The Art of Noises
The Art of Noises (Italian: 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 the speed, energy, and noise of the urban industrial soundscape; furthermore, this new sonic palette requires a new approach to musical instrumentation and composition. He proposes a number of conclusions about how electronics and other technology will allow futurist musicians to "substitute for the limited variety of timbres that the orchestra possesses today the infinite variety of timbres in noises, reproduced with appropriate mechanisms".[1]
Not to be confused with Art of Noise.The Art of Noises is considered by some authors to be one of the most important and influential texts in 20th-century musical aesthetics.[2]
Russolo, 1913 and his assistant Ugo Piatti in their Milan studio with the Intonarumori (noise machines)
Intonarumori
Experimental music
Experimental musical instrument
Musica Futurista: The Art of Noises
Noise music
Russolo, Luigi: L’Art des bruits. Textes réunis et préfacés par , bibliographie établie par Giovanni Lista. L’Age d’Homme, Lausanne, 1975.
Giovanni Lista
Chessa, Luciano: Luigi Russolo, Futurist: Noise, Visual Arts, and the Occult. University of California Press, 2012.
Lista, Giovanni: Journal des Futurismes. Éditions Hazan, Paris, 2008.
Lista, Giovanni: Le Futurisme: Création et avant-garde. Éditions L’Amateur, Paris, 2001.
Jessica Palmieri, The Art of Noises (manifesto excerpts), Luigi Russolo 11 March 1913, Futurist manifestos, italianfuturism.org
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 #21 and are archived on the internet at Ubuweb