electric musical instruments

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electric musical instruments. Instrs. in which the use of elec. devices such as valves and photo-cells determines or affects the actual sound of the note prod. Before the full-scale development of electronic music several electric instr. were pioneered. Chief among these were the sphaerophon, the theremin, the trautonium, the ondes Martenot, the hellertion, the electronde, and the rhythmicon.