cool instruments, pt. 1

So I TOTALLY did not catch this at the concert, but there is a theremin solo two minutes into “The Boxer”!! How did that get there? “Hey Artie, you know what would sound great in this instrumental break…?” Haha, I love how S&G always add subtle (and apparently not-so-subtle) changes when they play live:

The theremin is fascinating to me. We talked about it a lot in film class, because it’s always associated with the strange or mentally unstable (Spellbound, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)…even though its most famous player Clara Rockmore hated that connotation and used it solely for classical pieces. By the way, if you’ve never seen a theremin being played before, definitely watch the Clara Rockmore video, it’s insane. The player never touches the instrument, but instead moves his or her hands in relation to two antennae which generate pitch and volume. It’s wicked cool.