Perhaps the most unusual symphony of the last century was performed by the Soviet composer Arseny Avraamov. So what kind of symphony was it that its instruments were sirens, the noise of cars, the roar of the city?
Where do usable voices end up in a symphony? You can place the instruments you want on the stage, so of course you can expand it as much as you want. But what if the scene you have in mind is not a raised platform but an entire city? If the whole city is your stage, what instruments would be included in such a stage? Cannons, rifles, sirens, horns, people, protests, factories, armies, trains, ships, planes… Can't all these be considered instruments too?
Arseny Mikhailovich Avraamov (1884, Novocherkassk, Russian Empire - 1944, Moscow, USSR) was an avant-garde Russian composer and theorist. He studied at the music school of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, with private composition lessons from Sergey Taneyev. He refused to fight in World War I, and fled the country to work, among other things, as a circus artist. Returning in 1917, he went on to compose his famous "Simfoniya gudkov" and was a pioneer in Russian sound on film techniques. He was also appointed culture minister for the People's Commissariat for Education.
Perhaps the most extraordinary symphony of the last century was performed by the Soviet composer Arseny Avraamov with exactly this in mind. On the 5th Anniversary of the October Revolution, Avraamov conducts Baku, the heart of socialist Azerbaijan, as if it were an orchestra. He was innovative enough to propose to the Soviet authorities 'burning all pianos' after the revolution, as he was representative of the traditional 12-note system. Let's take a journey towards this revolutionary experience where all the sounds of the city are masterfully transformed into music. But first, let's go back to the life of Avraamov, a militant revolutionary, who went through circuses, exiles, and fights.
A REVOLUTIONARY LIFE UNDERGROUND
Avraamov's life is as remarkable as his works. For example, he has fit more than one name in a lifetime: The artist who was born in Novocherkassk in 1886, 'Arslan-Ibrahim-ogli Adamov', 'Dmitry Donskoy', 'Axel Smith', 'Regent', 'Perditur' or 'Ars' uses names in different periods of his life. Until 1944, when he died, he would carry the nickname 'Revarsavr', an abbreviation of 'Revolutionary Arseny Avraamov', which is perhaps the most fitting name for him.
In fact, if you look at it, its story begins far away from instrument sounds, among guns and cannons. During his adolescence, he trained to be an artilleryman at the military school. But in his youth, he also met with communist thought. Therefore, with the emergence of his thoughts in the discussions at school, his revolutionary ideas are deemed "dangerous", and his military career is ended before it begins.
As such, he goes to Kyiv to study at the university as a young revolutionary. The 1905 Revolution in Russia also spreads to the university ranks. The university where he studied is also occupied by students. The police suppressed the occupation and only after this date, the days of underground life began for Avraamov. Now with a fake passport - and even a fake wife - he starts using the name Dimitry Donskoy. However, during an uprising in the same year in Kyiv, the revolutionaries in the city received a heavy blow. In a raid at Avraamov's house, he is forced to leave the city when it is revealed by the police that there is bomb-making material in the laundry basket.
PROPOSAL TO BURN ALL PIANOS
Surprisingly, the young communist who came to Moscow turned his life away from music and joins the music school of the Moscow Philharmonic Ensemble. He takes lessons on music theory from Russia's famous composers. He works as a music critic in various publications using the name 'Ars'. In 1912, while he was in the army, he was imprisoned for "making Bolshevik propaganda", but he found a way to escape and took the path of exile. He first started working as a seafarer in Norway. He quits sailing when he finds a job in a traveling circus; He begins to practice horse riding, musicianship, clowning, and acrobatic. After a tidal period from exile to the country, an event occurs that will change the lives of almost everyone living in those days: the October Revolution.
