The Art of Noises. A talk and performance

 Leighton Buzzard has/had a 'Pop up' Arts Centre in the old Wilkos store on the High Street. This is a fantastic space and resource for the town. The organisation is Culture Co:LB

 

This you tube video shows the space and explains it's aims.

  https://youtu.be/7J9YP-gvEcU?si=YnLx6OAtdp6jad2b

 and Culture Co:LB's website is here.

https://culturecolb.uk/

The group is looking for proposals for events so I submitted a talk and demonstration of my machines. Something I've been meaning to do for a long time.

The talk and demonstration was well received and the Art centre described it as a great event, with over 30 people attending. However I didn’t think it went well. I found it very stressful. My laptop wouldn't connect to the projector to show my power point presentation, so I had to convert it to a PDF and up load it to a shared drive to be linked and downloaded on another laptop, which sounds easy now I'm explaining it but I up loaded an unfinished earlier version. Doing all this meant I couldn't properly sound test my machines so the performance aspect was poor. It was like being back in the classroom with the everything going wrong and out of control. Oh and a school inspector is about to enter!

Needless to say I did not get to properly record the event. Here's a clip of the confusion, thankfully John Garrad artist and musician was on hand to drive the performance along.

 Anyhow I've learnt a lot from this experience for Art of Noises 2! Many thanks to the Culture Co: LB for giving me this opportunity.

 

 

 

The Scoppiatori Exploder/ Burster revisited.

As I've mentioned before my building these machines is in part a practical investigation to discover how they might have sounded and played in a modern context. I've decided my build of the the Scoppiatori Exploder/ Burster is wrong. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started from the premise that it was similar to the standard intonarumori  with a drum and string but stood on its end. But I don't think there is any reason for this. I now think it is a mechanical drum probably based on designs by Leonardo da Vinci which Russolo would have been aware. Page 984r Codex Atlanticus. Which is held in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in MIlan.

Mechanical kettle drum. Page 984r Codex Atlanticus, Picture from Wikimedia commons.

I also don't like the sounds the machine makes. I feel they don't compliment or are that different from my other three intonarumoris. It is also far too complicated a design.

Here's the machine about to be dismantled, showing the glockenspiel, 'sonic hamster wheel' and other mechanism.  

I'll  be looking to reuse some of these mechanisms or even make them into stand alone machines. 

I'm going to raise the drum and create a platform for my motor driven beaters to hit the drum. Using speed controllers this will allow for different rhythms to be set.

I've inserted a board at an angle to re-direct the sound to the horn opening. I saw this on the machines designed by Luciano Chessa at the Wigmore hall concert.  I will be keeping the levers to tighten the tone on the drum using either the design from Russolo's musikinstrument patent or a string as in the Ronzatori. The other levers can lower objects on to the drum to either 'dance' or to be hit by the motor beaters. Which will hopefully create the sounds Russolo describes in his book, The Art of Noises, '....like the bursting of objects that break and shatter' or 'make a noise similar to that of  a gasoline engine..' But I will see how my practical experimentation will go.

 

David Lien musician, educator, and filmmaker visits.

David Lien Musician, Educator, and Filmmaker paid me a visit to see my intonarumori. He wanted to film my machines and interview me for an episode on his Youtube channel 'The instrument makers'.

I hired out a local church hall for an afternoon where my machines could be set out, amplified and played. It was the first time four of my machines had been brought together and played. Needless to say this process still needs to be given a little more thought. 

It was a very enjoyable afternoon, David made a number of useful suggestions and his interest has inspired me to further develop the project. The visit ended with us playing a short improvised performance you can hear below.

 

 

 

Blank Frank · Intonarumori performance with David Lein Musician, Educator, and Filmmaker

The Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners

The Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners. Wigmore Hall London. 17th January 2025

Conducted by Luciano Chessa

Russolo and Marinetti brought 16 machines to London in 1914, a hundred years later the machines are back. Nine works were  conducted by Luciano Chessa and performed by the New Music Society of the Guildford school of Music and Drama. Surely a once in a life time event.

