The Instrument The theremin is the first electronic instrument ever, granddaddy to the synthesizer, the Hammond organ, and all of that ilk. The theremin.
The scientist, whose name was Leon Theremin, was not mad. A professor, he immigrated to America, where by the late 1920s, he had perfected the instrument, named the Theremin. In the next few years, it was featured in concerts at Carnegie Hall and around the country, and employed by an orchestra conducted by Leopold Stowkowski. The concerts were reviewed on the front page of the New York Times, and the instrument was seen as the forerunner of something that was not yet known as electronic music.