It is hard to believe but in a few weeks I will have a new Theremin instrument: this time it's a Theremincello. What is a Theremincello? It is actually the same as a Theremin but played in a more traditional way, like a cello. The pitch is controlled through a ribbon and the right hand has a lever, used for controlling volume and articulation, just like the left hand of the space controlled Theremin (see pictures).

The Theremincello was invented because people in the 1930's wanted to have the ethersound but for most people the normal Theremin was to hard to play, the T-cello however is playable after 5 minutes for people who are used to playing the cello, because the technique is exactly the same. Though it's technique is the same as the traditional cello, the resemblance stops there. The T-cello is really an instrument on its own with its own possibilities and tone colour!

The instrument however didn't have a very long life on the concert stage, the only composer ever to write for the T-cello was Varèse. His piece Equatorial has a score which features not one but two T-cellos. Also, conductor Stokowski experimented with the T-cello as a orchestral instrument with the Philadelphia Orchestra, to make a fuller sound in the cello and double bass register. At the end of the 1930's when Lev Termén mysterously disappeared from the American music scene the instrument also sank into oblivion.

Now after almost 80 years the instrument will have a revival: not only will there be a production of the instrument but as a part of the Thereminfestival.nl, composers in the Netherlands and abroad will write new pieces for the instrument, as solo, trio or in ensemble.

Also I will form a "electrio" with Thijn Vermeulen (piano) and Marieke van der Heyden (T-Cello) and myself on Theremin. An Electrio is exactly the same as the classical piano trio with the difference that the violin and the cello are replaced by the space controlled Theremin and the Theremincello.
Hopefully now after all this years the Theremin cello will finally find and maintain its place in classical music!