The Art of Noises-A Week of Noise #3

A precedence for noise and experimental music of John Cage, Charles Ives, Yoko Ono, Adam Ant, Diamanda Galas and Lightening Bolt ...would be "The Art of Noises" by Russiloand his manifesto The Art Of Noises. Photo of Russolo, Ugo Piatti and their “noise intoners” (intonarumori), Milan circa 1920. These were invented in 1914 to correspond with the theories outlined in the manifesto.



"The piano on the left is tuned one-quarter tone sharp, providing notes in-between the notes of the normally tuned piano. Performed by the Paratore brothers."

Noise music uses all kinds of tools to make sound. These could include feedback, dissonance, random notes and pacing,



Luigi Russolo was a futurist and he notes that the earliest "music" was very simplistic and was created with very simple instruments, and that many early civilizations considered the secrets of music sacred and reserved it for rites and rituals. The Greek musical theory was based on the tetrachord mathematics of Pythagoras, which did not allow for any harmonies. Developments and modifications to the Greek musical system were made during the Middle Ages, which lead to music like Gregorian chant. Russolo notes that during this time sounds were still narrowly seen as "unfolding in time." The chord did not yet exist.



Russolo sees the futurist orchestra drawing its sounds from "six families of noise":

-Roars, Thunderings, Explosions, Hissing roars, Bangs, Booms
-Whistling, Hissing, Puffing
-Whispers, Murmurs, Mumbling, Muttering, Gurgling
-Screeching, Creaking, Rustling, Humming, Crackling, Rubbing
-Noises obtained by beating on metals, woods, skins, stones, pottery, etc.
-Voices of animals and people, Shouts, Screams, Shrieks, Wails, Hoots, Howls, Death rattles, Sobs
-Russolo asserts that these are the most basic and fundamental noises, and that all other noises are only associations and combinations of these.


Yoko Ono showed her entire film "Fly" on Dick Cavett. The above is an excerpt.

Russolo includes a list of conclusions:

-Futurist composers should use their creativity and innovation to "enlarge and enrich the field of sound" by approaching the "noise-sound."
-Futurist musicians should strive to replicate the infinite timbres in noises.
-Futurist musicians should free themselves from the traditional and seek to explore the diverse rhythms of noise.
-The complex tonalities of noise can be achieved by creating instruments that replicate that complexity.
-The creation of instruments that replicate noise should not be a difficult task, since the manipulation of pitch will be simple once the mechanical principles that that create the noise have been recreated. Pitch can be manipulated through simples changes in speed or tension.
-The new orchestra will not evoke new and novel emotions by imitating the noises of life, but by finding new and unique combinations of timbres and rhythms in noise, to find a way to fully express the rhythm and sound that stretches beyond normal un-inebriated comprehension.
-The variety of noise is infinite, and as man creates new machines the number of noises he can differentiate between continues to grow.
-Therefore, he invites all talented musicians to pay attention to noises and their complexity, and once they discover the broadness of noise's palette of timbres, they will develop a passion for noise. He predicts that our "multiplied sensibility, having been conquered by futurist eyes, will finally have some futurist ears, and . . . every workshop will become an intoxicating orchestra of noise."




Family of Noise by Adam Ant


a lot of people in this great big-world
say "love everybody"
a lot of people busy busy busy busy busy
being very modern

chorus:
but the family of noise is here
and it's come to save everybody
the family of noise is here
and it's come to save you and me
it goes:

the family of noise is here
and it's come to save everybody
the family of noise is here
and it's come to save you and me

a lot of people in the ancient world
they loved only quiet
and then along came the machine
and a new direction

the family of noise is here
and it's come to save everybody
the family of noise is here
and it's come to save you and me
it goes:

in the morning
last thing at night
in the darkness
standing in the light

a lot of people in this great big world
just searching for the "pure" sound
they're just looking to the machine
they don't listen to the noise

the family of noise is here
and it's come to save you and me

-in Croydon