Sonification of You. Martin John Callanan

Arsenij Avraamov conducting with two flaming torches, 1922

Symphony of the Factory Sirens [Simfoniya gudkov, Гудковая симфония]
Arseny (Arsenij) Mikhailovich Avraamov [Арсений Михайлович Авраамов]
Arsenij Avraamov's best-known creation appeared involved the Caspian port of Baku [Bakı, capital of Azerbaijan], for the Fifth Anniversary of the Soviet Republic on 7 November 1922. A spectacular, called the Symphony of the Factory Sirens, used the services of a huge cast of choirs (joined by spectators), the foghorns of the entire Soviet Caspian flotilla, two batteries of artillery guns, a number of full infantry regiments (including a machine-gun division) hydroplanes, and all the factory sirens of Baku. Conductors posted on specially built towers signaled various sound units with colored flags and pistol shots. A central "steam-whistle machine" pounded out "The Internationale" and "La Marseillaise" as noisy "autotransports" (half-tracks) raced across Baku for a gigantic sound finale in the festival square.
Part of the event program reads:
"[I part. "Anxiety". On the first salyutnomu fired from a raid (about 12) come with an alarming toll Zyh, White City, and Bibi-Eybat Bailov.
Upon entering the fifth gun rings Tovaroupravleniya Aznefti and docks.
On the 10th I-II-III and I-Group plants Chernogorodskogo area.
On the 15 th-1 st group Black sirens and the city fleet. At the same time, the fourth company armavirskih komkursov, predvoditelstvuemaya combined duhovym Varshavyankoy "with the orchestra, goes to the wharf.
At the 18 th gun factories come gorrayona and seaplanes take off.
At the 20 th-blast railway depot at railway stations and the remaining locomotives. Machine guns, infantry and steam Orchestra, which come at the same time, receive signals directly from dirizherskoy tower ...
Over the last five rounds anxiety reaches a peak and ends with the 25 th gun. Pause. Call (sig-nal with highway).
[Part II. "Boy". Triple chord siren. Declining seaplanes. "Hooray" to the wharf. Performing with the signal line. "International" (4 times).
The second polustrofe enters connected with the brass band "La Marseillaise."
In repeating (opening) melodies "Zonta" chorus enters entire area [...] and sings all three stanza to finish. At the end of last stanza returned armavirtsy with orchestras, "Hooray encountered response" from the area. In all the time of execution "Zonta" rings factory district, station (depots and locomotives) are silent.
[Part Ill. Apofeoz "victory". At the end, provide a general solemn chord, accompanied by bursts and the bell ringing for 3 minutes. Ceremonial march.
"International" is repeated twice more on the signals during the final march. After the third (last) performance of the signal siren again all the common chord Gudkov Baku and districts (15)."


Biography
"Russian composer and theorist. He studied theory at the music school attached to the Moscow Philharmonic Society with I.N. Protopopov and A.M. Koreshchenko (1908–11). From 1910 he was active as a music critic under the pseudonym Ars and, having refused to fight in World War I, fled abroad in 1914 and worked, among other occupations, as a stoker and as a circus artist. Returning to Russia in 1917 he was appointed arts commissar of the RSFSR branch of Narkompros (1917–18). He participated in the creation of the first Russian films with sound (1929–34), he led a sound laboratory in the Cinematic Institute of Scientific Research (1932–3) and he lectured at the Moscow Conservatory on the history and theory of sound systems (1934). While living in Nal'chik (1935–41) he collected folk music of the peoples of the north Caucasus and wrote some compositions based on these materials. He later conducted the Russian Folk Chorus (1941–3). During the early Soviet era many artists attempted to integrate technology and creativity; Avraamov's work typifies this trend. He invented a graphic-sonic art which was produced by drawing directly onto optical tape. He also sought to overcome equal temperament and tonality by his creation of an ‘ultrachromatic’ 48-tone system. This method was proposed in a thesis entitled Universal'naya sistema tonov (‘The Universal System of Tones’) and was realized in his demonstrations which took place in 1927 in Berlin, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. He is considered a precursor of the musique concrète movement with his Simfoniya gudkov (‘Symphony of Factory Sirens’) which was performed in Azerbaijan in 1923 and later in Moscow."