Varese's Ionisation -- VSL percussion demo

[JBacal]

Edgar Varese was the first to introduce the siren as a musical instrument in his 1933 work "Ionisation" A critic at the time described the work as "a sock in the jaw!" And it still sounds quite avant-garde even today. This virtual performance uses VSL's VI percussion.

http://www.vsl.co.at/Player2.aspx?Lang=13&DemoId=4917 (http://www.vsl.co.at/Player2.aspx?Lang=13&DemoId=4917)

Best,
Jay

[danpowers]

I was wondering when someone would get around to doing this.

[Nick Harvey]

That's fantastic. Excellent work as ever Jay.

What reverb were you using?

Nick

[Pingu]

Great demo - but the siren had already been used in Ballet Mecanique in 1926. At the premiere the person using the siren apparently didn't realise that it didn't sound until you stopped winding the handle. So he kept frantically winding and winding, hoping it would eventually start up. Finally, when the piece was over he gave up, and the siren, now primed to a ridiculous level, let loose, and apparently cleared the concert hall.

[Jibrish]

haha... good anecdote... and no wonder they haven't brought back the sirens for quite awhile.

[JT3_Jon]

Great demo - but the siren had already been used in Ballet Mecanique in 1926. At the premiere the person using the siren apparently didn't realise that it didn't sound until you stopped winding the handle. So he kept frantically winding and winding, hoping it would eventually start up. Finally, when the piece was over he gave up, and the siren, now primed to a ridiculous level, let loose, and apparently cleared the concert hall.

LOL!!! Thats great!!! Laughing so hard it made me cry!! LOL!!

[mathis]

Great demo - but the siren had already been used in Ballet Mecanique in 1926. At the premiere the person using the siren apparently didn't realise that it didn't sound until you stopped winding the handle. So he kept frantically winding and winding, hoping it would eventually start up. Finally, when the piece was over he gave up, and the siren, now primed to a ridiculous level, let loose, and apparently cleared the concert hall.

Nice story, but technically it doesn't make sense at all. A sirene produces sound as soon as you move the wheel. There's no way to mute the sound.

[Pingu]

Nice story, but technically it doesn't make sense at all. A sirene produces sound as soon as you move the wheel. There's no way to mute the sound.

I'm sorry, I haven't a clue how a siren works, but I heard the story on a BBC Radio 3 documentary about Antheil - I just assumed it was genuine.

[Pingu]

OK, just because I thought I might be losing my marbles I tired to check the story out, and found this version as part of an interview with Paul Lehrmann, who did the recent world premiere of ANtheil's original orchestration.

"Then at the end there is this big climactic siren wail, and they had not had a chance to rehearse with a siren. They got the siren the morning of the concert and the guy playing the siren didn't know what he was supposed to do with it. He figured you just crank the thing and it starts to make noise. So, the conductor gives him the cue, he starts cranking and nothing comes out. Well, it was a New York City fire siren, and a New York City fire siren takes about a minute to warm up. Worse than that, once it warms up, you can't stop it. It stops by itself, and that takes another minute for it to wind down. So this guy is cranking and cranking and cranking, nothing comes out. The piece finishes, the guy lets go and gives up, and all of a sudden the siren starts to sound. So the last sound you hear as the audience is packing up and leaving and booing and laughing, and the orchestra is getting up and leaving is this siren wailing away on stage all by itself."

The site is here:-

http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/interview_lehrman.html

[mathis]

I guess I'm slowly getting a clue how this New York fire sirene mechanically is working.

[Serge]

It reminds me "Whole lotta love" from Led Zeppelin.

SergeD

[kip]

Very impressive, Jay.

Any chance of a Ligeti's 2nd string quartet demo? Is it even possible with V.I. solo strings, at this stage? Or do we have to wait for the Bella D Media's "Crypt"?