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Free Music Notes for The Art Of The ThereminFree Music Review: HYPNOTIZING!!! Hit: 5 Stars
A remarkable disc featuring the eerie and hypnotizing oscillations of the world's first electronic instrument. Stunning!
Free Music Review: Hypnotically Beautiful Hit: 4 Stars
Classical music, and specifically Theremin music, is not normally my favored listening. But I took a chance on this disc and am very glad I did. Clara Rockmore's mastery of her instrument is astonishing. The music is tastefully chosen and very beautiful. She often mimics violin or human voice in her phrasing, but subtly gives the theremin its own voice and proves its suitability for classical.
I knocked a star off for the lack of arrangement-diversity, but I have to admit that I usually listen to this disc from start to end. Its lyrical qualities are very transfixing and hypnotic. A welcome diversification to my music collection!
Free Music Review: beyond halloween Hit: 4 Stars
I love theramin music but there are very few CDs featuring this amazing but hard to play instrument. This CD does not dissappoint. The theremin sounds much like a human voice, but with a slightly creepy edge. I will be playing this CD for many years to come.
Free Music Review: Mysterious, magical, and a little bit maudlin Hit: 3 Stars
I recently went through a theremin phase after seeing the documetary "Theremin: An Electronic Oddysey" which featured Clara Rockmore prominently. That led me to buy this recording, which seems to be the traditional standard of classical theremin artistry. The story around the instrument is even more bizzare than the music it makes: spooky Cold-War intrigue, sudden disappearances in New York and the USSR, spy gadgets, dead men found alive, old friends reuniting after decades of separation and obscurity... it all fits the eerie ethos of the music. So to really "get" the instrument, you need to know the story behind it. That's the maudlin part.
While the rest of my family violently disagrees, this is indeed lovely music. A careful listening to Mrs. Rockmore's technique reveals, I think, that she's fascinatingly far beyond waving her hands up and down in front of antennas. She makes glissandos and runs happen with discrete pitches in a way that is hard for me to picture on an instrument that can generate any pitch, and every pitch in between. She developed a way to "finger" an instrument you don't touch. That's why it's magical.
A note on the recording: the timbre of the theremin seems to land in a resonant frequency range on most systems/speakers on which I have listened to this recording, leading to the solo instrument badly overbalancing the piano accompaniment.
PS: I have given on someday owning a theremin. Phase over.
More Free Music Notes: 1 2 3 4
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