Martenot, Maurice (1898–1980)

French scientist and musician. He studied piano and cello at the Paris Conservatory and composition with Gédalge. After various appointments as conductor and teacher, he opened the École d'Art Martenot at Neuilly. He was the inventor of the radio-electrical instrument ‘ondes musicales’, a development of Theremin's instrument, which he produced in 1928 and is now generally known as the ondes Martenot. In France a number of composers – Honegger, Milhaud, Koechlin, and especially Messiaen (whose sister-in-law Jeanne Loriod was the instrument's foremost exponent) – have written for it.