As you can see from my photograph an array of Intonarumori were there to perform, which meant you could hear a depth of tones and a range of textures. Luciano even performed a solo.

Luciano's book has been a very important reference for me in my project so it was a real privilege to see this performance. I must now finish my instruments and look to a performance.

Here's The Guardian newspaper's review of the concert.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jan/19/orchestra-of-futurist-noise-intoners-ensemble-klang-review-london-contemporary-music-festival-lcmf-wigmore-hall?CMP=share_btn_url

 Motorik or What!

The Musikinstrument is nearly finished. I just need to tidy some aspects up. The individual tubes need separate microphones to amplify the sound in the tubes which other wise cannot be heard. This in turn needs to be to be put through a pre-amp and a mixer in order for the instrument to be played. I also need to learn how to play it!

 Very Motorik as some one has said.

 Russolo in his patent suggests that, 'Instead of pipes, resonators of another kind,
e.g. strings, can be used.' Here I think I'm going to try a metal spring which was used in another of Russolo's machines.

Set the controls for the heart of the Sun

One aspect of my work is a practical investigation into these sound machines. I feel I have tried to make the scissor mechanism work by adding a support and sliding rails but this does not improve the operation, so I will take up Russolo's suggestion in his patent that this Nurnberg (Nuremberg) scissor type mechanism 'can be replaced by any other type of construction'. I'm going to use simple levers and pulleys, mechanisms Russolo has used in his other machines. 

Supporting rails and linear bearings.

Addition of the pulleys. Still thinking about keeping the scissor mechanism in place.

Pulleys and lever controls. This mechanism works, the only problem I have at the moment is the string 'riding off ' the pulleys. My next step is to amplify the sound in the tubes and then tidy the machine up.

Musikinstrument final assembly and failure.

People who looked at the patent plans said it wouldn't work. I wasn't too sure but by making the machine as faithfully to the plans I hoped to find out what any problems might be. Here's the final assembly.

 

 

Mechanically there is too much movement, twisting and pivoting on the lever mechanism to pull the tubes up. Either some structural supports need to be added or a completely new slider mechanism devised. Russolo in his patent says that this Nurnberg (Nuremberg) scissor type mechanism 'can be replaced by any other type of construction'. 

The extension of the tubes would seem to make no difference to the sound. There is a pitch difference but that is made by the underneath pressure roller tightening the drum skin. The sound is similar to that made by my Ronzatori where the drum skin is tightened by the string. In fact Russolo suggests that the pipes could be replaced by 'resonators of another kind, e.g. Strings could be used'. 

So as I blogged earlier I suspect that like the Instrument de Musique this machine was never made and really only the sketch of an idea to be developed. Ultimately the sounds it makes are a little underwhelming given the effort made to realize the machine.

Musikinstrument progress

 Using a 3d printer I've started to print out the brackets and flanges for the telescopic tubes. Now I'm quite confident at coding and using the printer I might look to add printed parts to my earlier machines.

Starting to take shape. I'm not convince this is going to work. The levers seem too flimsy and the whole mechanism will perhaps need some support.

Musikinstrument

The Musikinstrument was another enigmatic design by Russolo. It's unclear how the instrument will be played to make the sound, but I've started to construct it and perhaps this will become clearer once it's made. Russolo obtained a patent for this machine in Germany 1920. I've put a copy here Musikinsrument patent 1920

Like the French patent of 1931, the musical instrument which used a conveyor belt to activate a spring, I wonder if it was ever made or if it will be practical. I intend to find out.

I can't decide whether to put the tubes in a linear or triangular configuration. I'll just have to see which method will achieve the best lever slide action. As you can see I'm using transparent tubes. Here I intend to have coloured lights in the machine to create a synesthesia effect which of course was one of Russolos investigations.

I've only just 'sat' the tubes on the holes. I need to 3D print some brackets once I've figured out the code. In the meantime I'll start the scissor leaver mechanism.

21st Sept progress

Underneath the drum there is a skin tensioning slider mechanism. Without a proper orthographic view of this, the drawing would suggest it slides at an angle. I think so positioned it would be difficult to work with the lever.

 

So I'm fixing the rail centrally.

