ondes Martenot

/ ɔ̃d mɑːtəˈnəʊ /

noun

1. music an electronic keyboard instrument in which the frequency of an oscillator is varied to produce separate musical notes

Word History and Origins

Origin of ondes Martenot¹

C20: French, literally: Martenot waves, invented by Maurice Martenot (1898–1980)

Example Sentences

Its cousin, the ondes martenot, was featured in one of Groening’s favorite classical pieces — the “Turangalîla-symphonie” by Olivier Messiaen — which would inspire the name for a lead character in “Futurama,” Turanga Leela.

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But it was immense: written on a grand scale, with more than a dozen principal roles, a chorus and an orchestra equipped with idiosyncratic sounds like that of the spooky, electronic ondes Martenot.

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And the woozy, slippery wail of the theremin-like ondes martenot.

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Cynthia Millar was a subtle presence at the ondes martenot — to the point that the instrument could have been more assertively amplified.

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Along with Debussy’s “Faun” last weekend, he led Messiaen’s “Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine,” a fabulously intricate, half-hour multicolored extravaganza for solo piano, the theremin-like ondes Martenot, women’s chorus, strings and percussion, written in 1944 and never before performed by the orchestra.

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