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American Morning

Look at Unique Instrument Called Theramin

Aired April 04, 2002 - 08:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, some people play the piano. Other people play the violin. Some play the theramin. Yes, Virginia, the theramin. What's a theramin, you ask?

CNN's Jeanne Moos attended a concert where both the performer and the instrument listened to a drum with a different beat.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Take the only instrument you ever touched, put it in the hands of a performance artist in drag, and you'll discover the theramin's no drag -- from "Fly Me to the Moon" to a Chopin nocturne.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like playing an invisible harp.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's magic. It is the music of the spheres, music of the ether.

MOOS: Steve Martin is hooked. He made the documentary "Theramin, an Electronic Odyssey." It was invented by a Russian physicist Leon Theramin around 1917. A woman said to be Dr. Theramin's one-time lover became its greatest virtuoso, Claire Rockmore.

Decades later at a hip Tuesday night performance series at New York's Gershwin Hotel, the lighting wasn't the only visual treat. Arman Rah (ph) kept making costume changes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I always say the theramin is the voice that I never had, my Callus (ph) machine.

MOOS: As in Maria Callus. The musician interacts with the theramin's electromagnetic force emanating from two antennas.

(on camera): So this is the volume. And what's that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the pitch.

MOOS (voice-over): The pitch of the performance changed dramatically when a transsexual known at Amanda Lapoor took the stage. A strap on her dress gave way as she performed "Balun Burlesque." She made a dog, and then walked it, and sort of made the theramin seem quaint. That's the theme song from the old "Laverne and Shirley" sitcom.

Maybe you've noticed the theramin in old sci-fi movies, such as "The Day the Earth Stood Still." And then there was "The Lost Weekend." The Theramin comes in every time Ray Milan (ph) gives way to his alcohol urges.

Lately, Arman Rah has felt the urge to play the patriotic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Arman's performances are beyond. They're so spectacular.

MOOS: Out of this world, you could say. After only a little more than a year of practice...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's safe to say there's sort of a new queen of the theramin.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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