You may consult on the Net some good information about Les Ondes Marten-
ot and its composers, and even hear Ondes-Martenot sound files with two
Excerpts from Olivier Messaien's "Turungalila Symphonie" (1946-48),
"jardin du sang des etoiles" combined with strings and solo piano, and
a solo Ondes Martenot exploiting the glissando effect, "Turungalila 2"
at  http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/martenot/

At  http://www.chez.com/cslevine/Ondes/ONDES.htm is a very complete
site with an English translation where you'll find a list of
compositions for this instrument from Messian and Landowski but also
Jolivet with his Concerto, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Roger
Tessier, Edgar Varese, ...   You can listen to some samples, too.

Hope it will help to know more about this French invention which is
always in use, especially in film music (Mad Max, for example), unless
it is not a true mechanical music instrument !

Lorraine Aressy
Perforons la musique Society
France

 [ Thanks for the nice report, Lorraine; it surely is a unique
 [ instrument.  Both the Theremin and Les ondes Martenot use
 [ electronics to generate a monophonic solo voice, under the control
 [ of a skilled musician.  The slide whistle and the slide trombone do
 [ the same, and without electricity!  The true self-playing mechanical
 [ music instrument must also have a stored binary data file to control
 [ the instrument, such as a punched paper roll or a pinned cylinder or
 [ a MIDI data file.  -- Robbie