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Theremin

Musical Instrument
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An electronic instrument played without touch, using hand movements near antennas

Detailed Definition
The theremin’s eerie, gliding tones appear in surrealist and sci-fi poetry to symbolize the uncanny, technological alienation, and sonic invisibility; its touchless play makes it a metaphor for the intangible and the haunting presence of the future in lyrical expression.
Example
Example in poetry:
In a sci-fi poem, the theremin’s eerie glissando scores the birth of an alien consciousness; A surrealist verse describes the theremin as “a ghost playing air with invisible hands”; In feminist poetry, the theremin’s touchless interface symbolizes women’s silenced but resonant voices; A Cold War-era poem likens the theremin’s frequency shifts to espionage whispers; Modern sound poets use the theremin to explore the boundary between music and language; In a poem about radio waves, the theremin becomes the voice of the cosmos tuning in.
Additional Notes
The theremin is an early electronic instrument played without touch, using hand movements near antennas to control pitch and volume; its eerie, gliding tones evoke sci-fi, ghosts, or the uncanny—poets can reference it to explore the body in space, the invisibility of sound waves, or the theremin as metaphor for desire just out of reach, trembling in the air.
Also Known As
Aetherphone
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