coat of arms, made of valuable wood. During his visit to Yalta, the American ambassador was presented with the coat of arms by the Artek pioneers. The ambassador was touched and hung it in his office. The “bug” functioned properly for almost 20 years, informing authorities about literally every word spoken in the ambassador’s reception area.

One more life

After his release, Lev Theremin remained in the sharashka, already a civilian employee, because there was absolutely nowhere to go. Then he was given a two-room apartment. Theremin married a young lady, and they had two daughters. In 1956, Theremin was completely rehabilitated, and for almost forty years he continued to do what he loved - inventing. True, he no longer made great discoveries and ingenious inventions, such as the theremin, far-vision or sound signaling. To work, Theremin required serious subsidies, laboratories and qualified assistants, but he was assigned to manage small objects, insignificant for a figure of such a scale. But he didn’t want to return to the KGB laboratory. I managed to explain why in one of my last interviews. “All sorts of nonsense took up time from my inventive work. Allegedly, in the West they came up with devices to determine where flying saucers are, and in order to find out who launches them and why, we also had to work on similar devices. Then - supposedly the Americans created equipment for transmitting mental energy (and aggressive energy) over long distances - and fight again! I understood that this was a scam, and I couldn’t refuse. And one day I decided that it was better not to do this, but to retire. I left in 1966.” At the end of the 80s, for some reason, the outside world remembered Theremin again: several articles dedicated to him were published in the West, where he was called a KGB agent, informant and informer. Almost at the same time, Theremin received invitations from France and the USA to visit places of “military glory” - to give a series of Theremin concerts where he played 60 years ago. Her daughter, one of several dozen professional theremin players in the world, undertook to accompany her father on this tour.

In 1991, Lev Sergeevich suddenly remembered Lenin and regretted that he had disappointed his hopes - he had not joined the party. Theremin decided to make amends to the leader and managed to become a member of the CPSU - exactly a few months before its closure.

And in 1993, the scientist died, having lived a whole century without three years. And not just any century, but that same century, the twentieth, the living embodiment of which Lev Theremin happened to become. Although, strictly speaking, he didn’t really ask for it, but simply obediently went where the tenacious paws of fate dragged him. Journalist and writer Elena Petrushanskaya, who managed to interview Termen several times in last years his life, says that he himself was aware of this humility: “Life, no matter how long it lasts, must be lived with dignity to the end. It seems that Theremin did not succeed.

Tim Blake of Hawkwind performing in London in February 2014

Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" (single, 1966).
Led Zeppelin “Whole Lotta Love” (concert film/soundtrack “The Song Remains The Same”, 1976).
Pixies "Velouria" (Bossanova, 1990).
Aquarium “Under the bridge, like Chkalov” (“Territory”, 2000).

Films: Spellbound (1945), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Ed Wood (1994), Hellboy: Hero from Hell (2004).

He also developed the Alcatraz security system, a listening device and many other amazing things; on his own wave he returned from America to end up in the camps and, right during his imprisonment, came up with drones. We tell you who Lev Theremin is and why this man is a real phenomenon of the 20th century.

In one of the fragments of “Theory big bang» Sheldon Cooper plays the theremin. He moves his hands near the instrument, and it, in turn, makes amazing sounds (video at the end of the article). Few people know that this instrument, the first in the world of electronic music, was invented by a Russian scientist with French roots, Lev Theremin.

Theremin and theremin

Back in the twenties of the last century, he presented his invention to Lenin, playing “The Swan” by Saint-Saëns on the theremin. In response, the admiring founder of the revolution asked him to teach him how to play an outlandish instrument. Soon Ilyich was famously performing Glinka’s “Lark”. Then there was fame, tours with a symphony orchestra, laudatory odes in the newspapers.

The father of the first synthesizer, Robert Muth, once said that Lev Theremin did for music what the Wright brothers did for aviation.

Theremin and television

More precisely, far-sightedness. In 1926, the scientist, along with the permanent concert activities, discovered a way to wirelessly transmit images over a distance. Actually, this was television. His name appeared in the press next to Edison’s, but then disappeared from the newspaper pages, and after that it was never included in any textbook.

One of the first scientists to develop the idea of ​​​​creating television

And in general, regular television broadcasting in the Soviet Union started only in 1936. The reason, perhaps, was one incident that happened to a scientist: Theremin was invited to the carpet in the Kremlin, he pointed the lens of his device out the window, demonstrating far-sightedness, and Stalin appeared on the screen.

