Luigi Russolo | |
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![]() Luigi Russolo ca. 1916 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Luigi Russolo |
Born | Portogruaro, Italy | 30 April 1885
Died | 4 February 1947 Laveno Mombello, Italy | (aged 61)
Genres | |
Occupation(s) |
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Years active | 1901–1947 |
Luigi Carlo Filippo Russolo (30 April 1885 – 4 February 1947) was an Italian Futurist painter, composer, builder of experimental musical instruments, and the author of the manifesto The Art of Noises (1913).[1] He is often regarded as one of the first noise music experimental composers with his performances of noise music concerts in 1913–14 and then again after World War I, notably in Paris in 1921.[2] He designed and constructed a number of noise-generating devices called Intonarumori. Russolo is also associated with Italian fascism, for example through exhibiting his work at exhibitions sponsored by Mussolini's government, and through collaboration with Marinetti, author of the Fascist Manifesto.[3]
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 noise orchestra to perform with them. A performance of his Gran Concerto Futuristico (1917) was met with strong disapproval and violence 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 the Intonarumori page.)
Although Russolo's works bear little resemblance to modern noise 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's manifesto.[10]
Antonio Russolo, another Italian Futurist composer and Luigi's brother, produced a recording of two works featuring the original Intonarumori. The phonograph 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.[11] Russolo and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti gave the first concert of Futurist music, complete with intonarumori, in April 1914, causing a riot.[12] The program comprised four Noise Networks.[13]
Souvenir d'une nuit (Memories of a Night), 1911 oil on canvas, 99 × 99 cm, private collection
Sintesi plastica dei movimenti di una donna, 1912 oil on canvas, Museum of Grenoble
Self-portrait with Skulls, 1909 painting
Russolo's Grave in Laveno-Mombello
Profumo (meaning "scent", "fragrance", 1910)
La Rivolta (The Revolt), 1911 oil on canvas
La Musica (a pianist playing for his audience), 1911–12 oil on canvas
Solidity of Fog, 1912 oil on canvas
1913 score of en-harmonic notation, for Intonarumori
Intonarumori, 1913, instruments built for music-piece Bruitism, partly operating on electricity
Dynamism of a Car, 1913 oil painting
Soap-dish, 1929 oil painting
Landscape with trees, c. 1940s painting