Along with the “illumovox”, Lev Theremin’s terpsiton is classified as an electroacoustic light-sound instrument. The inventor spoke about his own light and sound instruments at the All-Union School of Young Scientists and Specialists “Light and Music” in Kazan in 1979. In the abstract of his report, published in a third party, we read: “The author has been developing light music devices since 1920 and demonstrated them at concerts in the Soviet Union, Germany, France and the USA in the period from 1922 to 1939. Accompanying the melody with light effects was completed by projecting onto the performer a colour corresponding to the pitch of the sound, with an intensity varying in proportion to the strength of the sound” (L. Termen. Experiments in the field of light music in the laboratory of Lev Theremin. All-Union School of Young Scientists and Specialists “Light and Music” (June 24 – July 4, 1979). Abstracts. Kazan: Kazan Aviation Institute, pp. 19).
Links to Third-Party Publications:
Smirnov A. In search of the lost sound. Experimental sound culture of Russia and the USSR in the first half of the twentieth century. M.: Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2020. p. 79; Kolganova O. V. Classification of domestic light and sound instruments of the first third of the twentieth century (From chromotrope to kinemachrome) // The Art and Science of Television. 2025. No. 21.3. pp. 61–117. https://tv-science.online/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/TVstudies_21_3.pdf
