Maurice Louis Eugène Martenot

Maurice Louis Eugène Martenot was born 14 October 1898 in Paris, France and worked throughout his life as a cellist, inventor, and educator. He studied cello and composition at the Paris Conservatory under the direction of composer André Gédalge, and, during the First World War, served as a wireless radio operator for the military. The combination of these two experiences can be seen to have influenced the design of the ondes Martenot, with interfering radio signals on vacuum tubes determining his use of the heterodyning process, and the cello informing his approach to a familiar musical instrument interface. Following the war, he began work on his instrument, continuing development for nine years before obtaining a patent in April of 1928 under the name “perfectionnements aux instruments de musique électriques” (“improvements to electronic music instruments”). A month later, the instrument was first demonstrated at the Paris Opera. Despite emerging at nearly the same time as Leon Theremin’s instrument, the Theremin – which also received its first patent in 1928 and demonstration at the Paris Opera in 1927 – the two did not come into contact until meeting in New York City in 1930. Throughout the early 1930s, Martenot toured and performed extensively with the instrument, including a world tour with his sister, Ginette, between 1931 and 1932, a performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of famed conductor Leopold Stokowski in 1930, and an appearance at the 1937 Paris World’s Fair, at which he was awarded the Grand Prixe de l’Exposition Mondiale. From 1947 to 1970, Martenot taught the instrument at the Paris Conservatory. In addition to his active work as an ondist, or player of the ondes Martenot, Martenot was also a prolific theorist and writer on ideas related to electronic music technology and education. In 1929, he published a manifesto of sorts entitled “À propos des Ondes sonores”, the work for which he is perhaps best known. In 1952, he published a paper on a technique his sister had developed called Méthode Martenot, or the Martenot Method, followed by another paper in 1970 called “Principes fondamentaux de formation musical et leur application” (Fundamental Notions of Music Education and their Application). Moreover, he established a research and development pedagogical collective with his two sisters, with whom he also founded a music school in Neuilly-sur-Seine, teaching the Martenot Method. In addition to his writings on music education and technology, Martenot also advocated education in relaxation techniques, having published the well-known “Se relaxer, pourquoi? Comment?” (“Relaxing: Why? How?”) essay in 1977. Seven different models of the ondes Martenot were developed between 1928 and 1975. Martenot died in a moped accident on 10 October 1980 in Clichy, France. Production on the instrument continued until 1988, when his assistant, Marcel Manière, retired. In the early 1990s, the French government offered financial support for the construction of a digital reissue of the instrument.