All I want for Christmas...

... is a theremin.

the idea that this is an electronic instrument the playing of which does not include direct (tactile) contact AND the fact that two major theremin virtuosos - clara rockmore & lydia kavina - were/are women...almost makes me want to write an essay about it. at the moment I'm just numbly fascinated tho.

in a way theremin sounds very "analogue", to an untrained ear maybe even like a wind instrument (and dolar has written about wind instruments and women! - p. 45-46 in "A Voice..."). at the same time as it is electronic it is eerie. familiar and yet so strange. becomes even stranger when you actually see how it is played.

I think of a woman's hands. or lap. electronic instruments and women do not really go together. even in 2010, it is rather joanna newsom or smth like this that comes to mind when thinking of a girl and her instrument. cliche but - it is all about the gentle touch, the organic voice. and on the other end of the scale we have kraftwerk, man-machines, vocoders and synths.

but I'd say that THIS is somewhere IN BETWEEN:





handsfree,
maria