an instrument you have never heard of

Maksymilian Modzelewski

In 1928, a French inventor Maurice Martenot created an instrument so bizarre in its construction that you would not think it was made so long ago. It was one of the first electronic instruments ever made, and the idea for it came from the military. Martenot, during his service, was a radio operator in World War I. He tried to replicate the accidental overlaps of tones between military radio oscillators. His creation was designed in a way that could imitate the sounds made by a cello.

The way it is played is by putting a metal ring on your right index finger. As you slide it along a wire, you produce a sound similar to that of a theremin instrument.  A vibrato effect is created by you slightly shaking your hand. You can also use the keyboard, but it is not even remotely as fun as the first option. Maurice Martenot made four speakers for the instrument, called the “diffuseurs”. One creates a metallic timbre, the second has a resonance chamber that can produce chiming tones.

I would probably never have heard of it, were it not for Johnny Greenwood, the guitarist of Radiohead, who started to regularly use this instrument for his compositions. People began to wonder, what is this unique sound? You can find multiple concerts of him playing the ondes martenot. He really put the instrument into the mainstream; even Daft Punk was probably influenced by Greenwood in their use of the ondes martenot in Random Access Memories. Damon Albarn from Gorillaz used it in one of his projects, too. 

If you ever think about getting one, know it is probably impossible. They are extremely rare. There is a man in Paris named Jean-Loup Dierstein who started to make them again ten years ago. He only makes one at a time and the waitlist is probably very long, but if you have 20 thousand dollars to spare, feel free to contact him!