Early electronic music before 1945 Substack site with extensive theremin history

Just happened on this substack site, started in September last year, with articles about pre-1945 electronic music including about the first demonstrations of the theremin outside Russia, with posters, photos and press articles, and about the wherebouts of the Theremin Trio that operated out of the Berlin School for Electrical Music.

Song of the Atom Substack

Thank you very much! The significance of those months, when Termen came to Germany and other European countries, is absolutely underestimated. Others (myself included) have also explored this topic, and I am sure there will be further articles on this period of collaboration in Germany in the future.

Thanks DreadVox and JPascal,

My research on electronic music pre-1945 and Theremin style devices moves beyond Termen's time in Germany, and I'm most interested in the 1928-1934 period. There was a lot of activity involving Thereminists who were trained at the Berlin Theremin laboratory/School of Electrical Music, and who then performed across Europe until 1930 - and elsewhere until the early 1940s 1941. The two most interesting figures were Evgeny Henkin and Martin Taubmann who I have extensively researched and written about on the Song of the Atom Substack publication. Most things written about Taubmann in the past were totally incorrect. I aim to publish more material on these topics soon, though I have written quite a lot already ...

Thanks for your interest in Song of the Atom! I aim to only publish material where I can add new information to the various histories that are already out there.

Great to having you here in the forum. Your articles shed light on the significance of Lev Termen’s early contacts and visits in Germany. Abram F. Joffe, the director of the institute in St. Petersburg, had studied under Röntgen in Munich, and G. J. Goldberg was Lev Termen’s technical and business partner through his father’s company, Goldberg & Sons: In the 1920s, the Berlin-based company served as the German licensee and business partner for Termen’s high-frequency sensor technology and the Termenvox devices.

I am looking forward to more of your excellent investigations. 

The newspapers of that time carried a statement by Lev Termen, who had held out the prospect of producing instruments licensed to Goldberg in Germany. Well, things turned out differently. However, demonstration units for the Trio ensembles were produced in Germany, and I would be very interested to learn the current whereabouts of these units or their technical details. In the images featuring Goldberg, the two devices with different designs and geometries can be seen.