FREE FIGHT AT A FUTURIST CONCERT

Evening Star, Issue 15515, 10 June 1914, Page 2

FREE FIGHT AT A FUTURIST CONCERT

Howlers, ramblers, flatterers, friction producers of different registers, and two sidesplitters, besides a hisser, a buzzer, a gurgler and a crasher were among the instruments used by the members of a . distinctly original orchestra which performed in the Opera House at Milan on April 23, when the Italian Futurists introduced to the public for the first time their wonderful “ noisetuners.” The inventor is Signor Luigi Russolo, who, having devoted several years of study to classifying the infinitely varied noises of nature and the acoustic emotions of modern life into six categories of sound, aims at converting them into a line art by intoning and regulating them, according to harmony and rhythm, in a. set of compositions. The musicians played their parts by means of handles, key*, lovers, and various electric devices, under tho conductorship of the inventor, who directed the orchestra from a dais in the middle of the stage with a conventional baton. Those present wore surprised to find that the compositions were anything i but mere imitative reproductions of noise. Indeed, tho volume of sound at its greatest was far less deafening and overpowering than that of an ordinary brass band. . Three pieces wore performed ‘ The Awakening of a Great City,’ ‘ Dinner on the Terraco of a Big Kursaal,’ end ‘ Race Between Automobiles and Aeroplanes.’ Signor Marinetti, the founder of Futurism,"ln a preliminary address on the evolution of music through the ages, dwelt on its parallelism with tho development and multiplication of modern machinery. Ho afterwards informed me lhat Londoners would coon have an opportunity of enjoying this latest anticipation of the music of the future. According to. the diverting account published by an Italian newspaper, tho concert resulted in a free fight. The Futurists and their adversaries chased one another from the theatres into various cafes, and l small battles raged at various points in j the city. The concert of "tonal noise,” as the promoters termed it, opened with [whistling from the audience, and finally jan avalanche of potatoes, cabbages, and j other missiles fell on to the stage. A i humorous touch in the report was the | statement that a greengrocer, whose shop faces the Opera. House. _ laid in for the j occasion a huge supply of vegetables, as at j a previous Futurist concert his stock had been quickly fold out. Several minor ! casualties occurred, . and eventually the i Carabinieri were called out to stop the | fighting. Evidently the duties of a musical critic in .Milan provide more excitement than here !