Ondes Martenot and 'Ghostbusters'

The ghostly wail in the Ghostbusters score isn't a synthesizer — it's the ondes martenot, a French electronic instrument patented in 1928. Composer Elmer Bernstein used it throughout the film to create supernatural tension, from the New York Public Library basement scene to the rooftop climax. It's so rare that fewer than 100 players had mastered it by 2001. There's a lot more to this strange instrument's haunted history than you'd expect.

Key Takeaways

• Composer Elmer Bernstein prominently featured the ondes martenot in Ghostbusters (1984) to create a supernatural sonic identity throughout the score.
• The instrument provided eerie motifs and tension-building sequences, including an ascending passage during the New York Public Library basement scene.
• It was used during terror dog attacks and the Keymaster–Gatekeeper convergence, though later partially masked by earthquake sound effects.
• The ondes martenot realized Dana Barrett's romantic theme with haunting, cello-like expressiveness, demonstrating its versatility beyond purely unsettling effects.
• Bernstein deployed the instrument within a 110-piece orchestra, giving the ondes martenot a grand ensemble context rarely afforded to it in cinema.

What Is the Ondes Martenot?

The ondes Martenot is a monophonic electronic instrument patented in 1928 by French cellist Maurice Martenot, who drew inspiration from the overlapping tones he heard coming from military radio oscillators during World War I. Its sound origins trace back to heterodyning vacuum tube oscillators, which produce its distinctive electronic tones.

You'll notice the instrument comprises two main units: a keyboard and a pull-wire ribbon controller. Its performance techniques include sliding a ring along the wire for glissando effects and applying lateral key movement for vibrato.

Martenot first demonstrated it on April 20, 1928, at the Paris Opera. He later developed it after meeting Leon Theremin in 1923, adapting similar concepts into a more versatile, expressive instrument capable of mimicking strings and other acoustic sounds. The instrument was taught at the Paris Conservatory beginning in 1947, with Martenot himself serving as the first teacher.

A separate drawer unit houses the left-hand controls, which allow the performer to shape articulation, dynamics and tone in real time during performance.

How the Ondes Martenot Makes Its Eerie Sound

Eerie and otherworldly, the ondes Martenot's signature sound originates from thermionic valves — vacuum tubes that oscillate at two radio frequencies. Through thermionic oscillation, the instrument uses heterodyning to combine these frequencies, producing entirely new tones.

You'll notice the instrument's expressive range comes from several key techniques:

• Ribbon glissandi — sliding a finger ring along a wire creates sweeping portamentos
• Lateral key movement — wiggling keys generates vibrato effects
• Waveform switches — sine, triangle, and pulse waves shape distinct timbres
• Stacked switches — combining multiple switches creates layered, organ-like compound sounds

The vacuum tubes handle both generation and amplification, while three specialized loudspeakers — one routing audio through a gong — deliver that unmistakable metallic, chiming resonance. A fourth diffuser, resembling a stringed instrument, functions similarly to a lyre and proves especially well suited for drones and rich, sustained textures.

The ondes Martenot was invented by Maurice Martenot, a French musician and inventor who developed the instrument using oscillating radio tubes to generate its signature electric pulses.

Classical Composers Who Fell in Love With the Instrument

Once you understand the instrument's rich sonic palette, it's no surprise that some of classical music's most adventurous composers immediately recognized its potential. Olivier Messiaen's devotion ran deep — he featured it in Turangalîla Symphony, Saint François d'Assise, and 3 Petites Liturgies, with his sister-in-law Yvonne Loriod premiering every Ondes Martenot work he wrote.

Arthur Honegger's advocacy was equally passionate; he argued it could replace the contra-bassoon in orchestras and wrote a striking part for Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher. Beyond these two, André Jolivet, Jacques Ibert, and Darius Milhaud all composed for it, cementing the instrument's place in 20th-century French orchestral music. Edgard Varèse also incorporated it into Ecuatorial, a work he originally composed for Theremin before revising it for the Ondes Martenot instead. You're looking at an entire generation of composers who genuinely couldn't resist what this electronic marvel could do.

The instrument's eerie tones, often described as reminiscent of the human voice, captivated composers precisely because it transcended the natural limitations of range and breath that singers face. Maurice Martenot himself tirelessly championed the instrument, embarking on a world tour following its first public demonstration in Paris in 1928 to introduce it to audiences and musicians everywhere. Much like how stanzas organize poetry by separating distinct ideas into contained units, composers structured their orchestral works to give the Ondes Martenot its own defined space within the larger composition.

How the Ondes Martenot Traveled From Paris to Hollywood

From the concert halls of Paris, the ondes martenot gradually made its way into European cinema, starting as early as 1934 when Arthur Honegger tapped it for film music. This Paris migration continued through Hollywood's studio adoption, driven by immigrating European composers contracted at major studios during the 1930s.

