The New York Theremin Society will perform again at Joe's Pub on March 27th.  This time, in addition to music by Dorit Chrysler, Benjamin Ickies, Scott Robinson, and Rob Schwimmer, the show will also feature special guest Joe McGinty on Therevox.  Visit our events page for more details on the event, and tell all your friends!

We first met the Magnetovore, an electromagnetic cello-like instrument by Cal Poly student David Levi, about a year ago.  After a long wait, the instrument is complete and ready for production!  The first two are spoken for, but if you're interested, David would love to hear from you.  

The Magnetovore is the culmination of 4 years of work from, including 6 prototypes.  It features a huge magnetic coil that picks up currents induced by moving a magnetic wand nearby and converts the signals into sound.  David does a great job describing all the features of the instrument (starting at about 2:22 into the video).  

Congratulations to David on completing the Magnetovore!

Learn more at Magnetovore.com.

born 1911 
prodigy by five 

1928 they met 
the inventor and the prodigy 

soon the greatest player 
of a magic box you do not touch 

1933 she wed 
a Broadway producer who stole her heart 

1998 she left 
as the theremin was coming back 

1998 she left 
us a way to make it sing 

With thanks, Happy Birthday Clara Rockmore!

photo S.J. Sherman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Rockmore

On April 9th, Philadelphia area group Divine Hand Ensemble will premier a new documentary about their experience performing classical music in modern times.  Formed by thereminist Mano Divina in 2010, DHE blends an ensemble of 8 string instruments with a theremin "singing lead".  The documentary will air as part of the upcoming Cinedelphia film festival.  The group will perform a live concert after the film screening.

A teaser for the film, apparently long in the works, was uploaded to YouTube in 2011:

Source: Divine Hand Ensemble Announces Premier of "21st Century Classical Music" Documentary (allaboutjazz.com)

It was almost a year ago that I mentioned Augusto Triani on TW's front page for the first time, an Italian who invests much into the revival of the Theremin Cello. He builds wonderful housings for these instruments but first he had not much luck in finding an adequate circuit. There are some videos on YouTube where he or Italian Thereminist Valeria Sturba present different working prototypes but the timbres one could hear was not always convincing. Thus I was asked by Augusto if I could make it better. I thought that I could. But then, things were not as easy as I thought. Building a Theremin with capacitive control and heterodyning is one thing. Building a Theremin Cello with a resistive ribbon controller is another thing. My first attempt went directly into trash before the circuit was really ready. But now I'm proud to publish a positive status update:

"After long months of designing the circuit for the theremincello, rejecting a almost finished version for linearity problems, making simulations in CAD, wiring modules wildly on breadboard, I am now at a point where the circuit is ready and working. Now I am creating the definitive and optimized layout for the circuit board."

The new (purely analogue) circuit will allow to play 5 linear octaves on the ribbon controller, starting with the low C like a classic Cello. A register switch allows to shift either one octave lower or one octave higher which gives a total pitch range of 7 octaves and allows to play most pieces in a comfortable hand position. A rotary knob allows fine tuning of /- 3 halftones. There are 4 timbres among them the player can select: A bright and a soft string timbre, and a bright and a soft woodwind timbre. A special circuit part makes an attempt to make all timbres more "organic", somewhat more rough in the lower register but becoming a little smoother in the middle and high register. A filter switch with 4 positions allows a further gradual smoothing of the very highest frequencies.

Below are already a few sound samples, just 4 octaves out of the 7, with the filter switch set to off. You'll find a surprise among these audio files, because you will hear for the very first time a "pizzicato" emulation from a Theremin Cello, triggered by an extra button.

Augusto's birthday is on March, 31st and I hope to have a working final release of the circuit on a well designed circuit board for him until then.