With the Bolsheviks entering the Winter Palace in Petrograd in 1917, a great process of struggle and change begins for all of Russia. For the first time in history, the power of the working class is being successfully and long-term built. A unique political/social event also has unique repercussions in the field of culture. In this sense, the Proletkult Movement embodies itself in the Soviet Union as an art movement that finds a new understanding of art in the proletariat. After the revolution, Avraamov assumed the responsibility of Proletkult's Music Department. He takes on duties as the culture and art commissioner of the Education Committee in various regions. He is the cultural director of the political department of the Red Army...
Avraamov also has some very revolutionary ideas in terms of musical theory. He strongly opposes the traditional 12-note system and works on a new 48-tone microtonal system to replace it. He uses the phrase "I don't see any contradiction between music and noise", attempting to break the chains of sound with a revolutionary spirit. He himself creates instruments to suit this kind of musical understanding and finds 'sound sources'. For 'ultra chromatic' music performances, for example, he uses tuned harmoniums (as many as four in a performance) and specially prepared pianos. He also increases the capacity of his fingers with objects resembling small rakes that he wears on his fingers.
After all these studies, Avraamov will open the door to some methods that are indispensable today. For example, in the field of music, it leads the process of quoting recordings and then adding different music (sampling), synthesizing the sound, and editing the sound.
In fact, their innovative work reaches such a level that after the revolution, the Soviet administration's Education Commissioner, Anatoly Lunacharsky, makes an interesting suggestion: Burning all the pianos in the country on the grounds that they are octave and representing the 12-note system.
Symphony of Sirens
The proposal to 'burn the pianos' does not come true. In any case, there is no need for pianos to be burned in order for Avraamov to walk on the path he knows. On the 5th Anniversary of the October Revolution, he puts on an incredible demonstration in Baku, the capital of socialist Azerbaijan. In Baku, where he teaches, he turns an entire city into a stage. It also processes the October Revolution with all the different sounds the city can make. The preparations are incredible. To count the members of the orchestra: the entire Caspian Sea fleet of the Soviets and their foghorns, a choir of thousands of voices lined up in the harbor, two artillery batteries, different infantry units participating with their guns, machine guns, seaplanes, 24 steam locomotives and the sirens of all the factories in the city, for the symphony to the city. Beacons waiting with guns on the built towers, all the buses and cars of the city...
Not only that, Avraamov has a design that will turn a steam locomotive into an instrument: This 'instrument', which he calls the Magistral, is also a valuable work considering the futuristic spirit of the era associated with trains.
There is no 'audience' in the show as we know it. Instead, there are various workers' choirs that take part in the symphony with the songs they sing. You see, everyone is a part of the symphony. Thus, Avraamov will make a whole city listen to the real role of the proletariat with the proletariat itself. It takes its place in the tower with the flags in their hands and various signs. This is how the unique symphony he directed from this point in Baku Harbor begins. Finally here is the Symphony of Sirens:
‘REDIRECTING HAPPY CHAOS’
Thus, the voice of the International mingles with the sirens, the voice of the Varsavyanka with the rumbling of cannons. Moreover, this is not a 'random' string. It's not just that the starters are mixed with the factory sirens. The foghorns, or even its mere presence, of the fleet in the Caspian Sea, reminds us of the cruiser Avrora and its crew, who played a key role on the side of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution. However, the best interpretation of the Symphony of Sirens, which was held in Baku in 1922 and in Moscow the following year, is again made by the owner of the work.
Avraamov also did many remarkable works for the rest of his life. One of them is the search for ways to put the image into sound. In the 1930s, he works on sound wave forming and animation of geometric drawings. Turning handwritten geometric drawings into sound without microphones or recording devices at that time is an incredible work.
THE 'MADNESS' OF REVOLUTIONARY CULTURE
He spent the last years of his life researching the music of the peoples of the Caucasus and died in 1944. Nevertheless, Symphony of the Sirens stands apart when commemorating Avraamov. Because if we want to get to know his music with his own life, this symphony is not only the sum of the October Revolution but also the sounds of his own life. Maybe we can say that all this life, from military schools to revolutionaries, from circuses to exiles, from music schools to revolutionary struggle, has been distilled into the Symphony of Sirens.