Marteno, Maurice

Maurice Martenot ( fr. Maurice Louis Eugène Martenot ; October 14, 1898 , Paris - October 8, 1980 , Clichy-la-Garenne ) - French music teacher and inventor , best known for his design of the Wave Martenot instrument.

From childhood, he learned to play the piano and cello, studied harmony and counterpoint. In 1928, he completed work on his main invention - the electric musical instrument of the Wave of Marteno - and then devoted most of his life to its refinement and propaganda. In 1931 he undertook the first world tour with the performance of music on his instrument. At the same time, already in the second half of the 1920s. began to work in the field of musical pedagogy, including in the framework of the Psychophysiological Institute of Music Education, created by Yuri Bilstin , whose ideas had a noticeable impact on Marteno ^[4] . In 1933 he was awarded a gold medal at the Louis Lepin Invention Competition for developing musical games. In 1936, the Marteno School of Art opened in Paris. In 1937, for the invention of the Waves, Marteno received the gold medal of the World Exhibition in Paris.

In the post-war years, with the participation of Marteno, not only the Martenne Waves class was opened at the Paris Conservatory , but also the rhythmic development class. In 1967, Marteno’s main pedagogical work, Fundamental Principles of Music Education ( French Les Principes fondamentaux d'éducation musicale ), was published and subsequently reprinted several times.

Officer of the Legion of Honor (1975).

The elder sister Marten Madeleine (1887-1982) received a pianistic education and, together with her brother, ran the Marteno School of Art. The younger sister Ginet (1902-1996) became one of the first performers on the instrument of her brother.