Symphony of Sirens music module

A symphony of factory sirens is also mentioned by Sabaneev. Here is a picture from just such a concert, from René Fülöp-Miller's The Mind and Face of Bolshevism (1927).

Arsenii Avraamov [Krasnokutskii] (1886-1944) was perhaps the most ambitious of the "proletarian" composers, staging a massive "Symphone of Sirens" in the Baku port on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution in 1922. He foresaw the rise of synthesizers and was a technophilic fan of Termen's inventions. The Baku event (repeated on a smaller scale the following year in Moscow) was intended to rely solely on the "instruments" of the working class--dynamos, factory sirens, airplane engines, foghorns from the Caspian fleet, clanging metal, even artillery batteries for good measure--as a pure music expression of revolutionary will. Careful coordination of the Caspian flotilla, various small vessels, troops, artillery, trains, hydroplanes, cannons, bells, automobiles, steam whistles, and yes, choirs and wind instruments, provided the loudest setting ever for performing the Internationale.

As Avraamov wrote, "Music has, among all the arts, the highest power of social organization.  The most ancient myths prove that mankind is fully aware of that power... Collective work, from farming to the military, is inconceivable without songs and music. One may even think that the high degree of organization in factory work under capitalism might have ended up creating a respectable form of music organization. However, we had to arrive at the October Revolution to achieve the concept of the Symphony of Sirens."  While this kind of musical mindset seems wrapped in ideological grandiosity, be sure to examine his working assumptions carefully before dismissing Avraamov out of hand. 

Arsenii Avraamov, Symphony of Sirens (1922):

  

Recreated by Leopoldo Amigo and Miguel Molina (2003). Since Avraamov's performance was virtually the antithesis of a classical studio recording and left no aural traces, the musicians for this recording worked carefully with his original score, and were guided in part by the detailed program notes which were published in Turkish in Baku's three local newspapers the day before the event.

The full recording is 28 minutes long. Keep in mind that it is fundamentally impossible for a recording to reproduce the dynamic range of the original event.