Ondiolini (1948)

The ondioline again:

Music lessons (3) The ondioline

From wikipedia:

The Ondioline is a vacuum tube-powered keyboard instrument, invented in 1941 ^[1] by the Frenchman Georges Jenny, a forerunner of today's synthesizers.

The Ondioline was capable of creating a wide variety of sounds. Its keyboard had a unique feature: it was suspended on special springs which made it possible to introduce a natural vibrato if the player moved the keyboard (not the entire instrument) from side to side (laterally) with their playing hand. The result was an almost human-like vibrato that lent a wide range of expression to the Ondioline. The keyboard was also pressure-sensitive, and the instrument had a knee volume lever, as well.

A few videos:

First a vintage record demonstrating Georges Jenny's Ondioline tube-driven electronic instrument, an important but almost forgotten ancestor of the modern synthesizer. The uploader included English translation of the French-language narration in this video.



From I've Got A Secret an episode of co-inventor of the ondioline Jean Jacques Perrey. (thanks to JJP for posting this on fb)





See also this previous post on the subject.

Mr. Ondioline

Mr. Ondioline's secret identity revealed as....Jean-Jacques Perrey.

Week 37 - Christmas Countdown, First Sunday of Advent

This rip is on-line again as from 2010.

It’s the first of Advent and we light the first or our four advent candles in our Christmas Countdown. Each week you will get a whole album and then, come Christmas eve, Santa will bring you something really special.

As we light our first candle we’ll be listening to Dick Jacobs album The Electro-Sonic Orchestra (Coral). A really great piece of space age pop yet having to see a re-release. Dick not only used the theremin but also that fantastic instrument the Ondioline, a small keyboard instrument with a very special vibrato, invented in 1940 by Georges Jenny. There’s also some tape playback effects here to spice it all up. All in all a marvellous album.

1. Volare
2. Cry
3. Hey There
4. Tammy
5. Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
6. Sincerely
7. Mack the Knife
8. Fascination
9. I´m Sorry
10. Little Things
11. Music
12. That´s My Desire

Download> Dick Jacobs' album 'The Electro-Sonic Orchestra' (incl. the front cover) as 1 zip file at MediaFire.
or
Download> Dick Jacobs' album 'The Electro-Sonic Orchestra' (incl. the front cover) as 1 zip file at files.ww. (seems to be down at the moment...)

(Wow! We are SO nice! The Christmas spirit has already rubbed off on us)

Btw - "The Commercials" mp3 comp. is still available, and so is the "Celebrities" mp3 comp..

Early Electronic Oddities

"Early Electronic Oddities is an exploration of the strange and subliminal sounds of early electronic musical instruments from 1860 to 1970, and many now almost obselete daring and experimental creations like the Mixtur-Trautonium, the Ondes-Martenot, the Rhythmicon, the Ondioline, the RCA synthesizer, electro-theremin and the inventions of the Italian Futurists and Raymond Scott. Live discussions, field recordings and amazingly unearthed rare recordings presented by two theremin players, Miss Hypnotique and Bruce Woolley. Features recorded contributions by Bob Moog and Jean-Jacques Perrey."
Originally broadcast on Friday 29th October 7 - 8.30pm GMT on London's Resonance 104.4fm.
Listen to the show here. (via Swen's Weblog)