ABSTRACT
The eighth and last Zurich Dada soiree took place on 9 April 1919. The spectacular events of that evening completely changed the course of the history of Dada music. They played a large part in creating modern misconceptions concerning the typical sounds of a Zurich Dada event. They also pointed towards the travails of music in Paris Dada. This chapter suggests that the publicity for the very earliest Dada events listed music first, before visual and verbal art, among the Dada media. The plain fact is that in its actual performance practice, Zurich Dada did not require its musicians to break their instruments; it required them to play those instruments. The key distinction, once again, is between what Dada has to say in words about music, and what music actually does in Dada practice. Performed music in Zurich Dada had always depended on a core group of highly talented musicians: Emmy Hennings, Hugo Ball, Hans Heusser, and Suzanne Perrottet.
