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Back to the Future of The Art of Noises: The After-Life of Futurism in Twentieth-Century Music

  • Esther Schmitz-Gundlach
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Volume 13 2023
This chapter is in the book Volume 13 2023

Abstract

By exploring the aesthetic implications of historical Futurism, this essay offers an approach to Neo-Futurist tendencies in the music of subsequent decades. From 1913 onwards, the manifestos published by Luigi Russolo (1885-1947) on music and the construction of noise-producing instruments (intonarumori) contributed to the emancipation of noise as musical material and set an aesthetic impulse that was significant for the music history of the twentieth century. However, Futurism’s rôle in this development was underestimated for a long time, largely because of the movement’s affiliation with Fascism and because Futurist manifestos were given a superficial interpretation by contemporary composers. The intention of this essay is to extrapolate, with reference to historical Futurism, aesthetic criteria for a type of music that can be considered to exhibit a Neo-Futurist tendency. Starting from this, the Futurist definition of noise as musical material will be shown in its consequences for modes of production and reception in later periods. Futurist musical aesthetics focussed on a scientific approach to acoustic material. In the second half of the twentieth century, the modes of production and reception of music developed further, in parallel to the availability of technical possibilities of sound production. This process will be exemplified in this essay by composers who had different attitudes towards Futurism: some were positively or negatively disposed towards it; others adopted some but rejected other features of Russolo’s demand for a separation of noise from its sources of inspiration (such as the metropolis, the street and the factory). In any case, Russolo paved the way for musical abstraction, a transformation that was shaped significantly by technologies of sound production and reproduction. Edgard Varèse (1883-1965), John Cage (1912- 1992), Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) and György Ligeti (1923-2006) developed compositional practices that gave noise a musical form and created works that became examples of a music that ultimately turned noise into abstract sounds.

Abstract

By exploring the aesthetic implications of historical Futurism, this essay offers an approach to Neo-Futurist tendencies in the music of subsequent decades. From 1913 onwards, the manifestos published by Luigi Russolo (1885-1947) on music and the construction of noise-producing instruments (intonarumori) contributed to the emancipation of noise as musical material and set an aesthetic impulse that was significant for the music history of the twentieth century. However, Futurism’s rôle in this development was underestimated for a long time, largely because of the movement’s affiliation with Fascism and because Futurist manifestos were given a superficial interpretation by contemporary composers. The intention of this essay is to extrapolate, with reference to historical Futurism, aesthetic criteria for a type of music that can be considered to exhibit a Neo-Futurist tendency. Starting from this, the Futurist definition of noise as musical material will be shown in its consequences for modes of production and reception in later periods. Futurist musical aesthetics focussed on a scientific approach to acoustic material. In the second half of the twentieth century, the modes of production and reception of music developed further, in parallel to the availability of technical possibilities of sound production. This process will be exemplified in this essay by composers who had different attitudes towards Futurism: some were positively or negatively disposed towards it; others adopted some but rejected other features of Russolo’s demand for a separation of noise from its sources of inspiration (such as the metropolis, the street and the factory). In any case, Russolo paved the way for musical abstraction, a transformation that was shaped significantly by technologies of sound production and reproduction. Edgard Varèse (1883-1965), John Cage (1912- 1992), Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) and György Ligeti (1923-2006) developed compositional practices that gave noise a musical form and created works that became examples of a music that ultimately turned noise into abstract sounds.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Table of Contents V
  3. Editorial IX
  4. Volume Editors’ Preface XV
  5. Section 1: Futurism Studies
  6. 1 Italy
  7. Futurism in Italian Verbo-Visual Poetry after the Second World War 5
  8. Bang Tumb Tuuum! The Influence of Futurism on Italian Avant-garde Comic Strips 39
  9. Even the Great Marinetti Got It Wrong: Giovanni Tuzet’s Logical Neo-Futurism 69
  10. 2 Russia
  11. Gennady Aygi and Russian Futurism 97
  12. Serge Segay, Rea Nikonova and Italy: Between Futurism and Mail Art 135
  13. Konstantin K. Kuzminsky as a Neo-Futurist 167
  14. 3 Asia and Latin America
  15. The Post-utopian Avant-garde Poetics of the Korean ‘Futurist’ Min-jeong Kim 197
  16. The Infrarealist Movement and its Futurist Roots 227
  17. Russian Futurism and Brazilian Avant-garde Poetry: Incorporation, Translation, Convergence 253
  18. 4 Music, Sculpture and Architecture
  19. Back to the Future of The Art of Noises: The After-Life of Futurism in Twentieth-Century Music 285
  20. Postcolonial Retro-Futurism: Alessandro Ceresoli’s Linea Tagliero Prototypes 315
  21. 5 Artist Statements
  22. Transfuturism Manifesto 349
  23. From Words-in-Freedom to Epigenetic Poetry: Evolutions in Futurist Recitation and Performance 353
  24. The Future of Futurism in Digital Photography 367
  25. The Infinite Wrench: An Ensemble Member Reflects on the Theatre Company ‘The Neo-Futurists’ During and After Greg Allen’s Tenure 377
  26. Section 2: Reports
  27. EAM2022 in Lisbon: The Global Expansion of Futurism in the 1910s and 1920s 399
  28. Futurism and the Brazilian Week of Modern Art (1922): Some Thoughts Prompted by the Centenário da Semana de 22 407
  29. Anton Giulio Bragaglia: The Archive of a Visionary 425
  30. Rosa Rosà / Edith Arnaldi / Edyth von Haynau (1884–1978): A Woman Photographer and Her Futurist Inspiration 437
  31. Section 3: Critical responses to new publications
  32. The Crisis of Humanism, the Search for a New Man and the Historical Avant-garde 447
  33. Looking at the Lives of Avant-garde Women: The Collector as Scholar and Feminist 453
  34. Exhibiting Italian Art in the United States: From Futurism to Arte Povera 463
  35. Section 4: Bibliography
  36. A Bibliography of Publications on Futurism, 2020–2023 471
  37. Section 5: Back Matter
  38. List of Illustrations and Provenance Descriptions 495
  39. Notes on Contributors 501
  40. Name Index 509
  41. Subject Index 541
  42. Geographical Index 569
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111318394-012

