Programmatic Theremin

Level of Education of Students Involved

Undergraduate

Faculty Sponsor

Joseph Bognar, James Caristi

College

College of Arts & Sciences (CAS)

Discipline(s)

Computer Science, Music

ORCID Identifier(s)

0009-0002-7940-1933

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Spring 4-30-2026

Abstract

This project is a programmatic recreation of the theremin that can be played with a mouse, keyboard, and a custom control device. This theremin also differs from its normal physical counterpart in that it gives greater control over pitch and octave, allowing the player to chose between certain presets or utilize their own pitch collection. This greater control allows this theremin to be much more intuitive for new players to use. On the software side, the program is written in the visual web language Scratch. While Scratch's less than ideal library of math operations posed a challenge, the use of Scratch ultimately allowed for easier programming of audio, as well as allowing the project to be accessible from most devices with internet. The popularity of the Scratch as first programming language also makes most of the code both readable and usable by some children. On a more hardware side, other than preset controls (which are largely controlled by the keyboard) and the pitch/volume controls (controlled by the mouse), there is also a set of controls in a custom setup using a makey-makey (a similar device to an arduino) to set up a set of alternate controls for several earlier features, as well as the ability to temporarily mute the output for re-sounding notes and a customizable pedal-tone. The main idea behind this project was to provide a more customizable, user friendly version of the theremin, a notoriously difficult instrument with a cool concept.

Biographical Information about Author(s)

Ethan Mohr is a sophomore computer science major with a major interest in music. He has been composing music since he was 10 and started coding not long after. Ethan has also been in numerous choirs and theater groups throughout his life, only furthering his love for music. He hopes to at some point become a game developer, as well as compose for games.

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