Music
On March 11,1913, Russolo issued his manifesto L'arte dei rumori (The Art of Noises), dedicated to fellow Futurist composer Francesco Balilla Pratella. Expanded into book form in 1916, it theorized the inclusion of incidental noise into musical composition. With Ugo Piatti, he later invented the intonarumori, noise-emitting machines that allowed the modification of tone and pitch. In 1913-14, Russolo conducted his first Futurist concerts with numerous intonarumori. Audiences in Milan, Genoa and London reacted with enthusiasm or open hostility. Russolo started to contribute to the magazine Lacerba, where in 1914 he published his Grafia enarmonica per gl'intonarumori (Enharmonic Notation for Futurist Intonarumori), which introduced a new and influential form of musical notation.
Music
Beginning in 1922, he invented a series of rumorarmoni, a kind of harmonium
which allowed for the extension of tone and pitch by the simple shift of one
register. In 1925 he patented the "enharmonic bow" and later the
"enharmonic piano."
Throughout most of the 1920's Russolo performed across Europe with his intonorumori.
He wrote and performed Futurist musical scores for both the theatre and the
cinema. He wrote the music for the film The March of the Machines, wrote the
music and appeared with Marinetti in Futurists in Paris and appeared in Montparnasse
with Marinetti and Prampolini - all three films are now lost. With the advent
of sound in the cinema Russolo gave up music, giving his last performance
on December 28, 1929 in Paris.
Biography
In 1931 he moved to Tarragona in Spain, where he studied occult philosophy and then in 1933 returned to Italy, settling in Cerro di Laveno on Lake Maggiore. Russolo published his philosophical investigations Al di là della materia (Beyond Matter) in 1938. In 1941-42, he took up painting again in a realist style that he called "classic-modern". Russolo died at Cerro di Lavenio in 1947.