Program 542: Planes, Trains, and Machineries
KALW Broadcast Date: December 14, 2018 | Host: Randall Wong
This program includes works of Alexandr Mosolov, Mikhail Matiushin, George Antheil, Julius Meytuss, Arthur Honegger, and Arseny Abraamov celebrating the modern industrial age of the 1920s and 30s.
The program concludes with Arseny Avraamov’s Symphony of Sirens, 1922. He is almost completely unknown with few surviving works yet remains a pivotal figure of the Russian Avant-garde. Not a piece of music in the conventional sense, it was first performed by and in Baku, the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan, by Navy steamships, hydroplanes, gun fire, military regiments, brass bands, choruses, and the city’s factory sirens, all coordinated by cannon shots and a team of signal flaggers. It is a precursor to John Cage and The Art of Noise. By contemporary technology it wasn’t possible to make a sound recording; this is a reconstruction by Miguel Molina and Leopoldo Amigo, on ReR Megacorp.
Program Audio
30-Second Spot
Track Info & Links
Title: The Steel Foundry
Composer: Alexandr Mosolov
Performers: Julius Ehrilich and The Grand Orchestra Symphonique de Paris
Recording Title: Steel Foundry (from Symphony of Machines)
Record Label: Columbia (UK)
Catalog Number: E 301914 LB 17, 78rpm
Title: Airplane Sonata
Composer: George Antheil
Performers: Steffen Schleiermacher
Recording Title: The Bad Boys!
Record Label: Hat Hut Records
Catalog Number: 6144
Title: Victory over the Sun
Composer: Mikhail Matiushin / Julia Dmitriukova
Performers: RTR Radio Russia Orchestra
Recording Title: Baku: Symphony of Sirens. Sound Experiments in the Soviet Avant-Garde
Record Label: ReR Megacorp
Catalog Number: ISBN-10: 0956018408
Title: The Dneiper River Water Power Station
Composer: Julius Meytuss
Performers: Julius Ehrilich and The Grand Orchestra Symphonique de Paris
Recording Title: Sounds of New Music, 1957
Record Label: re-released, Smithsonian/Folkways
Catalog Number: FX 6160
Title: Pacific 231
Composer: Arthur Honegger
Performers: The Grand Orchestra Symphonique de Paris (1929)
Recording Title: Pacific 231, Mouvement Symphonique
Record Label: Columbia
Catalog Number: Columbia XXP 7038 J 8229, 78rpm
Title: Bahnfahrt (Train Journey)
Composer: Unknown
Performers: Unknown
Recording Title: Sounds of New Music, 1957
Record Label: re-released, Smithsonian/Folkways
Catalog Number: FX 6160 LP & CD-R on demand
Title: Symphony of Sirens
Composer: Arseny Avraamov
Performers: The City of Baku
Recording Title: Baku: Symphony of Sirens. Sound Experiments in the Soviet Avant-Garde
Record Label: ReR Megacorp
Catalog Number: ISBN-10: 0956018408
