Ondes Musicales

(also ondes martenot), an electric musical instrument designed by the French inventor M. Martenot (born 1898) in 1928. It has a piano-type keyboard with seven octaves. It is only possible to play single-voiced music on the instrument; the timbre of the sound can be varied. Compositions for, or including, the ondes musicales have been written by D. Milhaud, A. Jolivet, and A. Honegger.