Electronic Musical Instrument 1870

Georges Jenny developed the first Ondioline in 1938 whilst undergoing treatment in a tuberculosis sanatorium and continued to re-design and build the instrument at his Paris company "Les Ondes Georges Jenny" (later known as "La Musique Electronique") until his death in 1976. The instruments were individually built by Jenny himself or supplied in kit form, eventually over a thousand instruments were sold in the USA alone. In an attempt to keep production costs low (Ondiolines originally sold for a mere $400) poor quality components were often used, and after a few years, the instrument became unplayable if it was not maintained.

The Ondioline, a monophonic vacuum tube isntrument, consisted of a single oscillator and a small eight octave touch sensitive keyboard (switchable through six octaves and tuneable via an octave transposer).It was possible to create complex waveforms via a series of filters and the sound wave could be shaped with the use of a touch wire, effecting the attack with a vertical finger movement or adding glissando or modulation by horizontal movement. The overall volume of the machine was controlled by a knee lever.

The Ondioline became a popular instrument in Europe, used widely in film and theatre music as well as in light music and cabaret. The Ondioline was marketed in Germany as the "Pianoline" and in The Netherlands as the "Orcheline" and made a notable appearance during the Brussels World Fair (1958) when it was played on top of the Atomium building.

A microtonal version of the instrument was built for the composer Jean-Etienne Marie during the sixties consisting of a four octave keyboard which could be tuned to a variety of microtonal systems.