Ondioline
The Ondioline is an electronic analog synthesizer, developed and built by Frenchman Georges Jenny.[1] Sometimes referred to as the "Jenny Ondioline," the instrument is considered a forerunner of the synthesizer. First conceived by Jenny in 1939, he continued refining and reconfiguring the device, producing dozens of variant models up until his death in 1975.
Though monophonic, the Ondioline is capable of creating a wide variety of sounds. Its keyboard spans three octaves, but by adjusting a register knob a player can render up to eight octaves. The instrument's keyboard is suspended on custom-designed springs, which enables a natural vibrato if the player manipulates a key laterally (from side to side) as that key is depressed. The keyboard is pressure-sensitive, and volume is controlled by a knee lever.
The foremost exponent and popularizer of the instrument was Jean-Jacques Perrey, who performed and recorded with it, composed for it, and served as the instrument's first salesman on behalf of Jenny. Perrey even recorded under the pseudonym "Mr. Ondioline."[2]
It is estimated that around 1,200 Ondiolines were constructed between the mid-1940s and the late-1960s, most handmade by Jenny himself. According to Ondioline authority/historian Wally De Backer, "The instrument was also offered in 'kit' form, where Jenny recommended purchasing the more complex assemblies – such as the keyboard – as complete units. The schematics were made available for amateur engineers to construct their own custom instruments, and they were encouraged to experiment with the amplifier, tone circuits and cabinetry."[1]
Development of the instrument[edit]
Jenny began constructing a first prototype around 1939 (the instrument was as yet unnamed) while recovering from tuberculosis at a sanatorium in the south of France.[1] The instrument functioned on a valve-based system and contained a built-in amplifier.[3] In 1946, Jenny's working model took first prize in the inventions competition at the Foire de Paris (Paris Fair).[1]
By the time Jenny began to manufacture the device commercially in 1947[4] he had settled on the name "Ondioline."[1] As a cost-saving measure — in order to reduce the instrument's retail price — Jenny often used low quality parts; as a result, the instruments required regular maintenance or they would become unplayable.[4]
For decades Jenny redesigned and manufactured new versions of the instrument at his Paris company, Les Ondes Sonores Jenny (later known as La Musique Electronique). Later models offered such options as automatic vibrato and tremolo.[1] There is no single standard model of the instrument.
Jenny declined to license the instrument for mass production.
Works for Ondioline[edit]
Perrey claimed that serious works for the Ondioline were composed by Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud.[5] According to a 1957 promotional brochure published by Jenny, works had been composed for the instrument by Honneger, Milhaud, Georges Auric, Joseph Kosma, Wanda Landowska, and Marcel Delannoy.[6]
A 1958 LP from the French Broadcasting System featured six new works composed for the Ondioline: Maurice Bagot's Suite Op.59 (for 3 Ondiolines); Gustave Samazeuilh's Musette (for Ondioline); Darius Cittanova's Chants Pour Les Eternites Differentes (for Ondioline); Jacques Chailley's Angelique (for Ondioline) and Ballet Divertissement (for Ondioline); and Jacques Castérède's Eolus (for Ondioline).[7]
Ongoing legacy and preservation[edit]
Jean-Jacques Perrey continued to perform live shows with the Ondioline until his death in 2016; he featured the instrument on his collaborative albums with musician Dana Countryman, The Happy Electropop Music Machine (2006) and Destination Space (2008), both issued on the Oglio label.
Shortly after Perrey's death in November 2016, Australian musician Wally De Backer, also known as Gotye, launched a new record label, Forgotten Futures, whose first release, Jean-Jacques Perrey Et Son Ondioline, was an LP of previously unreleased recordings of Perrey playing Ondioline. De Backer had befriended Perrey during the artist's long terminal illness and acquired the recordings from Perrey's private collection.[17] "We got to know each other over a number of visits," said De Backer, "and through the time I spent with him in his apartment in Lausanne in Switzerland, he and his daughter Patricia started to produce all sorts of ... interesting early recordings that hadn’t been released — test pressings, alternative arrangements of things that are better known in his work. As I started to listen to these things, over time I realized this whole collection of stuff that he never really put out is amongst his best work."[17] Among the tracks were collaborations with Dick Hyman and Angelo Badalamenti.
De Backer began acquiring Ondiolines and having them restored to working condition.[17] In 2016 he assembled a group called the Ondioline Orchestra, with whom he performed on the instrument. The first such concert was a posthumous tribute to Perrey, at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, New York.[18]
In a 2018 interview with Australia's Broadsheet, Gotye said, “You can dial in an incredibly wide range of sounds on the ondioline, and the unique mechanics for playing it allows you to create sounds very sensitively and with a musical deftness I just feel isn't present on most other electronic instruments from the '40s – or decades since."[19]
In 2022, De Backer launched a comprehensive website, Ondioline.com, devoted to the instrument and its history.[1]
In October 2022, Spitfire Audio released a virtual recreation of the Ondioline, called Electronic Antique, as part of their free LABS plugin.[20]