Rhythmicon

The Rhythmicon or Rhytmikon is an electronic musical instrument. It was built in 1931 by Russian physicist Leon Theremin (actually Lev Sergeyevich terms, from 1896 to 1993 ) at the request of the composer and theorist Henry Cowell.

The Rhythmicon is a keyboard instrument. The left outer key is the root note together with the basic rhythm, the other a sequence of notes that corresponds in pitch and rhythm of Obertonserie the fundamental. So the second key generates twice as much sound as the first with twice as rapid rhythm, the third a tone frequency tripled and three times faster sequence of notes, etc.

The Rhythmicon has 17 keys and generates the sounds like a hole siren with optical scanning. For generating the rhythm light penetrates the holes in the rotating discs and is evaluated by photocells.

The Rhythmicon was among other things used in a number of films of the 1950s and 1960s, including in Dr. Strangelove - or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Various groups are said to have used it, for example Pink Floyd Atom Heart Mother, Arthur Brown in The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and the tornadoes in Robot. Tangerine Dream used Rhythmicon sequences in the album Rubycon (1975).