theremin: check! next: ondes martenot

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so I was educated in the last radiohead thread about the ondes martenot and would like to know what anyone knows about the instrument. Googling led me to the composer Messiaen so I just got one of his symphonies to check out. Also read that there are less than 20 expert players of this instrument in the world, probably because of synth patches to replicate these sounds.

Also I'm interested in other ribbon controlled synths, i.e. Moog ribbon controller

Could a French speaker help me with pronunciation of ondes martenot??

― Ron, Sunday, 24 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ondes martenot: owned martin oh

― Sean, Monday, 25 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

thankee

― Ron, Monday, 25 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

here is an extract from my not-yet-completed book on such matters...

― mark s, Monday, 25 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

owned martin oh

More like "awned", isn't it?

― OleM, Monday, 25 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's quite the beautiful instrument. Very pure and dynamic. There's a great piece by Messiaen called "Oraison" for solo Ondes-Martenot that you should hear. He used it in most of his works. Other composers have used it, like Boulez, Milhaud, Ravel, Varese, and Honegger. I like searching out pieces with it, the sound is so pristine and evocative.

As for Radiohead, they've used it on The National Anthem, Motion Picture Soundtrack, and in the distant background of the strings on How to Disappear Completely. Live, they use it on Pyramid Song and to recreate the strigs on How to Disappear Completely. Actually, Jonny Greenwood has been invited to play in a London performance of Messiaen's Trois Petites Liturgies (truly beautiful), because he is among the few people alive who can play an Ondes-Martenot.
Jeanne Loriod, Messiaen's sister-in-law and principle Ondist, just died quite recently. Most of the best recordings of his work have her on them.

― Melissa W, Monday, 25 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sorry, that should have been here (i h8 frames)

― mark s, Monday, 25 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

thankee agin. Yes, the Tarangalila Symph. I got features Thomas Bloch, who studied under Loriod, sorry to hear of death.

thanks mark for link to your writing

― Ron, Monday, 25 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/

― 2 cents, Monday, 25 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like it so much I use it as my name. Here, anyway.

Thomas Bloch has also made recordings of a glass harmonica, which, whilst it is not a ribbon-controlled synth, is what one would have sounded like in the 18th century.

― Ondes Martenot, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ron - that MTV footage you saw featured Thomas Bloch's ondes martenot quartet. That, added to Jonny's ondes, makes a significant percentage of the world ondes population.

― Damian, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

this is making me really want to see that concert footage again. anyone know if it is avail for sale etc.??

― Ron, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ron - I have it on vid, but I'm in NZ, or Otherformatland, otherwise I'd make copies.

― Damian, Wednesday, 27 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

thanks anyhow, I bet there's a way for me to track it down, or else I can just watch MTV 24 hours a day until they replay it :-)

― Ron, Wednesday, 27 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ok, I get it now 'ol buddy 'ol PAL

― Ron, Wednesday, 27 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

Revive! Let's hear some more Ondes Martenot recommendations...

eg. Trusty old Naxos have just released Music for Ondes Martenot with Thomas Bloch doing the business on pieces by Messiaen, Bloch himself, Wisson, Redolfi, Cooper, Martinu, Touchard and Roulin.

I love Messiaen's OM stuff. How might these folks compare then?

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Friday, 10 September 2004 08:40 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Nice to hear about me...
Right now I play in downtown Los Angeles in the Black Rider, an opera by Tm Waits and Bob Wilson, in Ahmanson Theatre (until 11th of June 2006) with the ondes Martenot, the glass harmonica and other instruments. If some of you are not too far...
There are still some music schools were you can learn to play ondes in France. I am a teacher in Strasbourg Conservatory where I have 10 students. But let s say that we are about 5 or 6 ondist to have the opportunity to play all year long - it means to be professional.
Best,
Thomas Bloch
http://www.chez.com/thomasbloch

― Thomas Bloch, Monday, 1 May 2006 18:27 (twenty years ago)

fourteen years pass...

So apparently this was pretty prominent in Thomas Adès's Exterminating Angel.

― How I Wrote Neuroplastic Man (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 6 June 2020 20:32 (six years ago)

This has made me want to listen to Roly Porter's Aftertime - a great lumbering beast of a record, full of ondes martenot.

― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Saturday, 6 June 2020 20:42 (six years ago)

Ondes player Christine Ott has a new album that's really good: RIYL old Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, etc. I wrote about it yesterday.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Saturday, 6 June 2020 20:49 (six years ago)

Nadia Ratsimandresy & Matteo Ramon Arevalos: "Messiaen Et Autour De Messiaen For Onde Martenot And Piano": https://www.discogs.com/Nadia-Ratsimandresy-Matteo-Ramon-Arevalos-Messiaen-Et-Autour-De-Messiaen-For-Onde-Martenot-And-Piano/release/2379659

I bought this a few years ago, played it once in the background and didn't think much of it, put it on the shelf, then pulled it out again earlier this year and had a close listen and was absolutely blown away by it...especially the two stunning Messiaen pieces from "Quartet for the End of Time" that bookend the album.

ReR Megacorp has it as part of their £5 sale: https://www.rermegacorp.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Session_ID=8dfe039326ef792e8cbae11c36dc5e35&Screen=PROD&Category_Code=&Product_Code=ReROM1&Store_Code=RM

Check out this video portrait/mini-doc about Nadia Ratsimandresy and the Onde(s) Martenot (in French with subtitles!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2ZVrzA7JbE

― ernestp, Sunday, 7 June 2020 04:02 (six years ago)

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