Miguel Molina Alarcón (editor), Arseny Avraamov · 1922 (event); 2008 (ReR booklet) · PDF · Calibre ID 10984
Resurfaced in A Crowd Still to Come (2026-10-13).
Role in the triad
Anchor: the industrial hymn carried out — sirens as signal and collective song
Why this book
Avraamov’s Symphony of Sirens is the literal case of the Saint-Simonian/Proletkult hymn Rancière’s Mallarmé refuses, and the reversal of Blanchot’s oarsmen: no spectators, everyone sings, one conductor on a tower. Supplies primary sources (1922 instructions, 1924 article, reconstruction interview).
Quotations
Verified against the book’s own text on the day of the reading.
- “Avraamov did not want spectators, but intended the active participation of everybody in the development of the work through their exclamations and singing, all united with the same revolutionary will.” (PDF p. 22)
- “Music has, among all the arts, the highest power of social organisation.” (PDF p. 22)
- “Every morning, a chaotic industrial roar gags the people.” (PDF p. 23)
- “-The midday cannon has been cancelled.” (PDF p. 23)
- “This would be a way to oust the church bells of the old culture and to replace them with the working roar of the sirens, the very timbre of which is so close to the proletarian heart.” (PDF p. 74)
- “in order to give the impression of an old film, of the sound-memory of a recording that was never made.” (PDF p. 62)
- “the melodies becoming completely unrecognizable to the masses” (PDF p. 73)
Themes
Avraamov · Baku 1922 · conductor · Gastev · Mayakovsky · participation vs spectators · Proletkult · reconstruction · signal flags · Sinfonia Gudki · steam whistles · Symphony of Sirens