Re: Theremin (nokh a bisl tsulib dem theremin...)

[TomP317 <TomP317...>]

How extraordinary! This theme opens the day after I just had a oem accepted 
which I wrote about 7 years ago, in memoriam Leon Theremin. I hope you'll 
excuse me posting it. At least that way you get it before readers of Poetry 
Review in the UK.

The virtuoso someone thought was called Lydia was called, I think, Clara 
Blackmoore. She performed a concerto for it, and I'd love anyone who knows of 
it to provide details. I don't know anything about the woman in the Theremin 
studio who passed away either (see below)...

Yours,

Tom Payne 


Leon Theremin, inventor of the Theremin
(1897 - 1993)
after Horace, Odes I. 24

        What is the right mood, the right seriousness
        on losing one like you?  The instrument
        played with hands near, not on, with its wo-wo
            sings its most tearful song
                                    
        now that eternal sleep has come upon
        you, Leon Theremin. You'd known long sleeps  
        before, not only when the KGB
            snatched you away to doze

        as if forever; also when a girl
        lulled by that music box you worked - reworked -
        died, you said, longing to recover her,
            "We must build a machine

        to bring her back to life!" Your music worked
        by letting go: two oscillating tubes
        within a wooden case enabled you 
            to pull sounds from the air,

        the very air. How could bare hands refine
        that atmosphere, and make it fit for lungs
        music never sustained? Patience is all.
            Some things you can't put right.

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