The theremin became an instrument of pure infamy back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, its cutting-edge spaceship noises soundtracking swathes of budget horror flicks back in the days when black and white footage ruled the silver screen. But when pianist and composer Christopher Tarnow joined forces with one of the few, rare, modern maestros of the theremin – Carolina Eyck – the German duo composed one of the most extraordinary contemporary pieces of classical-inspired music we’ve ever come across here at The Music Man.
Performing the first movement of “Theremin Sonata No.2,” Christopher and Carolina’s jaw-dropping live rendition blends the deep dissonance of jazz with the shock and awe of vintage horror, whilst happily refusing to tap into the gimmicks which gradually made the theremin a contemptible sound. With over 13,000 views to date, this piece shows off the true majesty of the theremin, in a composition unlike any you’ve heard before! Watch the magic unfold in the video below…
Carolina kicks off this piece with a blissfully spooky, solo introduction, the woodsy tones of her instrument like stepping across the threshold of a dense, haunted forest. Christopher Tarnow meets her melody on his grand piano, laying a divine selection of jazz chords beneath her eerie top line, weaving a starlit tapestry of mystical, disturbing, and blissfully eccentric moods.
At first, the overwhelming dissonance of their sonata movement is almost off-putting; near-impossible to find your footing in, as the duo leads their listeners through the deep unknown. It verges on musical mayhem, with the loosest threads of reality ribboning them back into the realm of light and sense. But just wait for what’s to come…
As Carolina delves into a higher octave, glimmers of retro B-movie soundtracks try to break the surface, but what emerges is a moment of supreme gothic beauty, her melody like the song of ghosts navigating their bizarre and liminal space. The piece slows to a dark ballad as Carolina glides through pitch-perfect and peculiar notes, adding supernal context to Christopher’s eclectic, jazz-like piano work.
This is the point where it’s worth uncovering the impossibility of mastering the theremin (as experienced by most instrumentalists, at least). This oddball electronic instrument features no keys or strings, let alone a fretboard, for players to easily pitch their notes. To put it simply, theremins make music out of thin air, with the player manipulating the instrument’s invisible oscillation waves to craft ethereal music. If you shift your body’s position, even just a tad, in the midst of a theremin performance, you’ll alter the pitch drastically, as you disrupt the instrument’s field of electromagnetic waves. Imagine playing a violin with no set fretboard dictating where the pitches might fall, with every slight bodily shuffle being picked up by the instrument, and you’ll soon get the idea.
Yet, Carolina is an absolute gem of the niche world of contemporary thereminists. She even blessed the world with a personally crafted technique to help novices master the theremin – a set of hand positions which (in theory) allow players to accurately judge the distance between each invisible note of an octave. But, even with that new ammunition, to jump seamlessly and pitch-perfectly between octaves as Carolina does many times in this clip, is practically witchcraft.
And that’s exactly what makes this performance so extraordinary. It’s not just the breathtaking complexity of their chaotic composition, but the unbelievable talent required to perform it at all.
Want to hear an alternate rendition of Christopher Tarnow and Carolina Eyck’s Sonata for Piano and Theremin? Check out their full-length version in the video above!