It’s the instrument that was the first real electronic music product. And it’s the reason we even know the name Bob Moog – as it inspired Moog to go into electronics and the sale of electronic musical instruments.
So, when the Theremin is the subject of a video by Bob Moog himself, it’s a big deal. You’ll have to settle for early-90s video quality, but you’ll be treated to the dulcet tones of Dr. Moog’s New York baritone narration of Theremin history, followed by an enchanting and pretty-darn-technically-good performance on the Russian electronic invention.
Thanks to Chris Stack and experimentalsynth for sending this along. Chris writes:
Many years before going to work for Moog Music as marketing manager I was a printed circuit board designer. I met Bob Moog in Asheville and wound up doing the PCB design work on his Multi-Touch Keyboard project. Around this time, Bob hosted a presentation called “New Vistas 91”, a look at some then current happenings in avant garde electronic music.
Bob was gracious enough to let me record the presentation on my then new Video 8 camera. The tape was lost for decades, but recently found and digitized. Unfortunately the audio and video quality is not great, but I feel this is very interesting from a historical perspective, and I offer it as such.
Enjoy,
Chris Stack
That PCB itself is an interesting story, but I’ll save that – and some of what Chris is up to musically – for another day.
Here via the Moog Foundation (and Moog Music) are early and later images of Dr. Moog at the instrument that changed not just history, but his history.
