I saw this concert last week and was blown away.
The Australian Chamber Orchestra is my favourite orchestra
It got me thinking all about the technology which is over100 years old.
It was invented by Léon Theremin (born Lev Sergeyevich Termen), a Russian physicist and inventor in 1920.
It was never meant to be a musical instrument.
Leon was working on proximity sensors for the Soviet government.
The theremin is unique in that it is played without physical contact. It has two metal antennas:
One controls pitch (vertical antenna – right hand).
The other controls volume (horizontal loop – left hand).
The musician moves their hands in the electromagnetic fields surrounding these antennas to control sound.
The human body is acting like a big capacitor sucking energy literally through the air to ground.
It today's world the transmission of energy wirelessly is a obvious application.
You may have wondered how a phone can be charged wirelessly.
Both technologies are based on electromagnetic fields and inductive or capacitive coupling, and both involve the transmission of energy or information without physical contact.
The theremin works by creating electromagnetic fields around its two antennas.
When a player moves their hands near the antennas, it changes the capacitance in the circuit.
This alters the frequency of an oscillator, which is converted into an audible sound.
Wireless charging (like Qi chargers or inductive pads) uses electromagnetic induction to transfer energy between two coils:
A transmitting coil in the charger creates a magnetic field.
A receiving coil in the device picks up that field and converts it into electricity.
Carolina Eyck used a D-Lev theremin at the performance I attended in Wollongong.
She began the performance using a Moog Etherwave Pro theremin but mid way technical issues forced
her to swap to the D-lev.
I had never heard about this model.
It turns out that it's bespoke and the schematics are on the net.
The D-lev was designed by Eric Wallin