Fixing the slider mechanism.

 

The Sonic Hamster Wheel

Russolo describes his Scoppiatori Exploder/ Burster as producing 'noises like the bursting of objects that break and shatter', I've had a bit of difficulty trying to recreate this effect. At first I was thinking along the lines of a lever using strings to lift up on a number of metal plates similar to a Venetian blind, to then drop and crash down on to a suitable resonating material. But my experiments produced a very unsatisfactory sound. So I'm now planning to using a rotating drum which will lift up a variety of material such as metal, ball bearings in the manner of a cement mixer to let it crash down. Of course the use of cement mixers and revolving drums in sound art is well established. I attended the re-enactment of the Concerto for voice and machinery at the ICA in 2007. Here the performers used two cement mixers into which were smashed bottles. You can see excerpts from this here...... 

https://youtu.be/9RcGxi2Z7J0 

Please google 'Concerto for voice and machinery ICA' for links to videos and further information about this event and the original performance in 1984. In the original performance power tools were used to destroy the stage. The performers included Genesis P-Orridge and members of Einstürzende Neubauten. By comparison my hamster style wheel will be very tame.

A metal wrap to reproduce an industrial sound. The mesh is to let the sound out.

Things are starting to get a little tight fitting things inside the intonarumori.

Here's a brief test using some ball bearings, nuts and bolts. The design of the wheel will allow these contents to be changed.

Here's the wheel fitted inside the intonarumori.

Scoppiatori glockenspiel fitting.

As this will be the last intonarumori I will probably make, I'm trying to get a multitude of effects and sounds within the frame work of the basic Russolo design. Doing so will make the instrument more interesting to perform, as there are only so many hours of droning you can bear to play. Today I fitted a glockenspiel which is activated by the same arm which slides the bridge. It produces a great glissando. It will also be played using a keyboard and solenoids. Should I have time I'll also look  to connecting it to an Arduino, but that is very much in the future.

glockenspiel with solenoids

Glockenspiel fitted

On the subject of glockenspiels, I recently visited the Whitechapel art gallery in London, to see 'Sense Sound/Sound Sense Fluxus Music, Scores & Records in the Luigi Bonotto Collection'

This is a great exhibition about various sound art practitioners in the 60's. I was interested to learn about the work of Joe Jones who too seems to have used small electric motors to effect sounds on a variety instruments including guitars, drums and glockenspiels. I'm going to explore his work further. Listening to a recording of Joe's work, the performance of my mechanical glockenspiel at the UFO pavilion sounds very similar. Groan the impossibility of being original.

Right side levers which pull motor driven discs into play on the string

Scoppiatori Burster Exploder progress

I've started work on the Scoppiatori. To be honest I don't know if these upright Intonarumori were listed as the Scoppiatori/ Burster/ Exploder but mine will make the noises Russolo described these machines as making. I have a plan and intend to use a number of string/ drum hitting mechanism to affect a variety of sounds. However these will change during the construction process, as new possibilities are suggested and my understanding of these machines is furthered.

In response to historical press reports of brass plates and bellows being inside an intonarumori, I'm going to include the plates of a xylophone (technically a glockenspiel) and possibly bellows. The xylophone can of course be used to create the 'noises like the bursting of objects that break and shatter', which Russolo mentions but, I'm also looking to get the xylophone played conventionally within the intonarumori. This is because Russolo in his book, the Art of Noises, talked about a xylophone being added to his orchestra of Intonarumoris because of it's clear dry timbres...' making an interesting contrast to the complex timbres of the noise instruments'. 

Here I've started to add three 'swinging arms', which through activating the levers will bring the motors and their effects into play against the string and drum.

Intonanumori musings. The Scoppiatori Exploder/ Burster

This is the well known image of Russolo and his assistant Piatti. It's the instrument Piatti is playing that I'm interested in making next.

The instrument Russolo is playing looks like the typical intonarumori design with a string attached to a drum membrane and he is turning a handle which will activate a disc against the string with the lever on top moving a bridge to alter the pitch as I've shown earlier in my blog. However Piatti's intonarumori is very different. He is pushing down a lever with his right hand resting on top. He could be pressing a button to activate the sound.