Key milestones in this journey include:

• *The Red Shoes* (1948) featured the instrument in its ballet score
• Maurice Jarre brought it to Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
• By the 1960s, British film and television soundtracks regularly featured it
• Elmer Bernstein made it a composing staple in the early 1980s, using it in Heavy Metal (1981) and later Ghostbusters (1984)

The instrument's glassy tones and glissandi made it a natural fit for cinema. Jeanne Loriod, widely regarded as the instrument's foremost virtuoso, began teaching the ondes martenot at the Paris Conservatory in 1970, helping cement the instrument's legitimacy as a serious musical voice both in concert halls and on screen. Bernstein favored the ondes martenot over the theremin in part because composers like him valued its flexibility, versatility, and ease of play compared to the notoriously difficult theremin. The broader cultural exchange that brought the ondes martenot from Paris to Hollywood mirrors the kind of transatlantic diplomacy that shaped American and European relations following the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

How the Ondes Martenot Defined the Ghostbusters Sound

When Elmer Bernstein brought the ondes martenot to Ghostbusters in 1984, he wasn't just borrowing a quirky French instrument — he was building a sonic identity for the supernatural world of the film. Its eerie, wavering tone became the score's backbone, signaling ghostly encounters before you'd even seen what lurked on screen. Bernstein wove spectral motifs around the instrument's capabilities, pairing it with strings and synthesizers to deepen its unsettling effect.

In the New York Public Library basement scene, you can hear exactly how its ascending pitch sequences built tension. But Bernstein also used it for thematic punctuation during comedic moments, letting the instrument's unearthly whistle accentuate humor through contrast. That dual function made the ondes martenot inseparable from the film's identity. The score was performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra, bringing the instrument's otherworldly qualities to life with full orchestral support.

Bernstein's affinity for the instrument didn't stop with Ghostbusters, as he went on to feature it in scores for films like The Black Cauldron, My Left Foot, and The Good Son. His repeated use of the ondes martenot across these projects cemented his reputation as one of the instrument's most dedicated champions in film.

Where You Actually Hear It in the Ghostbusters Score

- Rooftop climax: It weaves through terror dog attacks and the Keymaster-Gatekeeper convergence before getting buried under earthquake effects. The score throughout was realized by 110-piece orchestra, giving the ondes martenot an unusually large and varied ensemble to work against. Bernstein also leaned on the ondes martenot heavily for Dana's romantic theme, using its haunting, cello-like expressiveness to underscore her character's nobility and the film's romantic subplot.

Other Hollywood Films That Used This Unusual Instrument

You'd notice a clear instrument resurgence through the 1960s, when Maurice Jarre featured it prominently in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Richard Rodney Bennett incorporated it into Billion Dollar Brain (1967).

Even Danny Elfman turned to it for *Mars Attacks!* (1996), using ondist Cynthia Miller to replace an unavailable theremin player, proving the instrument remained a go-to choice for unsettling, atmospheric effects. Franz Waxman had already demonstrated this potential decades earlier, introducing the Ondes Martenot to Hollywood audiences in The Bride of Frankenstein (1936).

In fact, the instrument's screen history stretches back even further, with a brief but notable appearance in the French film Le Roman D'un Tricheur (1936), where Ginette Martenot performed a short train-travel sequence showcasing its distinctive sound.

Why Did the Ondes Martenot Never Become a Mass-Market Product?

Despite its haunting expressiveness, the ondes Martenot never broke into the mainstream for a straightforward reason: Maurice Martenot simply didn't want it to. He guarded his design, embraced artisanal manufacturing, and rejected licensing deals that could've scaled production. Custom pricing made ownership impossible for most, and by 2011, reproductions cost 12,000 Euros.

You can trace its obscurity to four compounding factors:

• Cost: Custom builds eliminated economies of scale entirely
• Fragility: Delicate construction couldn't survive touring demands
• Difficulty: Fewer than 100 players mastered it by 2001
• Access: Elite Parisian conservatory training created no amateur pipeline

Without hobbyists, affordability, or institutional reach, the instrument stayed niche — brilliant but deliberately gatekept by its own creator. After Martenot's death, his family produced a limited run of 50 student-model instruments in 1983, underscoring just how deliberately small-scale production had always been. Martenot himself taught at the Paris Conservatory, meaning the instrument's pedagogy remained concentrated in a single elite institution rather than spreading through broader educational networks — a structural bottleneck that kept the performer community exceptionally small for decades.

Where the Ondes Martenot Still Appears in Music Today

The ondes Martenot's distinctive tonal palette — capable of evoking violin, cello, flute, or the human voice — is a key reason composers across such varied genres continue to reach for it when conventional instruments fall short. Much like the dragon boat racing tradition, which evolved from ancient spiritual ceremony into a globally practiced competitive sport, the ondes Martenot has transcended its origins as an experimental curiosity to become a lasting fixture in serious musical composition.