Zang Tumb Tumb

Here's a really great thing. The Italian Futurist poet Marinetti delivers a sensational reading of his Zang Tumb Tumb. You'll love this.

It's an onomatopoeic rendering of The Battle of Adrianople during the First Balkan War, beginning in mid-November 1912 and ending on 26 March 1913. Zang Tumb Tumb is the origin of all sound poetry - Hugo Ball's dadaist 'verses without words' came three or four years later, at Zurich's Cabaret Voltaire. I'm about to record a podcast about Hugo Ball, and am daunted at the challenge of performing his Karawane. Marinetti is a tough act to follow.