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Table of Contents V
  3. Editorial IX
  4. Volume Editors’ Preface XV
  5. Section 1: Futurism Studies
  6. 1 Italy
  7. Futurism in Italian Verbo-Visual Poetry after the Second World War 5
  8. Bang Tumb Tuuum! The Influence of Futurism on Italian Avant-garde Comic Strips 39
  9. Even the Great Marinetti Got It Wrong: Giovanni Tuzet’s Logical Neo-Futurism 69
  10. 2 Russia
  11. Gennady Aygi and Russian Futurism 97
  12. Serge Segay, Rea Nikonova and Italy: Between Futurism and Mail Art 135
  13. Konstantin K. Kuzminsky as a Neo-Futurist 167
  14. 3 Asia and Latin America
  15. The Post-utopian Avant-garde Poetics of the Korean ‘Futurist’ Min-jeong Kim 197
  16. The Infrarealist Movement and its Futurist Roots 227
  17. Russian Futurism and Brazilian Avant-garde Poetry: Incorporation, Translation, Convergence 253
  18. 4 Music, Sculpture and Architecture
  19. Back to the Future of The Art of Noises: The After-Life of Futurism in Twentieth-Century Music 285
  20. Postcolonial Retro-Futurism: Alessandro Ceresoli’s Linea Tagliero Prototypes 315
  21. 5 Artist Statements
  22. Transfuturism Manifesto 349
  23. From Words-in-Freedom to Epigenetic Poetry: Evolutions in Futurist Recitation and Performance 353
  24. The Future of Futurism in Digital Photography 367
  25. The Infinite Wrench: An Ensemble Member Reflects on the Theatre Company ‘The Neo-Futurists’ During and After Greg Allen’s Tenure 377
  26. Section 2: Reports
  27. EAM2022 in Lisbon: The Global Expansion of Futurism in the 1910s and 1920s 399
  28. Futurism and the Brazilian Week of Modern Art (1922): Some Thoughts Prompted by the Centenário da Semana de 22 407
  29. Anton Giulio Bragaglia: The Archive of a Visionary 425
  30. Rosa Rosà / Edith Arnaldi / Edyth von Haynau (1884–1978): A Woman Photographer and Her Futurist Inspiration 437
  31. Section 3: Critical responses to new publications
  32. The Crisis of Humanism, the Search for a New Man and the Historical Avant-garde 447
  33. Looking at the Lives of Avant-garde Women: The Collector as Scholar and Feminist 453
  34. Exhibiting Italian Art in the United States: From Futurism to Arte Povera 463
  35. Section 4: Bibliography
  36. A Bibliography of Publications on Futurism, 2020–2023 471
  37. Section 5: Back Matter
  38. List of Illustrations and Provenance Descriptions 495
  39. Notes on Contributors 501
  40. Name Index 509
  41. Subject Index 541
  42. Geographical Index 569
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