The big people jumped up together, screamed, got scared, and decided to classify far-sightedness, ban it, forget it and erase it from memory like a terrible nightmare, and send the scientist himself on tour to hell.

Theremin and abroad

First he traveled all over Europe. The work of Lev Theremin was admired greatest minds last century, including Einstein himself. He was called a real phenomenon of the twentieth century. Then there was a business trip to America, which dragged on for a good ten years. During this time, the scientist bought a Cadillac, created own company for the production of electronic alarms and developed a security system for the famous Alcatraz and Sing Sing prisons.

Lev Theremin created a special instrument for his dancer wife

He rented a six-story mansion. Opened there music studio, laboratories, workshops and a school for learning to play the theremin. The latter was already launched into mass production by the American music company.

His friends included George Gershwin, Maurice Ravel, Charlie Chaplin and the future President of the United States Dwight Eisenhower.

Lavinia Williams, 1961

In America, Termen first started an affair, and then stamped the passport of the dark-skinned beautiful dancer Lavinia Williams and invented terpsiton for her.

The essence of the instrument was as follows: a metal sheet was placed on the floor, and it worked as an antenna. The music appeared on its own during the dance from the movement. Isadora Duncan also danced on the terpsiton.

Lev Theremin and his inventions: camps, Buran and drones

Then Theremin was called back to Moscow and, of course, sent to Kolyma for eight years. The management felt that he had seen too much abroad. And he would have died if he had not come up with new rails for the wheelbarrow, with the help of which the crew at the quarry exceeded the quota several times.

US Ambassador to the UN Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (left) displays a panel with Theremin's listening device inside, 1960

There, in the camps, together with Korolev and Tupolev (they were sitting in the same sharashka), Lev Sergeevich designed radio-controlled drones and the Buran. The latter was the first listening device in history that did not require a power source.

In 1945, “Buran” was embedded in the image of the US seal and presented to the ambassador as a sign of friendship. After which, Soviet intelligence listened to Americans' conversations at the Moscow embassy for seven (!) years.

Obviously, it was for this that Termen became a laureate in 1947 Stalin Prize first degree, while still being a prisoner of the camp.

Soviet endovibrator inside a copy of the Great Seal of the United States, National Museum cryptography at the US National Security Agency

And finally, Theremin and immortality

The scientist, who died in 1993 at the age of 97 in complete poverty and oblivion, thought about the “Makropoulos remedy” even after the death of the leader of the world proletariat. Theremin repeatedly suggested freezing Ilyich and then bringing him back to life. In the 80s, the scientist returned to his idea of ​​immortality, which is quite natural.

Only he failed to bring his theory of immortality to life.

He came up with the theory of "time microscopy". Its essence was that with age, a person’s red blood cells age. You just need to learn to separate them from the young ones. But geniuses, as you know, also make mistakes...

And finally, that same episode of “The Big Bang Theory” and Sheldon Cooper on the theremin:

Creator of the world's first electronic musical instrument, the theremin (1919-20); one of the first long-range television 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.

TERMEN Lev Sergeevich (1896-1993) - inventor, physicist, musician.

Quote: Creator of the world's first electronic musical instrument, the theremin (1919-20); one of the first long-range television 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.

Born in 1896 in St. Petersburg. He graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in cello and studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University.

Since 1919 - head of the laboratory of the Physico-Technical Institute in Petrograd, at the same time since 1923. - collaborated with GIMN (State Institute of Music Science, Moscow).

In 1927, he was sent by the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR on a foreign business trip. He traveled all over Europe, was one of the most popular people in New York, and was part of the millionaires' club. In 1931-38 - Director of the joint stock company Teletouch Inc. (USA). Such outstanding people of their time as emigrant Albert Einstein, conductor Leopold Stokowski, actor Charlie Chaplin, artist Marie Hélène Bute, etc. visited and worked in his New York studio. and so on. His inventions, made in the 20-40s, have firmly entered our everyday life.

At the end of 1938 he returned to the USSR. Arrested in 1939 and sentenced to 8 years in the camps. He spends a year in Kolyma, but most of the time in the legendary Tupolev sharashka. After his release, he worked at the KGB research center, developing various electronic systems.

