Luigi Russolo

* 1885 in Portoguaro, Italy, died 1947 in Cerro di Laveno on Lake Maggiore (I). Russolo first studied music, but turned to painting in 1909 and met F.T. Marinetti, U. Boccioni and C. Carrà, with whom he signed the Futurist Manifesto in 1910. Russolo was involved in all subsequent manifestos, campaigns and exhibitions by the Italian Futurists. In 1913 he dedicated «L'arte dei rumori,» a manifesto formulated as a letter, to Ballila Pratella, the musician in the group, and moved on to become the Futurists' actual musician. He built a number of different «intonarumori» (noise intoners) with Ugo Piatti, and these caused an international stir at concerts from 1913. In 1915, Stravinsky, Prokoviev, Diaghilev and Massine met in Marinetti's house to examine and report on the new instruments. Russolo patented the «rumoramonio» (noise harmonium) in 1921, an enharmonic stringed instrument in 1925 and an enharmonic piano in 1931. Subsequently he occupied himself with occult sciences, writing the philosophical work «Al di là della materia» (Beyond Matter), and took up painting again in 1942.

(From: Akademie der Künste (eds.), Für Augen und Ohren, Berlin, 1980, p. 252)