Zang Tumb Tumb

thumb|220px|Cover of Zang Tumb Tuuum 1914

Zang Tumb Tumb (usually referred to as Zang Tumb Tuuum) is a sound poem and concrete poem written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, an Italian futurist. It appeared in excerpts in journals between 1912 and 1914, when it was published as an artist's book in Milan. It is an account of the Battle of Adrianople, which he witnessed as a reporter for L'Intransigeant. The poem uses Parole in libertà (words in freedom; creative typography) and other poetic impressions of the events of the battle, including the sounds of gunfire and explosions. The work is now seen as a seminal work of modernist art, and an enormous influence on the emerging culture of European avant-garde print.

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The birth of futurism

thumb|right|220px|Après la Marne, Joffre visita le front en auto (After the Marne, Joffre Visited the Front by Car), by Marinetti, 1915

According to Marinetti, futurism was born as a direct consequence of a 1908 car crash The experience led directly to the first futurist manifesto, which achieved an extraordinary coup-de-theâtre when he persuaded the editor of Le Figaro to publish the entire manifesto on the front page, February 20th, 1909. Amongst a series of exhortations to replace the 'pensive, immobile' traditional literature with 'exalt[ed] movements of aggression, feverish sleeplessness ... the slap and the blow with the fist.

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Fascism and futurism

thumb|left|Guerra sola igiene del mondo

Latter-day admirers of Marinetti tend to see him as an iconoclastic and subversive anti-hero in revolt against an oppressive society, downplaying his role in the founding of Italian Fascism. The Futurist Political Party which Marinetti had founded was absorbed into the National Fascist Party (PNF) of Italy, and he co-wrote with Alceste De Ambris the Fascist Manifesto. "The Doctrine of Fascism" (the PNF's final manifesto) contains a considerable amount of (uncredited) block quotations from The Founding Manifesto of Futurism. Marinetti had organised a punch-up between futurists in Milan, September 1914, to support Italy's entry into the war; in a similar demonstration in May 1915, both he and Benito Mussolini were arrested. The same year Marinetti published the futurist compilation Guerra sola igiene del mondo (War the only world hygiene, 1915)

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and ends with Bombardment;

'1 2 3 4 5 seconds siege guns split the silence in unison tam-tuuumb sudden echoes all the echoes seize it quick smash it scatter it to the infinite winds to the devil

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'In the middle these tam-tuuumb flattened 50 square kilometers leap 2-6-8 crashes clubs punches bashes quick-firing batteries. Violence ferocity regularity pendulum play fatality

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'...these weights thicknesses sounds smells molecular whirlwinds chains nets and channels of analogies concurrences and synchronisms for my Futurist friends poets painters and musicians zang-tumb-tumb-zang-zang-tuuumb tatatatatatatata picpacpampacpacpicpampampac uuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

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ZANG-TUMB

TUMB-TUMB

TUUUUUM the book also contains essays and manifestoes, including the Manifesto tecnico della letteratura Futurista (technical manifesto of futurist literature) (11 May 1912) 'which was to revolutionize poetic techniques and contemporary prose' and includes the lines;

'We must destroy syntax by placing nouns at random as they are born'

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'We must abolish the adjective so that the naked noun can retain its essential colour.' The book originally cost 3 lire.

International promotional tours

Marinetti promoted his ideas by continually travelling across Europe giving recitations; as well as giving 'riotous soirées' On another occasion at the Lyceum Club, 1911, Marinetti challenged an Irish journalist to a duel after a perceived slight against the Italian Army. the first journal published by Dada.

The innovative use of typography has influenced a number of artists including Balla, Carra, Boccioni, Hugo Ball and Dada, the Russian futurists, the Vorticists including Wyndham Lewis, Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars, Max Jacob, El Lissitzky and Jan Tschichold. The emphasis on what has since become known as concrete poetry has proved a durable and lasting influence on the development of 20th-century art.

'...all in all, Futurist "art" [painting] was a blind alley. Instead, we can see that what Futurism did was to reassign leadership in the visual arts from painters to designers. Anyone who has admired a poster and found fine art wanting is in touch with the spirit of Marinetti.... In fact, Futurism was more like a marketing campaign than an artistic movement. Their fascination with and exploitation of mass media anticipated and influenced advertising in the 20th century.' – Stephen Bayley

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Current value

Christie's sold a copy of the book in reasonable condition for €10630 in 2011, another copy was valued at around £2000 ($3000) in 2009, and an inscribed copy sold for £2600 in London in May 2008. This is in stark contrast to its value (and reputation) for many years after World War II; a copy was bought by the Tate c.1979 for £65,