Since 1963 - employee of the acoustic laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory. In the late 60s, due to disagreements with the administration after the publication of an article about Theremin in the American newspaper The New York Times, Lev Sergeevich was expelled from the conservatory with a scandal, and he was forced to go to work at Moscow State University.

Since 1966 - employee of the Department of Acoustics, Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University.

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 Theremin died in 93 in poverty and obscurity, hounded by his neighbors in a communal apartment. The legendary Theremin...

His most widely known invention is the theremin, which Lenin liked. 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 oscillatory circuit and, as a result, the frequency of the sound changes.

The vertical straight antenna is responsible for the tone of the sound, the horizontal horseshoe-shaped antenna is responsible for its volume.

To play the theremin, you must have perfect pitch, since the musician does not touch the instrument while playing.

But not only the theremin...

He invented:

1. Group of electric musical instruments:

-– theremin

-– rhythmikon

-– terpsiton

2. Security alarm

3. Unique eavesdropping system “Buran”

4. The world's first television installation - far-sightedness

worked on:

-– speech recognition system

- human freezing technology

- military sonar.

Already in 26, he demonstrated television in the Kremlin.

At that time, televisions were created with screens the size of a matchbox, and his television had a huge screen (1.5 x 1.5 m) and a resolution of 100 lines.

In 1927, the scientist demonstrated his installation to Soviet military leaders K.E. Voroshilov, I.V. Tukhachevsky and SM. Budyonny:

State minds watched in horror on the screen Stalin walking through the Kremlin courtyard.

This picture frightened them so much that the invention was immediately classified... and safely buried in the archives, and television was soon invented by the Americans.

Theremin amazed the world scientific community with his theremin, on which he himself (and in addition to physics, he also graduated from the conservatory) gave concerts of classical music.

The USSR received orders from several companies for the production of 2000 theremins with the condition that Theremin would come to America to supervise the work.

But instead of one task, Lev Sergeevich received two: one from the People’s Commissar of Education Lunacharsky and the second from the military department.

Quote:

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 the pitch of the sound, the frequency of the strobe flashes and the patterns changed - the spectacle was impressive. Well, the fantasy began when the walls of the studio 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 Teletouch Corporation brought huge amounts of money to Theremin personally and to Soviet Russia. And others claim that Theremin was financed by military intelligence. Because the true purpose of his business trip to America was espionage activity.

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 carried away 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 dissatisfaction with 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.

The “Great Depression” that broke out at the turn of the 1930s ruined many.

But not Theremin: the inventive scientist had one more trump card - a security alarm.

Theremin sensors were torn off by hand. They were even installed in Sing Sing prison and Fort Knox, where the American gold reserves were kept.

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.

By the mid-30s, Theremin was included in the list of twenty-five celebrities in the world and was a member of the millionaires' club.

During the concert, he became interested in Lavinia Williams and married her. Alas, she was dark-skinned, and at that time such a marriage was considered indecent.

The racists of America closed the doors of their salons in front of him...

Political correctness had not yet been invented.

Perhaps the love of the beautiful Lavinia was more valuable to Theremin than communication with the Rockefellers. But…

In addition to concerts and contracts for the theremin, he also carried out that very second task: he was engaged in espionage in favor of the USSR.

His marriage to a mulatto deprived him of informants. And this angered Soviet intelligence.

He was urgently summoned to the USSR, and Lavinia was supposed to come after him.

When they came for him, she got the impression that he was taken away by force, but who would listen to her.

They never saw each other again.

Never.

In Moscow he was arrested as a “defector”, and after a month of skillful processing by socialist legality at Lubyanka, Lev Termen confessed everything.

For example, in the fact that, together with a group of astronomers, he planned the murder of Kirov.

The version was like this:

Kirov (who by that time was already long dead!) was going to visit the Pulkovo Observatory.

Astronomers planted a landmine in a Foucault pendulum.

And Theremin, with 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.

In the camp, he immediately invented a self-propelled car on a monorail, and he was soon taken to Tupolev’s so-called “sharashka,” where he had Sergei Pavlovich Korolev as his assistant.

The war began and he developed radio control equipment for unmanned aircraft and radio beacons for naval operations.

But not only. Termen also developed the famous “Buran” eavesdropping system in this sharashka.

They say it is still in use.

The crowning achievement of this creation was a wooden panel that was given to the American ambassador by Soviet pioneers.

