Luigi Russolo, futurist : noise, visual arts, and the occult / Luciano Chessa.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chessa, Luciano, 1971-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Russolo, Luigi--Criticism and interpretation.

Russolo, Luigi.

Futurism (Music).

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xii, 284 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2012]

Summary:

Luigi Russolo (1885-1947)-painter, composer, builder of musical instruments, and a member of the Italian futurist movement from its inception-was a crucial figure in the evolution of twentieth-century aesthetics. As creator of the first systematic poetics of noise and inventor of what has been considered the first mechanical sound synthesizer, Russolo looms large in the development of twentieth-century music. In the first English-language study of Russolo, Luciano Chessa emphasizes the futurist's interest in the occult, portraying it as a leitmotif for his life and a foundation for his art of noises. Chessa shows that Russolo's aesthetics of noise, and the machines that he called the intonarumori, were intended to elevate practitioners to higher states of spiritual consciousness. Chessa's analysis revels a multifaceted man in whom the drive to keep up with the latest scientific trends coexisted with an embrace of the irrational and with a critique of materialism and positivism. Book jacket.

Contents:

Luigi Russolo from the formative years to 1913. Futurism as a metaphysical science ; Occult futurism ; Spotlight on Russolo ; Painting noise : la musica ; Russolo and synesthesia ; Russolo's metaphysics

The art of noises and the occult. Intonarumori unveiled ; The spirali di rumori ; The arte dei romori ; Controversial Leonardo ; Third level.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780520270633

0520270630

9780520270640

0520270649

9780520951563

0520951565

OCLC:

756167000