Lecture Andrey Smirnov: Music for the Rhythmicon

Andrey Smirnov

Andrey Smirnov is presenting: Music for the Rhythmicon

Rhythmicon

Henry Cowell – Rhythmicana (1-st part) – 6’
Andrey Smirnov – Περιχώρησις (Perichoresis) – 14’

Andrey Smirnov – Rhythmicon, programming

The Rhythmicon (aka Polyrhythmophone) was the world’s first rhythm machine, built by Leon Theremin for the American composer Henry Cowell, in order to play compositions involving complex polyrhythms. There were three machines built: two in the USA in 1931-32 and one in the USSR in 1965. The last instrument survived and was restored by Andrey Smirnov with support of CTM (Berlin). The only piece, composed for the Rhythmicon, was Henry Cowell’s Rhythmicana (1932) for the Rhythmicon and the symphony orchestra, the first solo part of which will be performed in the concert program followed by Andrey Smirnov’s Περιχώρησις (Perichoresis) performance based on the interaction of two machines – the Rhythmicon and the virtual algorithmic synthesizer resulting in correlation and mutual interpenetration of strictly determined polyrhithmic and stochastic processes.

Andrey Smirnov is an artist and researcher based in Thessaloniki, Greece. He is a special scientific associate at MOMus Museum of Modern Art, Costakis Collection in Thessaloniki. He is the founder of the Zerkalo Art Space in Thessaloniki (2025) as well as the Theremin Center (1992) and Rodchenko Sound Lab (2017) in Moscow. His collection of the historical documents and instruments has been combined with extensive research into the history of music technology with broad experience in composition, interactive performance and curatorial activities. He is the author of the monographs ‘Sound In Z: Experiments in Sound and Electronic Music in Early 20th Century Russia’ (London, 2013) and ‘In Search of Lost Sound. Experimental Sound Culture in Russia and the USSR in the First Half of the Twentieth Century’ (Moscow, 2020) (The Book of the Year Award at Innovation 2021 Competition, Moscow).