Luigi Carlo Filippo Russolo (30 April 1885 – 4 February 1947) was an Italian

Futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abo ...

painter, composer, builder of experimental musical instruments, and the author of the manifesto ''

The Art of Noises ''The Art of Noises'' ( it, L'arte dei Rumori) is a Futurist manifesto written by Luigi Russolo in a 1913 letter to friend and Futurist composer Francesco Balilla Pratella. In it, Russolo argues that the human ear has become accustomed to th ...

'' (1913). He is often regarded as one of the first

noise music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise within a musical context. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical ...

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...

composers with his performances of ''noise music concerts'' in 1913–14 and then again after World War I, notably in Paris in 1921. He designed and constructed a number of noise-generating devices called Intonarumori.

Biography

Luigi Russolo was perhaps the first noise artist. 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. Russolo designed and constructed a number of noise-generating devices called Intonarumori, and assembled a noise

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

to perform with them. A performance of his ''Gran Concerto Futuristico'' (1917) was met with strong disapproval and

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...

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. Replicas of the instruments have since been built and performed. (See the Intonarumori page.) Although Russolo's works bear little resemblance to modern

, his pioneering creations cannot be overlooked as an essential stage in the evolution of the several genres in this category. Many artists are now familiar with Russolo's

manifesto A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...

Collaboration with Antonio Russolo

Antonio Russolo Antonio Russolo (1877–1943) was an Italian Futurist composer and the brother of the more famous Futurist painter, composer and theorist Luigi Russolo. He is noted for composing pieces made with the intonarumori and, together with his brother, i ...

, another Italian

composer and Luigi's brother, produced a recording of two works featuring the original Intonarumori. The

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

recording, made in 1921, included works entitled ''Corale'' and ''Serenata'', 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. Russolo and

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti (; 22 December 1876 – 2 December 1944) was an Italian poet, editor, art theorist, and founder of the Futurist movement. He was associated with the utopian and Symbolist artistic and literary community Abbaye d ...

gave the first concert of Futurist music, complete with ''intonarumori'', in April 1914, causing a riot. The program comprised four ''Noise Networks''.Luigi Russolo, ''The Art of Noise'' (Futurist Manifesto, 1913), translated by Robert Filliou. p. 14

Gallery

File:Luigi Russolo, 1911, Souvenir d'une nuit (Memories of a Night), oil on canvas, 99 x 99 cm, private collection.jpg, ''Souvenir d'une nuit'' (''Memories of a Night''), 1911 oil on canvas, 99 × 99 cm, private collection File:Luigi Russolo, 1912, Sintesi plastica dei movimenti di una donna (Synthèse plastique des mouvements d'une femme), oil on canvas, 86 x 65 cm, Musée de Grenoble.jpg, ''Sintesi plastica dei movimenti di una donna'', 1912 oil on canvas,

Museum of Grenoble The Museum of Grenoble (french: Musée de Grenoble) is a municipal museum of Fine Arts and antiquities in the city of Grenoble in the Isère region of France. Located on the left bank of the Isère River, place Lavalette, it is known both for it ...

File:Luigi Russolo self-portrait-with-skulls-1909.jpg, ''Self-portrait with Skulls'', 1909 painting File:Russolo-Laveno-Mombello.jpg, Russolo's Grave in

Laveno-Mombello Laveno-Mombello is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Varese in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northwest of Milan and about northwest of Varese. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 8,991 and an area of .All de ...

File:Luigi Russolo - Profumo (1910).jpg, ''Profumo'' (meaning "scent", "fragrance", 1910) File:Luigi Russolo La Rivolta 1911.jpg, ''La Rivolta'' (''The Revolt''), 1911 oil on canvas File:La musica, Luigi Russolo.jpg, ''La Musica'' (a pianist playing for his audience), 1911–12 oil on canvas File:Luigi Russolo solidity-of-fog-1912.jpg, ''Solidity of Fog'', 1912 oil on canvas File:Risveglio di una citta.jpg, 1913 score of en-harmonic notation, for Intonarumori File:Intonarumori, 1913.jpg, Intonarumori, 1913, instruments built for music-piece ''Bruitism'', partly operating on electricity File:Luigi Russolo dynamism-of-a-car-1913.jpg, '' Dynamism of a Car'', 1913 oil painting File:Luigi Russolo soapdish-1929.jpg, ''Soap-dish'', 1929 oil painting File:Luigi Russolo sole-nascosto-1946.jpg, ''Landscape with trees'', c. 1940s painting

Notes

References

* * Chessa, Luciano: ''Luigi Russolo, Futurist: Noise, Visual Arts, and the Occult''. University of California Press, 2012. * Luigi Russolo, ''The Art of Noise'' (Futurist Manifesto, 1913), translated by Robert Filliou

External links

Printed works by Luigi Russolo
digitalized on

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

by the Archivio del '900 of Mart Museum, Rovereto, Italy.
Russolo, Luigi Carlo Filippo.
''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' (2017).
Media Art Net , Russolo, Luigi: Intonarumori (at medienkunstnetz.de) Peggy Guggenheim Collection: Luigi RussoloProf. Russolo & His Noise Intoners
;Audio

''Corale, Serenata'' by Antonio Russolo and Luigi Russolo (1924) were published on cassette in 1988 in the ''Audio By Visual Artists'' edition of ''

Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine Launched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the ''Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine'' utilized the audio cassette medium to distribute no wave downtown music and audio art and was in activity f ...

'' #21 and are archived on the internet at

Ubuweb UbuWeb is a web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives. Phi ...