''The Art of Noises'' () is a Futurist

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

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 Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

of the urban industrial

soundscape A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term, originally coined by Michael Southworth, was popularized by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, ...

; furthermore, this new sonic palette requires a new approach to musical instrumentation and composition. He proposes a number of conclusions about how

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

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". ''The Art of Noises'' is considered by some authors to be one of the most important and influential texts in 20th-century musical aesthetics. Russolointonorumori

The evolution of sound

Russolo's essay explores the origins of man-made

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

Ancient life was all silence

Russolo states that "

" first came into existence as the result of 19th century

machine A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromol ...

s. Before this time the world was a quiet, if not silent, place. With the exception of

storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstor ...

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

s, and

tectonic Tectonics ( via Latin ) are the processes that result in the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. The field of ''planetary tectonics'' extends the concept to other planets and moons. These processes ...

activity, the noise that did punctuate this silence were not loud, prolonged, or varied.

Early sounds

He notes that the earliest "

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

" was very simplistic and was created with very simple instruments, and that many early civilizations considered the secrets of music sacred and reserved it for rites and rituals. The Greek musical theory was based on the

tetrachord In music theory, a tetrachord (; ) is a series of four notes separated by three interval (music), intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion (approx. 498 cent (m ...

mathematics of

Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos (; BC) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher, polymath, and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of P ...

, and featured very limited use of

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

. Developments and modifications to the Greek musical system were made during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, which led to music like

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek language, Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed main ...

. Russolo notes that during this time sounds were still narrowly seen as "unfolding in time." The chord did not yet exist.

The complete sound

Russolo refers to the chord as the "complete

," the conception of various parts that make and are subordinate to the whole. He notes that chords developed gradually, first moving from the "consonant triad to the consistent and complicated dissonances that characterize

contemporary music Contemporary music is whatever music is produced at the current time. Specifically, it could refer to: Genres or audiences * Adult contemporary music * British contemporary R&B * Christian adult contemporary * Christian contemporary hit radio * Con ...

." He notes that while early music tried to create sweet and pure sounds, it progressively grew more and more complex, with musicians seeking to create new and more dissonant chords. This, he says, comes ever closer to the "noise-sound" typical of

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

Musical noise

Russolo compares the evolution of music to the multiplication of machinery, pointing out that our once desolate sound environment has become increasingly filled with the noise of

s, encouraging musicians to create a more "complicated

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...

" in order to provoke emotion and stir our sensibilities. He notes that music has been developing towards a more complicated

by seeking greater variety in

timbre In music, timbre (), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instrument ...

s and tone colors.

Noise-Sounds

Russolo explains how "musical sound is too limited in its variety of timbres." He breaks the timbres of an

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: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

down into four basic categories: bowed instruments, metal winds, wood winds, and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

. He says that we must "break out of this limited circle of sound and conquer the infinite variety of noise-sounds," and that

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

would allow us to manipulate noises in ways that could not have been done with earlier instruments.

Future sounds

Russolo claims that music has reached a point that no longer has the power to excite or inspire. Even when it is new, he argues, it still sounds old and familiar, leaving the audience "waiting for the extraordinary sensation that never comes." He urges musicians to explore the city with "ears more sensitive than eyes," listening to the wide array of noises that are often taken for granted, yet (potentially) musical in nature. He feels this

can be given pitch and "regulated harmonically," while still preserving irregularity and character, even if it requires assigning multiple pitches to certain noises.

''The variety of noises is infinite. If today, when we have perhaps a thousand different machines, we can distinguish a thousand different noises, tomorrow, as new machines multiply, we will be able to distinguish ten, twenty, or thirty thousand different noises, not merely in a simply imitative way, but to combine them according to our imagination.''

Six Families of Noises for the Futurist Orchestra

Russolo sees the futurist orchestra drawing its sounds from "six families of noise": # Roars, Thunderings, Explosions, Hissing roars, Bangs, Booms # Whistling, Hissing, Puffing # Whispers, Murmurs, Mumbling, Muttering, Gurgling # Screeching, Creaking, Rustling, Buzzing, Crackling, Scraping # Noises obtained by beating on metals, woods, skins, stones, pottery, etc. # Voices of animals and people, Shouts, Screams, Shrieks, Wails, Hoots, Howls, Death rattles, Sobs Russolo asserts that these are the most basic and fundamental noises, and that all other noises are only associations and combinations of these. He built a family of instruments, the Intonarumori, to imitate these six kinds of noises.

