Ruidos y susurros de las vanguardias - Medialab Prado

that the mouth of man can produce without speaking or singing.
Let us cross a great modern capital, with our ears more alert than our eyes, and
we will enjoy to distinguish the eddying of water, gas or air in the metal pipes, the
muttering of the motors that snort and pulse with an unquestionable animality, the
throbbing of valves, the swing of pistons, the shrieks of power saws, the jumps of
the streetcar on the rails, the cracking of whips, the fluttering of awnings and the
flags. We will enjoy ideally by orchestrating together the roar of rolling shop
shutters, the shocks of the doors, the rumor and the kicking of the crowds, the
different hustle and bustle of the stations, iron works, the spinning mills, the
printing presses, electrical power stations and underground railroads.
We should not forget the latest noises of modern war. Recently, Marinetti, the
poet, in a letter sent to me from the trenches of Adrianopolis, described with
admirable words in freedom the orchestra of a great battle:
"every 5 second siege cannons gut the space with a ZANG-TUMB-TUUUMB
chord, rebellion of 500 echoes to nibble, crumble, and scatter it to the infinite. In
the center of those 50-square-kilometer wide squashed Zang-tumb-tuuumb jump
outbreaks cuts fists batteries quick-firing Violence fierceness regularity this
seriously low cadence of the strange acute devices of the battle Fury eagerness
ears eyes nostrils open! Watch out! Advance! what a joy to see hear smell all all
taratatatata of machine guns screaming until out of breath bites lashes slaps
traak-traak lashes pic-pac-pum-tumb extravagances jumps height 200 meters of
the fusilade Far far in back of the orchestra metals take apart oxen buffalos striker
pins cars pluff plaff rear up the horses flic flac zing zing sciaaack whinnies iiiiiii feet
stamped redoubles 3 Bulgarian battalions in march croooc-craaac (slowly)
Sciumi Maritza or Karvavena ZANG-TUMB-TUUUMB toctoctoctoc (very fast)
croooc-craaac (slow) shouts of the officers break like plates brass bread this way
paak that way BUUUM cing ciak (fast) ciaciacia-cia-ciaak up down there there
around above careful above your head ciaak nice! Flames flames flames flames
flames flames scenic presentation of the forts down behind that smoke Sciukri
Pasciá communicates by telephone with 27 forts in Turkish in German Allo!
Ibrakim! Rudolf! Allo! Allo, actors parts suggestive echoes smoke scenes forests
applause scent to hay mud dung I no longer feel my frozen feet smell at saltpeter
rotten odor of Eardrums flutes buglers all the corners under high birds tweet
beatitude shades cip-cip-cip green breeze flocks don-dan-don-din-beeeé
Orchestra crazy people beat the orchestra professors these beatenplay play on
Great roars not to erase need trimming noises smaller minute rubbish echoes in
the theater amplitude 300 square kilometers Rivers Maritza Tungia knocked
down Rodope Mounts heights theater boxes 2000 shrapnels arms out explode
very white gold handkerchiefs srrrrrrrrr-TUMB-TUMB 2000 grenades take with
outbreaks very black hair ZANG-srrrrrrr-TUMB-ZANG-TUMB-TUUMB the
orchestra of the noises of war to inflate itself under a note of silence maintained in
high skies golden spherical ball that supervises the firing.
We want to harmoniously and rhythmically intone and regulate these wideranging
noises. To intone the noises does not imply to deprive them of all the
movements and irregular vibrations of time and intensity, but to assign a degree or
pitch to the strongest and most predominant of these vibrations. In fact, the noise
differs from sound only in that vibrations produced are confused and irregular, in
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time as well as in intensity. Every noise has a pitch, sometimes also a chord
that predominates in all the irregular vibrations. From this characteristic
predominant pitch appears now the practical possibility to intone it, that is, to give
to a certain noise not only one pitch but a variety of tones, without it losing its
characteristic, I mean, the timbre that distinguishes it. Thus, some noises
obtained with a rotating movement can offer a complete upward or downward
chromatic scale, if the speed of the movement is increased or decreased.
All the expressions of our life are accompanied by noise. Noise is therefore
familiar to our ear and has the power of immediately recalling life itself. While
sound, oblivious to life, always musical, something in itself, unnecessary
occasional element, has become already for our ear what for the eye is a wellknown
sight. Noise instead, as it comes confused and irregular from the irregular
confusion of life, is never revealed to us entirely and holds countless surprises for
us. We are certain, then, that by selecting, coordinating and controlling all the
noises, we will enrich mankind with a new unsuspected voluptuosity. Although the
characteristic of noise is to brutally send us to life, the Art of noises should not
limit itself to an imitative reproduction. This will achieve its greater gift of
emotion in the acoustic enjoyment itself, which the inspiration of the artist will
know to extract from the combined noises.
Here are the 6 families of noises of the futurist orchestra that soon we will put to
practice, mechanically:
In this list we have included the most characteristic of the fundamental noises; the
others are not but associations and the combinations of these. The rhythmical
movements of a noise are infinite. There is always, as with pitch, a
prevailing rhythm, but around this, other numerous secondary beats can also be
perceived.
CONCLUSIONS:
1- Futurist composers should increasingly expand and enrich the field of sounds.
This responds to a necessity of our sensibility. In fact, we notice in the brilliant
composers of today a tendency towards the most complicated dissonances.
When separating progressively from pure sound, they almost reach the noisesound.
This necessity and this tendency could not be satisfied except by adding
and replacing noises for sounds.
2- Futurist musicians should replace the limited variety of the timbres of today's
orchestra by the infinite variety of the timbres of the noises, reproduced with
appropriate mechanisms.
3- It is necessary that the sensibility of musicians, free from the easy and
traditional rhythm, finds in noises the means to expand themselves and to renew,
since any noise presents the union of the diverse rhythms, in addition to that
which predominates.
4 - As every noise has a predominant general pitch in its irregular vibrations, a
sufficiently extended variety of tones, semitones and quartertones is easily
attained in the construction of the instruments that imitate it. This variety of pitches
will not deprive each individual noise of the characteristics of its timbre, but it will
only increase its tessitura or extension.