I had thought this was a bass instrument but, the size of it's resonator is small and were it to have a string it would be very short, so the space above must be there for some mechanical reason?

Russolo was very secretive about the mechanism inside his intonaumori. On the one occasion the press in London were allowed to look inside they reported bellows,wooden discs and brass plates, could these be used here?

Any mechanism designed should try to replicate the sounds Russolo described his machines as producing. For example a version of the Burster (Scoppiatori ).produced 'noises like the bursting of objects that break and shatter'.

I think the lever could be lifting up on strings a number of metal plates like a Venetian blind to crash it down on to a suitable resonating material. The machine being raised on legs to further help the resonating sound. This would explain the reason for an upright structure to help a gravitational effect.

The Scoppiatori Exploder was an instrument Russolo deemed not suitable for a reduced orchestra, could this be an Exploder/ Burster?

Russolo describes there being a 'variety of Bursters', there was a low and medium version of one type. These might have been the typical intonarumori with lever and crank to produce the sound of  motor car engine, but the other type of which there were two, produced 'noises like the bursting of objects that break and shatter'. These could be the machines which are described as being different from each other and the preceding two in Russolo's list of constructed machines!

Replicas of these large upright standing intonarumoris were made for the performance of "Music For 16 Futurist Noise Intoners" in New York 2009. These machines were made under the supervision of Lucca Chessa. I do wonder if they are correct. The levers on these machines are at rest down at an angle and a You Tube video of Mike Patton playing a machines show him pulling the lever  up to affect the noise. In contrast the machines in Russolo's workshop show the levers at rest being horizontal and Piatti is pushing down the lever of the intonarumori he is playing.

Milton Keynes Gallery improvised music night (Scratch night)

My Ronzatori had it's first performance at one of Milton Keynes art galleries Improvised music nights (Scratch Nights). Here's a video of Sound artist Johnny Hill playing my machine, accompanied on guitar by Jakub M.

I was very pleased with the variety of sounds it could achieve over the course of being played for nearly two hours.

The Theremin Vox web site has some sound clips of intonarumori. Here you can identify those sounds made by a rubbing or plucking disc, the string being hit and the drum membrane being struck.
 
http://www.thereminvox.com/filemanager/list/12/index.html

Instrument de Musique

There would seem to be two patents Russolo took out which are accessible on the web. The instrument de Musique looks to be very straight forward to make from the text and plans.

 

Here's the first stage of the instrument I have built. The sound holes on the resonant box are my embellishment.

In the patent Russolo talks about the purpose of the invention.

'... is to create a musical instrument allowing the use of those longitudinal vibrations that are produced by the length ways application of a surface to a musical string. Notably, each musical string is made of a metallic thread wound into a spiral and tightened between two specific points above an appropriate resonant box. The aforementioned string is able to be struck, either by hand or stroked mechanically and tangentially by means of a loop and as seen in the diagram of the loop'.

So the next stage for me will be to build the conveyor belt. I do wonder if this instrument was ever built as the spring can't be tensioned as Russolo describes and I'm not sure if the suggested conveyor belt mechanism will create any desired sounds but I will try. At this stage I'm also unsure of what material to use for the belt. I'm quite intrigue by the Russolo's description of the instrument 'being softly and continually struck: for example, with a hand gloved in cellophane'. This may be a clue.

Working on the conveyor belt mechanism

Using a stepper motor drive belt. The ribs make an interesting sound

 The conveyor belt is an interesting mechanism. Again I wonder if it was used in any of the big floor standing intonarumori where the lever is pushed down?

Hmmm...... having motorized the belt I now wonder if the sounds it produces were worth the effort, making me further question whether the instrument was ever made.

As you can hear the electric motor drowns out any sound the spring might make. Putting a contact piezo on the spring might help here. Getting the conveyor belt to run properly was a test of my mechanical design capabilities. Here's a photo of the belt tensioning pulley I had to add.

Mind you it's pretty industrial looking and sounding. I'm going to try a different spring and conveyor belt material.