From the people who brought you the Theremin, enter the ondes Martenot. This funny-looking instrument that resembles a combination of a keyboard and an inverted guitar was another entry into the surprisingly expansive world of early electronic instruments. Originally, the ondes Martenot (French for “Martenot wave”) sounded a lot like the Theremin. Subsequently, its range was expanded with a loudspeaker and filter banks.
From Wikipedia,
“The ondes Martenot has been used by many composers, most notably Olivier Messiaen. He first used it in the “Fëte des Belles Eaux”, written for the 1937 International World’s Fair in Paris and then used it in many of his works, such as the Turangalîla-Symphonie, Feuillets inédits, and Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine; his opera Saint-François d’Assise requires three of the instruments. Many of these works were written for his sister-in-law, Jeanne Loriod, who was the professor of Ondes Martenot at the Paris Conservatory for many years.
Other composers included Charles Koechlin, Edgard Varèse (as a replacement for a custom Theremin instrument), Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Maurice Jarre, Antoine Tisné Pierre Boulez, and Frank Zappa; André Jolivet wrote a concerto for it in 1947. Bohuslav Martinů authorized the adaptation of his “Fantasie” to the use of the ondes Martenot when it proved difficult to perform on the Theremin, for which it was originally written. About 1000 works have been composed for the instrument including at least 40 concertos.”
Honestly, it sounds a little like what I heard in my ears the last time that I hit my head. Though, for the audiophile in all of us, you have to recognize it for its strange beauty. If you want to see a modern application of the ondes Martenot, have a look at Jean Laurendeau and his performance.
[via: Inside Perspective]
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