Photo by Lucy Craft
It was just a few weeks ago that this fearless column brought up the matter of the matryoshka-shaped theremin, invented by Masami Takeuchi, who studied in Russia with a relative of Lev Termen, who had started it all.
The instrument is called the Matryomin, and its range of five octaves is similar to that of the theremin. It is handy to prepare for playing the real theremin, and eminently suitable for ensemble playing because its electromagnetic field is smaller than that of a theremin.
Take a look at the website, but even better, watch how to tune and play the instrument, and better yet, automaton-like Matryomin fans perform the you-know-what excerpt from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in unison.
Why bring up the matter again? Because it's such fun and also to make sure Takeuchi's world record for the "largest theremin ensemble" is noted and made available for all to see and hear.
As Lucy Craft reported on CBS News:
The original theremin is a far cry from the compact, portable instruments played by the Japanese musicians today. Standard theremin consist of a wooden console with two large antennas, and they're played with two hands; one to control pitch, the other for volume, but all without directly touching any surface of the instrument — a technique known as "aerial fingering."The instrument is notoriously difficult to master — even Brian Wilson eventually gave it up in favor of a simplified device that produced the same sound.
But today's Japanese version, the matryomin, went over well with the representative on hand from the Guinness World Records office.
"I was honestly very moved by the performance, said Gulnaz Ukassova, an official adjudicator for Guinness World Records Japan."It was very touching."
Leading the musicians was Masamichi Takeuchi, 46, Japan's leading theremin proponent and creator of the nested-doll version.
"No other country has as many theremin players of such high skill as Japan," he said. While Takeuchi doesn't know how many there are exactly, he has sold 4,500 of the miniature theremins, and runs a network of music instructors dedicated to the instrument.
In 2003, Takeuchi, who studied music technology, hit on a simplified model using the empty Russian nested doll filled with a miniaturized amp, speaker and antenna.
Found a list of performances on Takeuchi's website, including the music of Rachmaninoff, Glinka, Fauré, Puccini, and Richard Strauss, but trying to listen was thwarted invariably with a "Sorry, the page you requested was not found" message. Until the website is fixed, try searching for "Takeuchi matryomin" on YouTube.