Noise: A category in futurist theatre and music

Abstract

Noise was a central category in Modernist art and literature as it formed an integral part of the modern urban experience and had a profound effect on the human psyche. It also became an important feature in musical aesthetics. The Futurists were amongst the first to give it a profound theoretical foundation. Luigi Russolo sought to reclaim the infinite variety of sounds found in Nature and the metropolis and to generate a new musical culture from them. Bringing together the world of music and the modern sonic environment was one of his key objectives and led him to create an orchestra of mechanical instruments - so-called intonarumori - and to present his concept of arte dei rumori in a variety of concerts and musical soirees. Russolo's concerts and writings were widely discussed in Russia, where they fostered the development of microtonal music amongst professional composers and a materialistic conception of noise art advocated by Proletkult leaders. The substitution of conventional instrumental music with mechanical and industrial noises came to be practiced by noise orchestras and in theatrical open-air performances. Thus, the Futurist idea of joining art with life and the Marxist concept of overcoming alienation from the products of labour found a concrete realization in the musical sphere. The Futurists' desire to liberate theatre from its subservience to the written or spoken word gave rise to a number of projects in which mechanically produced noises played a key role. One of the most successful examples was the Theâtre de la Pantomime futuriste, produced by Enrico Prampolini in 1927/28, with music composed and performed by Luigi Russolo. The performances in Paris, Turin, Bergamo and Milan transported the mechanized, modern life into the world of dance and music in a suggestive and often magical manner.