Luigi Russolo's "Art of Noises"

Luigi Russolo was a painter and composer in the Futurist movement of the early 20^th century. He thought that music was getting boring because it had used the same general categories of instruments for centuries. In 1913 he wrote, "We Futurists have deeply loved and enjoyed the harmonies of the great masters. For many years Beethoven and Wagner shook our nerves and hearts. Now we are satiated and we find far more enjoyment in the combination of the noises of trams, backfiring motors, carriages and bawling crowds than in rehearsing, for example, the 'Eroica' or the 'Pastoral.'"

The modern world, he said, was full of all kinds of interesting noises, so he made instruments that sounded like machines, engines, sirens, rain gutters, dishes and pottery smashing, and croaking frogs. Russolo hired musicians to play his noise instruments and in 1914 he held his first concert in Italy. Traditional composers who came to hear this new kind of music got so angry that fistfights broke out in the front rows of the theatre. According to one newspaper account, the Futurists were avid boxers, and so they easily defeated the naysayers.

Listen to one of Luigi Russolo's compositions, "Risveglio di un Citta":