Luigi Russolo finds power in noise by citing the relative silence of ancient life, fed by the silence of nature. He explained that it was only until the Industrial Age that 'noise' was made, aided by the introduction of the machine. Before this time, noise was not prolonged or varied but then grew into music. He found this music to be only complex noise, evolving from its early desires to portray "sweetness" to its modern intentions in creating "dissonance" or "harshness". Reverting to his original point on the origins of sound, Russolo explains taking advantage of the "multiplication of machines", to create a greater and greater crescendo of noise and once again grabbing the attention of the listener as once pure sound had. Because pure sound, Russolo states, has been so altered that it no longer holds its original power. For example, he believes that this day in age we may yearn for the hum of the computer more than the harmonious offerings of a Beethoven Symphony. Instead, noise heightens the senses and makes you listen like a child would hearing their first sounds. True to his Futurist roots, Russolo also speaks of the integrated possibility of variation inside of every tone: a scale of corresponding sounds that can be forced through increased or decreased movement. He also contrasts sound versus noise: the man-made and foreign versus the natural yet still unexpectedly enriching. He also hints that noise finds its art form in its inability to be exactly imitated, as all noise may be a genuine experience.
Luigi Russolo's writings make me consider a couple of things: the ability to create newness in spite of repetition versus the ability to create infinite variation within the same noise (like in continual discovery through increased concentration). The dissolution of all breaks in very distinct noise. Why mustn't noise ever be imitated?
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