Francesco Balilla Pratella
Videos
Francesco Balilla Pratella was an Italian composer, musicologist and essayist. Although he was one of the leading advocates of Futurism in Italian music, much of Pratella's own music betrays little ob
Francesco Balilla Pratella, ca. 1912
Cover of the 1912 edition of Musica futurista by Francesco Balilla Pratella – cover art by Umberto Boccioni
The Art of Noises
Videos
The Art of Noises 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 accu
Francesco Balilla Pratella
…pamphlet Musica Futurista in 1912. Inspired by Pratella, Luigi Russolo created his Intonarumori (Noise Intoners) in 1913 and wrote his own manifesto, The Art of Noises (1913), introducing the futurist concept of introducing noise into music. Pratella was less than enthusiastic about the use of Intonarumori, but he…
Intonarumori instruments built by Russolo and Ugo Piatti, photo published in Russolo's 1913 book The Art of Noises
photo of an Intonarumori concert with noise-machines
Russolo, 1913: score of en-harmonic notation; partitura for Intonarumori
Russolo, 1913 and his assistant Ugo Piatti in their Milan studio with the Intonarumori (noise machines)