Luigi Carlo Filippo Russolo (30 April 1885 – 4 February 1947) was an ItalianFuturist painter, composer, builder ofexperimental musical instruments, and the author of the manifestoThe Art of Noises (1913).[1] Russolo completed his secondary education at Seminary of Portogruaro in 1901, after which he moved to Milan and began gaining interest in the arts.[2] He is often regarded as one of the firstnoise musicexperimental composers with his performances ofnoise music concerts in 1913–14 and then again after World War I, notably in Paris in 1921.[3] He designed and constructed a number of noise-generating devices calledIntonarumori.
Russolo and his assistantUgo Piatti in their Milan studio in 1913 with the Intonarumori (noise machines)
Luigi Russolo was perhaps the first noise artist.[4][5] His 1913 manifesto,L'Arte dei Rumori (The Art of Noises), stated that the industrial revolution had given modern men a greater capacity to appreciate more complex sounds. Russolo found traditional melodic music confining, and he envisioned noise music as its future replacement.[6]
Russolo designed and constructed a number of noise-generating devices called Intonarumori, and assembled a noiseorchestra to perform with them. A performance of hisGran Concerto Futuristico (1917) was met with strong disapproval andviolence from the audience, as Russolo himself had predicted.
None of his intoning instruments have survived: some were destroyed in World War II; while others have been lost.[7] Replicas of the instruments have since been built and performed. (See theIntonarumori page.)
Although Russolo's works bear little resemblance to modernnoise music, his pioneering creations cannot be overlooked as an essential stage in the evolution of the several genres in this category.[8][9] Many artists are now familiar with Russolo'smanifesto.[10]
Russolo, like many other Futurist artists, is often associated withItalian fascism. In addition to his association with the Futurist artist and poetF. T. Marinetti, who co-authored theFascist Manifesto (1919), Russolo presented his work at exhibitions sponsored byMussolini's government.[11] His biographerLuciano Chessa argues that some have attempted to erase Russolo's involvement with fascism from scholarship, but that his permanent return to Italy in 1933 and subsequent writings signaled acceptance of and allegiance toMussolini's regime.[12][13]
Antonio Russolo, another ItalianFuturist composer and Luigi's brother, produced a recording of two works featuring the original Intonarumori. Thephonograph recording, made in 1921, included works entitledCorale andSerenata, which combined conventional orchestral music set against the sound of the noise machines. It is the only surviving contemporaneous sound recording of Luigi Russolo's noise music.[14] Russolo andFilippo Tommaso Marinetti gave the first concert of Futurist music, complete withintonarumori, in April 1914, causing a riot.[15] The program comprised fourNoise Networks.[16]
Chessa, Luciano (2012).Luigi Russolo, futurist: noise, visual arts, and the occult. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press. p. 8.ISBN978-0-520-27063-3.
Duccio Dogheria,Fondo Luigi Russolo. Inventario, inventory of the artist's archive at the Archivio del 900 of the Mart in Rovereto
^InFuturism and Musical Notes, Daniele Lombardi discusses the French composer [Louis] Carol-Bérard (1881–1942); a pupil ofIsaac Albéniz, Carol-Bérard is said to have composed aSymphony of Mechanical Forces in 1910 – but little evidence as emerged thus far to establish this assertion.
^Chessa, Luciano,Luigi Russolo, Futurist: Noise, Visual Arts, and the Occult, University of California Press, 2012, p. 3
^Barclay Brown, "The Noise Instruments of Luigi Russolo",Perspectives of New Music 20, nos. 1 & 2 (Fall–Winter 1981, Spring–Summer 1982): 31–48; citation on 36
^Paul Hegarty,Noise/Music: A History (London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2007), pp. 13–14
^László Moholy-Nagy in 1923 recognized the unprecedented efforts of the Italian Futurists to broaden our perception of sound using noise. In an article inDer Sturm #7, he outlined the fundamentals of his own experimentation: "I have suggested to change the gramophone from a reproductive instrument to a productive one, so that on a record without prior acoustic information, the acoustic information, the acoustic phenomenon itself originates by engraving the necessary Ritzschriftreihen [etched grooves]." He presents detailed descriptions for manipulating discs, creating "real sound forms" to train people to be "true music receivers and creators" (" A Brief history of Anti-Records and Conceptual Records" byRon Rice viaUbuWeb, fromUnfiled: Music Under New Technology,Chris Cutler (ed.) 1994[page needed]
^Chessa, Luciano,Luigi Russolo, Futurist: Noise, Visual Arts, and the Occult, University of California Press, 2012, p. 3
^Chessa, Luciano (2012).Luigi Russolo, futurist: noise, visual arts, and the occult. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press. p. 8.ISBN978-0-520-27063-3.
[1]Corale, Serenata by Antonio Russolo and Luigi Russolo (1924) were published on cassette in 1988 in theAudio By Visual Artists edition ofTellus Audio Cassette Magazine #21 and are archived on the internet atUbuweb
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