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

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Chessa, Luciano, 1971-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Futurism (Music).
• Russolo, Luigi--Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Luigi Russolo (1885-1947)-painter, composer, builder of musical instruments, and first-hour member of the Italian Futurist movement-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, showing it to be a leitmotif for his life and a foundation for his art of noises. Chessa shows that Russolo's aesthetics of noise, and the machines he called the intonarumori, were intended to boost practitioners into higher states of spiritual consciousness. His analysis reveals a multifaceted man in whom the drive to keep up with the latest scientific trends coexisted with an embrace of the irrational, and a critique of materialism and positivism.

Contents:

• Frontmatter
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part One. Luigi Russolo from the Formative Years to 1913
• Part Two. The Art of Noises and the Occult
• Conclusion: Materialist Futurism?
• Notes

Notes:

• Description based upon print version of record.
• Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)
• Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

• 9786613520685
• 9781280111327
• 1280111321
• 9780520951563
• 0520951565

OCLC:

782879942