Springtime in Munich

Munich, the capital of Bavaria is a wonderful city famous for many things and dear to many people for their own reason, or two, or a dozen. "Munich loves you" is the city’s motto and that is indeed so. Apart from being the host city of the world-known beer festival called Oktoberfest, Munich has much more to offer.

The lovers of German cars would be delighted to visit this motherland of the renowned BMW car maker. Those who love history and museums would definitely enjoy walking a lot in the impressive center that has been kept pedestrian since the 1972 Olympics. Only here would you see office workers having a beer and getting some sun tan in the nudist area during the lunch break. Gourmets would start licking their fingers looking at the yummy white sausages with sweet mustard and pretzels. And if you consider moving to Germany, Munich would be the best destination as it is considered to be the most economically highly-developed German city with the lowest unemployment rate and the highest level of life. It simply tops the list of best places to live in in Germany. Getting back to the music theme, one cannot but mention the fact that Munich is the host town for numerous composers like the great Richard Wagner, Carl Maria von Webber, Strauss and others. Bavarian State Opera and Bavarian State Orchestra are situated here. So weighty is the city’s heritage that musicians from all over the world keep being inspired by it, dedicating their works to the heart of Germany.
One of such composers is Shao Suan Low who wrote her Springtime in Munich for Flute and Piano for it.
Although, according to the composer, she stayed there for two weeks in Autumn, the town’s atmosphere felt completely like spring. The soothing piece came out as a result and one more charmed heart was open for Munich.

Theremin: Music in the Air

When talking about the ‘rare’ in music, why not spot some curious music instruments. When asked to enumerate some music instruments most would mention the popular piano, violin, cello, flute, harp, organ, guitar and so on. Hardly would anyone’s list be headed by the curious name ‘theremin’. And this instrument does deserve some attention that I’m gonna pay to it today.

Theremin was invented in 1919 by the Russian physicist Lev Termen, who, on arriving to the USA was called Leon Theremin (thus the name of the invention).  The marvelous thing about the instrument is that its construction allows playing without actually touch the instrument itself: it consists of two antennae, one responsible for the pitch, and the other one – for the volume. You can play by ‘touching the air’ between those two and adjusting the melody with your vertical and horizontal moves. It’s quite challenging I should say – constant skill training is required.

Leon Theremin was forced back to the Soviet Union in 1938 having to leave behind his studio, work, family and friends. However, during those years he managed to leave tangible work for his disciples. One of his best students is Clara Rockmore – a violinist who after having some health problems with hands switched to theremin and became world’s most outstanding theremin player.

In the 1930-ies theremin was quite promoted. Theremin music could be heard in popular movies (The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Lost Weekend, etc.), in music bands’ creativity (Led Zeppelin, Hand People, the Bonzo Doo Dah Dog Band, etc.). Today, there is no that ‘boom’ in theremin’s fame but it is still produced, played and valued.