“All is in false harmony” The metallic and mechanical music of Blaise Cendrars

Compared with the importance of painting for Cendrars, the role of music remains obscured in his poetry. However, the Prose du Transsibérien is “dedicated to musicians,” and a strange dissonance appears when the poet’s voice falls silent. A modern music, metallic and mechanical, emerges from the landscape. The strings of the lyre are supplanted by pistons, cranes, motors, until we hear the clatter of the typewriter.