Innovation is the only way to constantly move toward perfection.

It is through change and

breakthroughs that anything can grow and potentially become greater than it ever had been
before. Sometimes however, innovation does not accomplish the intention of the change. But in
the music artform, innovation is never a negative. Change always brings about new ways of
looking at, listening, and understanding music. One manifesto, in particular, changed music
forever. Issued in 1913 and published as a full book in 1916, L'arte dei rumori by Luigi Russolo
depicts the road map to musical innovations that are still being used by producers and artists to
this day. This innovation, like any, has gains and losses, positives and negatives attributed to it.
But this manifesto, in the grand scope of what it has brought on in the world of music, has
positively shaped the artform for the last century and will continue to do so for many years to
come.
Luigi Russolo was born in 1885 and grew up to be an artist, composer, and idealist,
whose thoughts about the creative musical process became his manifesto. A member of the
Italian Futurism Movement, Russolo shaped both his painting and his passion for composing
around the thoughts written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in his 1909 manifesto Founding and
Manifesto of Futurism in Le Figaro, a prominent French Newspaper. Marinetti challenged
thinkers, the artists, the innovators, the writers, the younger generation to disrupt the social
norms and revitalize culture by bringing in new ideas and completely altering the old ways of
looking at the world. Russolo was listening. Four years later, he wrote his own manifesto, known
in English as The Art of Noises. In this manifesto, Russolo discusses how noises that happen by
chance, out in the world, should be incorporated into musical composition. He goes on to discuss
how urban sounds are like readymade music and that the musical artform should be more than
just the melodic sounds of pianofortes, strings, and other orchestral instruments, as they are not
fully capable of replicating the vast array of sounds that would create true musical genius.

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.
-Luigi Russolo The Art of Noises English Translation

Russolo talks about the Industrial Revolution as the guide for Futurism, as the industrial
machines grow in numbers and become more advanced in what they can do, art and
thought and music can too grow. Music can use technology to truly utilize the infinite
variety of sounds that surround us daily. His words outlined his passion for music and
his desire for music to be limited not by the ability of an instrument, but by the
imagination of the artist and that of the listener.
Luigi Russolo was not merely a thinker, he was a man of action. Following the release of
his manifesto, Russolo worked with fellow Futurist Ugo Piatti to design a machine to create
some of the sounds he was longing for in his writing. Called the intonarumori, this machine used
levers, cranks, and other technological advances to emit sound. Using many of his intonarumori,
Russolo began performing in 1913 through the following year to the amazement of his
audiences. This interest in his noise-making machines continued following World War I, as he
continued to develop new, innovative instruments using technology and performed with these
instruments throughout the the 1920s, and the impact of his contribution to music goes well
beyond that to today.
Luigi Russolos innovation and his ideals have led so many others to use technology in
their own music. Lee de Forest utilized his own work with amplification and Russolos work
with technological music composition as the basis for his design of the Audion Piano in 1915,
the first modern synthesizer. In so doing, he and Russolo left their mark on multitudes of musical
artists, from Bon Iver, to Kanye West, to Imagine Dragons, to Katy Perry, and so forth and so on.
Russolos manifesto is the foundation upon which all the modern musical production,
engineering, and synthesizing is founded, especially when it comes to the unique musical sounds
of artists, such as Bon Iver, Kanye West and Imogen Heap, who all utilize regularly the sounds
and noises that surround them daily, and, using technology, create incredibly unique and creative
musical art built around those unique, everyday sounds.
As with all innovation, some losses have come from the use of technology in music. One
such loss is the loss of the basic essence and melodic stylings that much of music, including that
of Russolo, is built upon. This musical foundation is said to have been lost due to over-
synthesizing, and auto-tuning, and takes away from the authenticity of the music. The Foo
Fighters most recent musical effort Wasting Light was recorded in frontman Dave Grohls
basement, because, as he told LA Weekly magazine, when I listen to music these days, and I
hear Pro Tools and drums that sound like a machine- it kinda sucks the life out of music. He
liked the imperfections of simple recording. The same imperfections that inspired Russolo a
century before to use machines to capture the worlds imperfections. Russolos ideals havent
changed, nor has the benefit that it has brought to the world of music. That is the beauty of
music, that it inspiring one person, and not inspiring another, doesnt mean it has gains and
losses, it just means that innovation in music has helped at least that one person get that much
closer to their inspiration.
Though his last performance was in 1929, his contribution to music is one that has lasted
a century. Through his belief in shying away from convention, and his ideas that the urban
sounds and urban machinery can shape music as an artform, Luigi Russolo has left an
overwhelming positive mark on the history of music. And though he may not be recognized for
his part in the musical revolution that has occurred over the last 100 years, he is where, when
people look back on music history, technology and music truly began to exist in perfect
harmony.

Works Cited

Turner, Gustavo (2011-04-11). "EXCLUSIVE Interview: Dave Grohl on Cutting the New Foo
Fighters Album's Master Tape to Pieces--and Giving Them Away to the Fans". LA
Weekly.

Russolo, Luigi (1916). "The Art of Noises (English translation)". Archived from the original on
2010-11-27.

"Introduction." Italian Futurism. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2014.
<http%3A%2F%2Fexhibitions.guggenheim.org%2Ffuturism%2F>.

"Luigi Russolo." The Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, n.d.
Web. 17 Sept. 2014. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guggenheim-
venice.it%2Finglese%2Fcollections%2Fartisti%2Fbiografia.php%3Fid_art%3D175>.