Antonio Russolo
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Antonio Russolo (1909 - June 8, 1996) was an Italian Futurist composer, brother of the more famous Futurist composer and theorist Luigi Russolo. The 78 rpm record made by him in 1921 is the only surviving sound recording that features the original intonarumori. Both pieces, Corale and Serenata, combined conventional orchestral music set against the famous noise machines.
From 1913 to the 1920s, he produced a seres of Intonarumori, boxes with a horn for projecting sound, and a handle turned by the player, producing sounds by rubbing a wheel against a metal string. The first concert of one of these devices took place in Milan and 1913 to hostile reaction. Later experiments were sympathetically received by Stravkinsky, Ravel, Milhaud and Edgard Varese.[1]
The sounds of the intonarumori were grouped by Russolo into six categories:
- Rumbles, roars, explosions, crashes, splashes and booms
- Whistles, hisses and snorts
- Whispers, murmurs, mumbles, grumbles and gurgles
- Screeches, creaks, rustles, buzzes, crackles and scrapes
- Noises obtained by percussion on metal, wood, skin, stone and terracotta
- Shouts, screams, groans, shrieks, howls, laughs, wheezes and sobs
[edit] Audio
Corale and Serenata by Antonio Russolo can be heard on the audio CDs Musica Futurista: The Art of Noises and on Futurism & Dada Reviewed.
MP3 audio file of Corale, Serenata (1924) from Ubu.com archive
[edit] References
- ^ The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments, ISBN 1-85868-185-5, p144
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