Conclusions

Russolo includes a list of conclusions: #Futurist composers should use their creativity and innovation to "enlarge and enrich the field of sound" by approaching the "noise-sound." #Futurist musicians should strive to replicate the infinite timbres in noises. #Futurist musicians should free themselves from the traditional and seek to explore the diverse rhythms of noise. #The complex tonalities of noise can be achieved by creating instruments that replicate that complexity. #The creation of instruments that replicate noise should not be a difficult task, since the manipulation of pitch will be simple once the mechanical principles that create the noise have been recreated. Pitch can be manipulated through simple changes in speed or tension. #The new orchestra will not evoke new and novel emotions by imitating the noises of life, but by finding new and unique combinations of timbres and rhythms in noise, to find a way to fully express the rhythm and sound that stretches beyond normal un-inebriated comprehension. #The variety of noise is infinite, and as man creates new machines the number of noises he can differentiate between continues to grow. #Therefore, he invites all talented musicians to pay attention to noises and their complexity, and once they discover the broadness of noise's palette of timbres, they will develop a passion for noise. He predicts that our "multiplied sensibility, having been conquered by futurist eyes, will finally have some futurist ears, and . . . every workshop will become an intoxicating orchestra of noise."

Gallery of works

File:Intonarumori-concerto.jpg, photo of an Intonarumori concert with noise-machines File:Intonarumori-interno.jpg, photo of an indoor Intonarumori machine (must be rotated!) File:Intonarumori-schema.gif, instruction-schema for building an Intonarumori noise-machine File:Risveglio di una citta.jpg, Russolo, 1913: score of en-harmonic notation; partitura for Intonarumori File:Luigi Russolo and assistant Ugo Piatti in their Milan studio with Intonarumori, L’Arte dei rumori (The Art of Noises), 1913.jpg, Russolo, 1913 and his assistant Ugo Piatti in their Milan studio with the Intonarumori (noise machines)

Musicians/Artists influenced by ''The Art of Noises''

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

* Pierre Schaeffer * Pierre Henry *

Art of Noise Art of Noise (also the Art of Noise) were a British avant-garde synth-rock group formed in early 1983 by engineer/producer Gary Langan and programmer J. J. Jeczalik, along with keyboardist/arranger Anne Dudley, producer Trevor Horn, and ...

* Adam Ant *

Einstürzende Neubauten (, 'Collapsing New Buildings') is a German experimental music group, formed in West Berlin in 1980. The band currently comprises founding members Blixa Bargeld (lead vocals, guitar, keyboard) and N.U. Unruh (custom-made instruments, percussion, ...

* Test Dept *

Joseph Nechvatal Joseph Nechvatal (born January 15, 1951) is an American post-conceptual digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom computer viruses. Life and work Joseph Nechva ...

* DJ Spooky * Dywane Thomas, Jr. * Francisco López * R. Henry Nigl *

Material A material is a matter, substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an Physical object, object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical property, physical ...

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental music, experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia (Berio), Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Seque ...

and Bruno Maderna

Bibliography

* Russolo, Luigi: ''L’Art des bruits''. Textes réunis et préfacés par Giovanni Lista, bibliographie établie par Giovanni Lista. L’Age d’Homme, Lausanne, 1975. * Chessa, Luciano: ''Luigi Russolo, Futurist: Noise, Visual Arts, and the Occult.'' University of California Press, 2012. * Lista, Giovanni: ''Luigi Russolo e la musica futurista''. Mudima, Milan, 2009. * Lista, Giovanni: ''Journal des Futurismes''. Éditions Hazan, Paris, 2008. * Lista, Giovanni: ''Le Futurisme: Création et avant-garde''. Éditions L’Amateur, Paris, 2001.

External links

*
The Art of Noises

unknown.nu

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 ''Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine'' was an audio cassette magazine publication on cassette active from 1983 to 1993. Originally intended as a subscription bimonthly, it was launched on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to create an avant-guard med ...

'' #21 and are archived on the internet at

Ubuweb UbuWeb is a "a pirate shadow library consisting of hundreds of thousands of freely downloadable avant-garde artifacts." It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives. The site was created by ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Art of Noises, The 1916 in music Experimental music Futurist music 1916 non-fiction books 1913 essays Manifestos