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.

MK Calling 2020

Yeah I was there too......https://www.mkgallery.org/whats-on/mk-calling-2020/

Sound Sense exhibition

I thought I'd say a little more about the current Sound Sense exhibition at the Whitechapel art gallery in London. Which is on until the 1st of Feb 2020.

Even though this exhibition is in a small gallery there is a lot here about the sixties Fluxus artists involved in music and sound. Fluxus art is well represented in London at the moment with the Tate Modern showing the work of Nam June Paik. I'm a bit ambivalent about the Fluxus performances where pianos are ripped to pieces but I'm very inspired by the musical instruments they created and was fascinated to learn about the music machines of Joe Jones. A machine on show is a glockenspiel which is played automatically by a small electric motor.

Music Kit Xylophone

You can read more about this instrument here.

 https://www.fondazionebonotto.org/it/collection/fluxus/jonesjoe/1023.html

In this work he  shares how to make the instrument. So predates blogs and youtube instructional videos.

You can listen to his music here.

http://www.ubu.com/sound/jones.html

Joe also performs his automated music machines on Yoko Ono's  Fly album. Which is remarkable.

 He's plays on the tracks "Airmale", "Don't Count the Waves" and "You"

You can see his machines on the inside of the gate fold sleeve. This shows a variety of musical instruments hanging from frames and the small electric motors which spin effects to 'play' the strings or hit the percussion.

I was able to get a book which accompanied  a 1990's exhibition of his machines in Germany, this shows a considerable body of work. The dull cover in no way reflects the vast number of photos and drawings in the book.

His music machines are often a playful pun on an idea, such as the instruments in cages being a homage to John Cage and as I've described before often contain an actual musical instrument 'played' by a small electric motor, all within a sculptural framework.

This 'playing' by the small electric motor is automatic, sometimes activated by solar power and a degree of randomness is created by the swing of the motor caused by the striking on the instruments playing surface or strings.

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