Theremin Cellos

I found this clipping on Modern Mechanix, a blog that posts articles from old electronics and science magazines. This one came from the June, 1932 issue of Modern Mechanix Magazine.


Someone at Modern Mechanix transcribed the text, and it reads:

Theremin Cellos Win Music Public in “Electric Concert”

THE electric cello, developed recently by Leon Theremin, has now been accepted by the music public as an instrument of high artistic merit.

At a symphony concert of electric music given a short while ago at Carnegie Hall, New York City, the electric cello made a sensational debut in a program consisting of selections from the old music masters– Bach, Haydn, Debussy, and others.

Producing exquisite tones, with both extremes of volume, the electric cellos have as their innards vacuum tubes whose oscillations are controlled by levers and coils on the instrument.

Pretty awesome, right? These completely predate even the earliest electric cellos that I've heard about, which were made in the early 1980's (Ernest Nussbaum's Travielo comes to mind). The only catch is that they're really Theremins and not really cellos. I suppose that if nothing else, Leon Theremin had the idea for an electric cello first.