The Theremin, invented in the 1920′s by Russian physicist Léon Thermin, has all too often been relegated to producing creepy sounds for 1950′s sci-fi flicks or making horrible noise to augment the music of 90′s hipster bands. This is due in part to the obscurity of the instrument, it’s interesting electronic sound, and the fact that the player never actually touches the Theremin, instead moving their hands in the proximity of its antennas to vary the pitch and volume. Because of its novelty, few people have taken the time to actually practice on it and learn to play it as the musical instrument it is.
Clara Rockmore worked with Léon Thermin and toured the world playing this incredible instrument. Arguably the greatest thereminist who ever lived, she played for over 50 years until her death in 1998 at age 87.
Early in the video, she’s interviewed while having dinner with synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog, whose company manufactures theremins. Late in the clip, she plays another song. She’s so good, you’d swear she’s playing a cello, but it’s actually a series of capacitors and oscillators.
About 10 years ago, I heard an interview with Bob Moog on NPR about the theremin. I started researching it and eventually obsessing over owning and playing one. When I started to dream I was playing one, I knew it was time for action. One of the two electronic instrument dealers in LA who actually stocked Big Briar theremins was, strangely enough, half a block from my office. Imagine dreaming of buying a theremin for months, only to find out a dozen were sitting on a shelf a few hundred feet away from my desk. The place was off a back alley in North Hollywood, and I picked one up on my lunch hour. I don’t know if that place is still there. Maybe it was never there. More about my theremin experience in a later post (if anyone is interested).
CalArts was founded by Walt and Roy Disney in 1961 with the merger of the LA Conservatory of Music and the Chouinard Art Institute. Classes weren’t offered until 1970, and the current location in Valencia didn’t open until 1971, so the vision set forth in this mid-60′s film was pretty much just that.
But the quality of the film and the vibrancy of the color is stunning. There are gorgeous renderings of the future Music Center downtown, as well as a LACMA that didn’t materialize as shown. And a huge modern film museum across from the Hollywood Bowl that also didn’t happen, though the site currently houses the Hollywood Heritage Museum‘s Lasky-Demille Barn.
The most shocking revelation are the renderings of the proposed campus perched high above Hollywood in the Cahuenga Pass between the 101 and Lake Hollywood. When I checked Google Earth, the ridge today is still mostly open space, save for one tiny feature: the beautiful and historic Ford Amphitheater. Now how could the city allow a venerable landmark to be destroyed to build a school? Oh right.
First in my series of virtuosos who mastered obscure instruments is Emmett Chapman.
This clip not only includes incredibly expressive playing of a then newly-invented instrument, but also illustrates the wit and sophistication of one of my favorite game shows: What’s My Line (the Larry Blyden daytime syndicated version).
Chapman created the Stick in the 60′s and started manufacturing and selling them in 1974. Because the strings are tapped, not strummed, one can play two separate lines and chords, like a piano, but with the sound and style of an electric guitar (or two). He’s based in LA and still makes them.
More grim employment news for the San Gabriel Valley reported in the Pasadena Star News. The unemployment rate held virtually steady at 12.2% countywide. And the small, affluent town of Bradbury seven miles east of Pasadena has no one on the unemployment rolls and is still facing a rate of 7.3%.
The Milestone Theatre Company is mounting a production of The Laramie Project to benefit the LGBT community in Pasadena. Tickets are $25 with proceeds going to the AIDS Service Center and PFLAG of Pasadena. The Laramie Project follows the true experiences of the actors in the Tectonic Theatre Project as they interview the residents of Laramie, Wyoming in the aftermath of gay college student Matthew Shepard’s brutal murder. The show runs July 23rd to August 1st at the Church of Truth in Pasadena. To buy tickets, visit the www.milestonetheatre.org or www.plays411.net.
On Bunker Hill has unearthed a trove of newly found photos of the once opulent, formerly run down, then gone area of downtown. In addition to being so detailed and vivid so as to look like they were taken only 10 years ago instead of 50, the snapshots have the distinction of having been taken by a former vaudeville star and originally in 3D.
On Bunker Hill writes of the area:
Bunker Hill is a ghost, and though you may today walk streets named Grand and Hope and imagine that you stand where once were grand Victorian homes turned flophouses, you are in fact one hundred feet beneath the old roads, which the city shaved away to make a wider footprint for the high rise tenants that replaced them.
Look up, ten stories up, and if you’re a dreamer you can almost see the big houses bobbing there between the towers, old men and women toddling out onto the porches and down the avenues, exchanging gossip, feeding the cats, collapsing under some junkie’s fists, boarding Sinai or Olivet for the ride down to Grand Central Market, pruning the roses. . .
Last night marked two sad milestones in the Pasadena Symphony’s 82-year history and shows that the wrenching changes undergoing arts organizations in the Pasadena area (indeed everywhere), especially the Symphony, are still playing out.
The performance was the last for the Symphony to play at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium before moving to its new home at the Ambassador Auditorium on the former Ambassador College campus west of Old Town. The Ambassador has the reputation of being “acoustically perfect” and is about half the size of the Pasadena Civic, which will certainly mean fewer empty seats at concerts (and there are a LOT of empty seats these days). To me, though, it seems that a city-sponsored orchestra should perform in the city-owned venue, especially when it’s gorgeous, and right in the middle of a civic and commercial center. It doesn’t seem right that they should move to a private church that’s isolated on an empty campus blocks away from anything.
The performance was also the last for longtime music director Jorge Mester. After 25 years at the helm, contract negotiations fell through over a pay cut and he and the orchestra parted ways. This news hit the day before the last performance of the season and I think came as a surprise to many. The Pasadena Symphony and the Pasadena POPS have been in dire fiscal straits and merged a few years ago to help keep the organizations afloat. The “Recovery Plan for a Sustainable Future” unveiled last year included a 10% cut for Mester, among others, but apparently recent negotiations were unsuccessful. I hope this shift in key artistic personnel doesn’t damage the orchestra more than the $200,000 budget deficit already is.
Of course, all of those places are actually at the same location: Pasadena City Hall. And thanks to the city’s Public Information Officer Ann Erdman, we got an up-close VIP tour, along with several new-found friends in the Pasadena blogosphere. Let’s go inside.
Ann tells the storied tale of Pasadena’s history and the architectural significance of the building.
Some of the rich architectural details, including the Pasadena seal of a crown and key (a compromise stemming from a disagreement among the city’s founders as to whether “Pasadena” meant “Crown of the Valley” or “Key of the Valley” in Chippewa). There are also bands of fruit symbolizing abundance, lions representing strength, and the strange face of a man with a walrus mustache.
Pasadena’s newest city council members. Kevin thinks it’s a wonder that the City Council can stay awake during meetings, knowing first hand how comfy their leather chairs are.
Thanks, Ann, for a great afternoon!
By the way, Rumor Has It is set in Pasadena and includes a veritable tour of Pasadena’s landmarks. But in no way is it worth watching. I recommend the original Graduate instead.
