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Clara Rockmore
Theremin Virtuosa
| Featured in this section... |  Meeting Clara Rockmore (Natalia Paruz 23 December 2001 (In an email to the
webmaster))
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 Don't
forget that you are dealing with air! Think of your fingers as delicate butterfly wings, and you will get much further than
if you use strength"- Clara Rockmore
The greatest exponent of the theremin, Clara Rockmore was more
than just a performer. It was her comments and suggestions that encouraged Leon Theremin to further perfect his instrument.
Even after Theremin's disappearance back to the Soviet Union, she campaigned tirelessly to bring this instrument to a wider
audience. It was her artistry that inspired people such as Paschenko to write for the theremin.
Rockmore was
Lithuanian by birth. A child prodigy on the violin, she was still in her teens when, whilst concertising in the US, she heard
of Leon Theremin, and arranged to see him. She was looking for a career away from the violin, as a problem with her bowing
arm meant she would soon be unable to continue at the same rate. She quickly became Theremin's best pupil, and it was her
system of 'ariel fingering' that pushed forward theremin technique.
The Clara Rockmore Method for Theremin is
freely available from David Miller (in his own edition) as a PDF file. Go to Site
Roger Ballenger has transcribed the
examples in the book into MIDI files for download, and has produced a CD, available from his site, which also includes
original accompaniments by himself, and some useful 'random tone exercises', as described in the book. More information is
available on his site. Go
to Site
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