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 this essay. There were ultimately 27 different types of intoners, each producing a unique sound in one of the six “families” listed, including “howlers”, “exploders”, “crumplers”, “hissers”, “scrapers”, etc. Russolo performed several concerts with these in the 1920’s. Unfortunately, only one very brief recording is known to exist of these (the intoners have apparently been destroyed). It’s only about thirty seconds long, so I hope to have it available at this site someday.




Another shot of the intonarumori, from 1919.

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