Rip Bebe Barron, Forbidden Planet is silent Options

[lepetitmartien]

Bebe died on the 20th, aged 80. Bebe and Louis Barron did the first ever all electronic motion picture score for Forbidden Planet (dubbed by MGM "electronic tonalities") in 1956 with their vaccum tube gizmos.

Robby will need a drink or two tonight.

[makaala]

Great movie and great score... six years old in a darkened, ornate, aging, vaudeville theater while the Krell civilization's demise mirrored my own small town's slide into 60's urban renewal and empty shops. The score .. I believe, was pure Theramin? Lots of spring reverb whacks too. Visionary special effects that still look good while everyone "borrowed" themes and set design. The coolest sound was when the monster was approaching... a low droney sound. Good stuff.
Cheers.

[lepetitmartien]

No Theremin were harmed while recording this score! ^^

It's 100% tube gizmos that Bebe and Louis Barron did themselves, plus tape slicing.

Note that a lot of the Theremin you can hear in most 60's-60's film music is not Theremin but a derivate borrowing to theremin and Ondes Martenot with a keyboard, which helped a lot to ensure the performance to be on tune. It seemed they didn't want to hire Clara Rockmore for exemple. I just don't remember the name of the device… maybe it's on theremin.com. The Beach boys used it too, and it was a session musician which did the thing and played it/sold some if I remember well.

[mortalengines]

I read an interview with Walter Sears (owns Sears Sound in NYC) and he was an early adopter of Moog synths and the Theremin and I understand the Beach Boys used something akin to a ribbon controller with the Theremin on "Good Vibrations" and if I remember correctly (I could be wrong) it was something that Bob Moog had a hand in developing as he was quite a fan of the Theremin.


www.myspace.com/mortal_engines

[lepetitmartien]

Not sure it was on good vibrations the one I got in mind… When I red about it it was years ago and the humpah about Good Vibrations was still far away but it was a little keyboard definitely, and no Bob in sight. It must be 2 different instruments.

[azkid]

Not sure it was on good vibrations the one I got in mind… When I red about it it was years ago and the humpah about Good Vibrations was still far away but it was a little keyboard definitely, and no Bob in sight. It must be 2 different instruments.

It's called a "Tannerin", or electro-theremin..
TANNERIN

It looks like a keyboard, but has a slide control, and is much easier to control the pitch/frequency,... LOADS of fun and cool sound!

If it makes a noise, I'll love it! Bagpipes, I grew up with for pete's sake! If Scotsman can squeeze a sheep bladder & push wind thru a reed,....?

[lepetitmartien]

Got it! Thanks

Note that it's scaling down the Ondes Martenot by better control of a Theremin (and way cheaper than Ondes). They share the same basic sound generation (heterodyne effect), the Ondes Martenot have more and better control and a selection of "resonators" to modify the sound generation further.