The ondes Martenot (French for "Martenot waves"; also known as the ondium Martenot, Martenot and ondes musicales) is an early electronic musical instrument with a keyboard and slide, invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot - a French cellist, a radio telegrapher during the first World War, and an inventor. The instrument is originally very similar in sound to the Theremin. They both used the vacuum tube oscillator as a sound source and were both monophonic, where the Theremin had a sliding scale and no fixed preset notes the Ondes-Martenot had a keyboard and a strip control for glissando and vibrato and an appearance that was familiar to any keyboard player.The instrument also had a bank of expression keys that allowed the player to change the timbre and character of the sounds. A later (1938) version of the instrument featured microtonal tuning as specified by the Hindu poet Rabindranath Tagore and the musician Alain Danielou.
The Ondes-Martenot was quickly accepted and eventually had a wide repetoire, works were written for the instrument by composers such as Edgard Varèse, Olivier Messian, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Maurice Jarre.Here you can see how it works.
Here is a great video of Claus Simon performing Olivier Messiaen works on Ondes Martenot.
6 comments:
That isn't Messiaen performing. Check the credits. They are simply playing a piece by that composer.
Oh, er, i missed it.
Thanks for the tip - i corrected it.
I remember seeing Beck perform on saturday night live a while back and he had a Martenot player...I spent the last couple years trying to explain this instrument to my friends while they looked at me like my eyeball had just fallen out of its socket. THANK YOU
Radiohead also uses the Ondes Martenot. It's a magnificent instrument.
Jesus, that instrument is really cool, I'd like to know if it's possible to get one of those? Not in the market? Well, any ways, listen, I will be making a garage sale next to the viagra online building in NYC, we will have some strange instruments there, just in case you guys are interested.
pretty cool... although to use one today would be a novelty... a mini-moog would be the most practical choice with infinite audio parameters. But it is quite intriguing none the less :-)
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