I just finished reading The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, which is a wonderful book not the least because it allows me to celebrate my inner hillbilly. In the novel, Taggart is an amazing harmonica player, playing through his nose, but his neice plays an instrument I'd never heard of before, the theremin. It even has its own website, Theremin World. It is the weirdest thing I've ever seen--you play without touching it!
Two antennas protrude from the theremin - one controlling pitch, and the other controlling volume. As a hand approaches the vertical antenna, the pitch gets higher. Approaching the horizontal antenna makes the volume softer. Because there is no physical contact with the instrument, playing the theremin in a precise melodic way requires practiced skill and keen attention to pitch.
Okay, now you can hear it played by the master of theremin, Lydia Kavina. Here she is conjuring up Debussy's 'Claire de Lune' from the theremin.
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