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Last update: 8 March 2022 |
The Ondes Martenot
After the war, Martenot began his research into the musical applications of electricity and, in particular, the possibilities offered by allowing high frequency oscillators to interfere with one another. However, much of his work over the ensuing nine years is clouded in mystery because he did not unveil his eponymously named instrument until May 1928. The first Ondes Martenot had a conventional, piano-style keyboard but, more importantly, a wire that stretched the length of the keyboard, and which you moved from side to side using a little ring that you slipped over the index finger of your right hand. If you moved the ring to the right, the pitch of the sound produced by the instrument increased; if you moved the ring to the left, the pitch dropped. Had this been all the control offered by the Ondes Martenot, it would not have been a particularly musical instrument. However, there was a second control that allowed you to articulate notes using your left hand. The combination of the two made it possible to determine both the pitch and the amplitude of a note, and the result was not unlike a human voice, or an instrument such as the 'cello or violin. (This similarity to the 'cello is not entirely coincidental. As well as being an inventor, Martenot was also a cellist.) It's hardly surprising that, in 1928, Martenot's instrument was considered a marvel, and it proved to be a huge success. Consequently, over the next few years, Martenot proceeded to design and build a number of variations. One of these allowed you to wiggle the keys themselves from side to side to create natural vibrato. (Still uncommon on synthesisers, this method was adopted in the mid-70s by Yamaha for two of the three keyboards on the GX1.) There was also a smaller version of the Ondes Martenot called the Ondioline. But whatever else changed, one thing remained constant - there was always a wire with a ring that controlled the pitch of the sound. On a well-adjusted Ondes Martenot, the semitone positions of the ring – which were, of course, evenly spaced along the fingerboard - corresponded to the keys on the keyboard behind it. It should therefore be obvious that, compared with a Theremin (which produced a similar sound), the Martenot was much simpler to play. This fact was not lost on the serious composers of the day and, consequently, a number wrote music for it. Of these, the most famous were undoubtedly Ravel, Boulez, Messiaen, and (more recently) Maurice Jarre, but many others contributed to a repertoire of more than 1000 classical works that feature the instrument. (Messiaen composed one piece, "Fete Des Belles Eaux", which used no fewer than six Ondes Martenots!) For an early electronic instrument, the Ondes Martenot was singularly playable, so it's not surprising that composers such as Barry Gray continued to experiment with it throughout the '50s, '60s and '70s. Even today, its unique method of control and expression attracts musicians keen to develop new sounds and playing styles. So when Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead asked Analogue Systems to develop a Martenot-style controller for his modular analogue synthesisers, the company was keen to oblige, and the Analogue Systems French Connection (which is still available today) was born.
Copyright ©2001, Gordon Reid. |
Not surprisingly, the Ondes Martenot (please note the spelling with an "e", not with an "i" as it is so often written) was developed by chap named Ondes Martenot. Well, actually, his name was Maurice Martenot, and he was a French inventor. Born in 1898, he became a radio operator during the First World War, and at this time noticed how the interaction of two pieces of similarly - but not identically - tuned electrical equipment could give rise to unwanted, but potentially musical, oscillations. (Leon Termin had noticed the same thing, using the technique to generate the audio signals produced by the Theremin.)