Clara Rockmore
Encyclopedia
Clara Rockmore was a virtuoso
performer of the theremin
, an electronic musical instrument
.
and entered the Imperial conservatory of Saint Petersburg
at the age of five. She studied violin under the virtuoso Leopold Auer
, and remains to this day the youngest student ever to be admitted to the institution. Unfortunately, bone problems due to childhood malnutrition forced her to abandon violin performance past her teen years. That however led her to discover the newborn electronic instrument and become the most renowned player of the theremin
.
Rockmore had several gifts that enabled her to play the theremin so well. Her classical training gave her an advantage over the many theremin performers who lacked this background. She possessed absolute pitch
from birth, helpful in playing an instrument that generates tones of any pitch throughout its range, not just those those defined by equal temperament
. She had extremely precise, rapid control of her movements, important in playing an instrument that depends on the performer's motion and proximity rather than touch. She also had the advantage of working directly with Léon Theremin
from the early days of the instrument's commercial development in the United States.
Rockmore, as the mature musician she was, saw the limitations of the original instrument and helped to develop the instrument to fulfill her needs, making several suggestions to improve the theremin as a performing instrument. Such suggestions, like a faster volume antenna, wider musical range, and control over the instrument's tone color were incorporated by the inventor in later versions. She had a special theremin tailored by Léon Theremin himself to meet her unique requirements.
She developed a whole technique for playing the instrument, including a fingering system, which allowed her to perform accurately fast passages and large note leaps without the much known portamento
on theremin.
Her older sister was the concert pianist Nadia Reisenberg
. Although Theremin proposed to her, Rockmore married attorney Robert Rockmore, and thereafter used his name professionally.
She died in New York City
on May 10, 1998, aged 87.
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
performer of the theremin
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
, an electronic musical instrument
Electronic musical instrument
An electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces its sounds using electronics. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical audio signal that ultimately drives a loudspeaker....
.
Biography
Born as Clara Reisenberg in (present-day) Vilnius, Lithuania, Rockmore was a child prodigy on the violinViolin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and entered the Imperial conservatory of Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
at the age of five. She studied violin under the virtuoso Leopold Auer
Leopold Auer
Leopold Auer was a Hungarian violinist, teacher, conductor and composer.-Early life and career:...
, and remains to this day the youngest student ever to be admitted to the institution. Unfortunately, bone problems due to childhood malnutrition forced her to abandon violin performance past her teen years. That however led her to discover the newborn electronic instrument and become the most renowned player of the theremin
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
.
Rockmore had several gifts that enabled her to play the theremin so well. Her classical training gave her an advantage over the many theremin performers who lacked this background. She possessed absolute pitch
Absolute pitch
Absolute pitch , widely referred to as perfect pitch, is the ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of an external reference.-Definition:...
from birth, helpful in playing an instrument that generates tones of any pitch throughout its range, not just those those defined by equal temperament
Equal temperament
An equal temperament is a musical temperament, or a system of tuning, in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratio. As pitch is perceived roughly as the logarithm of frequency, this means that the perceived "distance" from every note to its nearest neighbor is the same for...
. She had extremely precise, rapid control of her movements, important in playing an instrument that depends on the performer's motion and proximity rather than touch. She also had the advantage of working directly with Léon Theremin
Léon Theremin
Léon Theremin was a Russian and Soviet inventor. He is most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments. He is also the inventor of interlace, a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal, widely used in video and television technology...
from the early days of the instrument's commercial development in the United States.
Rockmore, as the mature musician she was, saw the limitations of the original instrument and helped to develop the instrument to fulfill her needs, making several suggestions to improve the theremin as a performing instrument. Such suggestions, like a faster volume antenna, wider musical range, and control over the instrument's tone color were incorporated by the inventor in later versions. She had a special theremin tailored by Léon Theremin himself to meet her unique requirements.
She developed a whole technique for playing the instrument, including a fingering system, which allowed her to perform accurately fast passages and large note leaps without the much known portamento
Portamento
Portamento is a musical term originated from the Italian expression "portamento della voce" , denoting from the beginning of the 17th century a vocal slide between two pitches and its emulation by members of the violin family and certain wind instruments, and is sometimes used...
on theremin.
Her older sister was the concert pianist Nadia Reisenberg
Nadia Reisenberg
Nadia Reisenberg was an American pianist of Lithuanian birth.-Life and career:Born in Vilnius, Reisenberg studied under Leonid Nikolayev at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Due to the upheavals of the October Revolution, she and her family came back to Vilnius, then travelled to Warsaw and...
. Although Theremin proposed to her, Rockmore married attorney Robert Rockmore, and thereafter used his name professionally.
She died in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on May 10, 1998, aged 87.
External links
- The Official Nadia Reisenberg Clara Rockmore Foundation Website
- The Clara Rockmore Collection at the Special Collections in Performing Arts at the University of Maryland, College Park
- A Short Photo-biography of Clara Rockmore
- In Clara's Words - An interview Clara Rockmore gave to Bob Moog in 1977.
- In Clara’s Home – Her Last Years, and the Summer of 1997 - An essay, written by Steve J. Sherman, Clara Rockmore's great-nephew and Nadia Reisenberg's grandson, providing an in-depth account of Clara Rockmore’s life during her last decade, up until her death in 1998.
- A MySpace page devoted to Clara Rockmore
- Nadia Reisenberg / Clara Rockmore Foundation
- Streamable NPR "All Songs Considered" show featuring 'Summertime' performed by Clara Rockmore
- Clara Rockmore at ThereminWorld
- Clara Rockmore. La diva del éter (spanish bio by Audionautas)
- Rara avis II: Léon Theremin, Clara Rockmore y el instrumento que se toca sin ser tocado