The panel was hung in the ambassador's office, and... soon they began to look for where the colossal information leak was coming from.

Only seven (!) years later, a cylinder with a membrane was discovered in this panel.

For another year and a half, American intelligence engineers struggled with the riddle - what is it?..

But it turned out that a beam was directed from the house opposite to the office window, and the membrane, oscillating in time with the speech, reflected it back.

Along with the speech, which was recorded.

Subsequently, Theremin further improved the invention: it was possible to do without even a membrane; its role was played by window glass.

The Soviet authorities were so delighted with this useful invention that they awarded Termen the Stalin Prize, 1st degree, right in prison.

And then they even released him, which was simply an outstanding act of humanism and triumph of socialist legality, so dear to some.

And they even made him happy with two rooms of that same “free living space.”

Well, who wouldn’t agree that Lev Theremin was given two rooms for free? Of course, he was literally gifted. Has he earned enough for this country to earn two little rooms?

In the 60s, L. Theremin again wanted to take up electronic music, but some party and KGB mug simply spat in his eyes, pointing out that “electricity exists to execute traitors, and not to create music.”

These were the thinkers who decided the fate of science in the country in general and the brilliant inventor Theremin in particular.

Of course, he remained strictly classified and continued to work for intelligence, because they would not hire him anywhere else.

At first he was engaged in military hydroacoustics, and then he was tasked with developing a “device for searching for flying saucers.”

Such idiocy did not inspire him at all, and in 64 he finally left the organs and began to quietly and peacefully work in the acoustic laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory.

Yes, it would have worked like that if the New York Times correspondent had not felt the urge to make a report about the conservatory.

And there the correspondent came across Lev Theremin. The whole world was sure that he died in 1938, ground into the meat grinder of millions of repressions.

When the USA found out that the great Theremin was alive, it was a bomb. Sensation. Akhtung. Paragraph.

The scientific community of America and Europe literally roared.

An avalanche of letters from scientists and colleagues poured into Theremin; reporters and television companies flocked to him...

He was invited to Stanford, to Paris, to Holland, to Sweden...

The leadership of the conservatory was so afraid of all this that...

Theremin was simply fired, and his equipment and developments were thrown into the trash.

And he developed a synthesizer, which was soon successfully developed by the Japanese Yamaha, earning millions and millions from it...

And for the next 25 years, the great scientist, probably not inferior in talent to Leonardo himself, the legendary inventor, whom Lenin praised and Einstein respected, worked as a 6th category mechanic in some run-of-the-mill laboratory.

Lived with family in two-room apartment, probably watched TV - which he was not allowed to invent - and on TV concerts of rock stars on Yamaha synthesizers.

The daughters grew up, started their own families, and five of them lived in a small two-room apartment on Leninsky Prospekt -

L. S. Termen, daughter Natalya with her husband and two children.

With great difficulty, he managed to get another room in a bedbug communal apartment, where his neighbors hounded him.”

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!

When in 1991 a Hamburg theater decided to use a theremin, it turned out that practically the only performer in Europe was Lydia Kavina. Over the past years, the situation has changed a lot: playing the theremin is taught in universities, and in different countries festivals are held around the world.

October 10, 2004. Jean-Michel Jarre organizes another phantasmagoria in the Forbidden City in Beijing.

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.

Private bussiness

Lev Sergeevich Termen (1896 - 1993) born in St. Petersburg into a noble family. His father, Sergei Emilievich Termen, was a famous lawyer, his mother Evgenia Antonovna was engaged in painting and music..

Since childhood, the boy was interested in technology, was fond of mathematics, physics, and carried out experiments. His parents organized a laboratory at home especially for him, in which something was always exploding, and at the dacha there was a small observatory. In 1914, Lev graduated from the St. Petersburg First Men's Gymnasium with a silver medal and entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University. At the same time, he studied cello at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, graduating in 1916.

In 1916, right from his second year at university, Theremin was drafted into the army and sent for accelerated training to the Nikolaev Engineering School, and then to officer electrical courses. When the revolution began, he served as a junior officer in the reserve electrical battalion, which served the most powerful radio station in the country, the Tsarskoye Selo radio station near Petrograd.

After establishing Soviet power At first he continued to work at the same radio station, and later was sent to Moscow to a military radio laboratory.