Ever wanted to play music without touching anything? The Clara Rockmore Google Doodle lets you try your hand at the theremin — the world’s first electronic instrument and one of the strangest things you’ll ever play. Released on March 9, 2016, this interactive Doodle celebrates what would have been Rockmore’s 105th birthday, and it’s still one of the most elegant music Doodles Google has ever made.
Clara Rockmore was born in Russia in 1911 and showed musical genius from an incredibly young age. She could pick out melodies on the piano at two years old, and by five she was accepted into the prestigious Saint Petersburg Conservatory to study violin under Leopold Auer (alongside future legends like Jascha Heifetz). But when tendinitis in her bow arm forced her to give up the violin as a teenager, she discovered something even more unusual. In 1920s New York, she met Léon Theremin, the Russian inventor who’d created a bizarre instrument you play by waving your hands through the air near two antennas — one controls pitch, the other volume.
Rockmore didn’t just learn the theremin. She mastered it like nobody before or since and helped redesign it, convincing Theremin to expand the range from 3 octaves to 5 and make it more responsive to subtle hand movements. She developed her own “aerial fingering” technique that allowed her to play complex classical pieces with precision that seemed impossible on such a finicky instrument. By the 1930s, she was performing as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony. Her signature piece? Saint-Saëns’ “The Swan” — which you actually learn in the Doodle.
The game teaches you the first five notes of “The Swan” through guided lessons before setting you loose in a gorgeous Art Deco theater where an animated Clara performs alongside you. The designers even modeled the virtual theremin’s Bakelite knobs and wood textures after Rockmore’s actual custom-built RCA instrument. Bob Moog, who co-produced her only album in 1977, credited Rockmore as one of his inspirations for creating the synthesizer.
How To Play Clara Rockmore Doodle
- Click play to start Lesson 1 — watch the glowing ball hit notes, then repeat the pattern by dragging your mouse or finger across the same notes
- Progress through the lessons learning the opening of “The Swan” — if you mess up, just try again
- After completing the tutorial, you’re taken to an Art Deco concert hall where you can play freely
- Click the gear icon (bottom left) to access settings — turn off “Easy Mode” for free-form playing without note guides, or change key, scale, octave, and waveform
- Move your cursor/finger smoothly between notes to create that signature theremin glide effect
