BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW ( I think its called THE DEVIL'S SKIN in the USA) uses the Ondes Martinot to very unsettling effect.
I agree with this one very much! Yet another favorite of mine to feature the Ondes Martenot.
We should be very grateful that Marc Wilkinson's soundtrack for BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW was released onto disc by Trunk in 2007. It's quite rare for a British horror movie (especially a non-Hammer film) to get a soundtrack album. We've read about how so many studio session tapes which were recorded in England have been lost - yet if Trunk can issue a Tigon soundtrack and Silva Screen release the Amicus DR. WHO AND THE DALEKS by Malcolm Lockyer, I hope there's hope for more of the same!
This thread has received divergent responses, making for interesting reading.
It appears that one either loves the Ondes Martenot or one doesn't.
I can appreciate the various pros and cons mentioned.
Nevertheless, some of the feedback seems extreme. For example, one may dislike the tones of the OM, but if one dismisses an entire score (along with whatever merits it may possess) just because one doesn't like the sound of a single instrument, then such an outlook is subjective rather than objective.
If there's a musician whom you hate, this hatred shouldn't extend to disqualify the entire body of the orchestra in which this musician performs. (just my opinion )
... and if one shuns repeat listenings based upon initial disappointment from the first hearing, then one is not offering a 'second chance' to the musical work. This stance seems unforgiving, and colder than any of the possible sounds emanating from the instrument ...
Still, I'm glad about the number of positive posts thus far.
Indeed. See "The Infernal Machine" at 08:13 when Koenig, Bergman and Russell step into the main room of Companion.
That's a piece of Chappell library music called "Profondeurs" (aka "Lunar Landscape") by Roger Roger but played at half speed. Barry Gray did use several multitracked Martenots to exquisite effect in the episode Black Sun. And Harry Lubin used a Trautonium in the Outer Limits rather than a Martenot.
Here endeth the lesson.
I've always loved Barry Gray and Richard Rodney Bennett's use of the instrument. I think they really understood its "singing" qualities and its potential for emotional intensity.
I have to say that I'm not keen on many Martenot scores written from the 80s onward. That's entirely to do with the change in playing technique that occurred then. In the 60s, the Martenot tended to be played with a fast and deep vibrato and plenty of "swoop" between notes - very beautiful and expressive (hear Billion Dollar Brain or Secret Ceremony). From the 80s, a more "tasteful" performance style seemed to take hold among players, featuring a weaker and slower vibrato and an almost pan-pipe like tone and shape to the notes. Insipid in my opinion, and a far cry from the genuinely strange beauty of the early days. That technique prevails to this day... unfortunately.
Nevertheless, the Ondes Martenot remains my favourite musical instrument. I adore it. It was brilliantly conceived and executed by its inventor, Maurice Martenot. The man was a genius.
While I have a number of favorite works by Olivier Messiaen, I honestly don't count the "Turangalila-Symphonie" amongst them. The Turangalila is landmark opus, without a doubt, but it can be a rather unwieldly item in comparison to such works as "Oiseaux Exotiques" or "Chronochromie". Messiaen also used the Ondes Martenot in other works as well, like the "3 Petites Liturgies de la Presence Divine".
The Ondes Martenot was featured in some symphonic poems and chamber pieces by Charles Koechlin, whose works I consider to be most resonant (to my personal sensibilities, anyway). "Le Docteur Fabricius" is one such example from Koechlin's catalogue, though Koechlin's most effective offering, in my opinion, of the Ondes Martenot can be heard in his 2-part masterpiece "Le Buisson Ardent" - a portion of which has been captured in the following YouTube video:
I discovered an anime film today that they say it's visually stunning (Tree of Palme), and also they say that has beautiful music featuring this instrument. I just found a piece in youtube. I'll have to find the whole score. (it's by Takashi Harada)
Inside the liner notes for Tadlow's re-recordning of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, I just recently noticed a little piece by Francois Evans who informs readers that the Ondes Martenot used during the original recording sessions would have been a Modele #6 (which was manufactured between 1953 and 1971).
The Modele #7 Ondes Martenot was created in '71, and this may account very well for the differences in the 'sound' of this instrument going forward.
How different might the screen history of the instrument have been had Miklos Rozsa been able to secure it for THE THIEF OF BAGDAD in 1939-1940? I think it was intended for the flight of the genie, which wound up being accompanied by wordless chorus instead. M. Martenot was busy serving on the Maginot Line, and supposedly there was nobody else available to play for the soundtrack. At least that's the way Rozsa always told the story.
) 
