|
 You've
probably never heard of the Ondes Martenot, though you've also
probably listened to it loads of times in science fiction films under
the impression that it was a Theremin.
Invented in France in 1928 by Maurice Martenot, the Ondes Martenot
works on a similar principle to the more famous Theremin and was
almost as difficult to play as it required the artist to manipulate a
pair of control units while fiddling about with a ring attached to a
string.
However, in later versions of
the Ondes Martenot were made easier to use by it incorporating a
keyboard and slide instead of relying on all that hand waving stuff.
British composer Barry Gray was
a great fan of the Ondes Martenot, using it throughout the 1960s to
score Gerry Anderson's films and television series, most notably the
famous "Sleeping
Astronauts" sequence from
Doppelgänger.
Ever economical, Gray and
Anderson later recycled the music for an episode of
UFO. Ah, thrift! |
