Editing Futurism (section)

==Futurism in music==
{{main|Futurism (music)}}

[[File:Intonarumori-veduta.jpg|right|thumb|Futurist musicians [[Luigi Russolo]] (left) and Ugo Piatti with ''[[intonarumori]]''.]]
Futurist music rejected tradition and introduced experimental sounds inspired by machinery.  It influenced several 20th century composers.

[[Francesco Balilla Pratella]] joined the Futurist movement in 1910 and wrote a ''Manifesto of Futurist Musicians'' in which he appealed to the young, as had Marinetti, because only they could understand what he had to say.  According to Pratella, Italian music was inferior to music abroad.  He praised the "sublime genius" of [[Wagner]] and saw some value in the work of other contemporary composers, for example [[Richard Strauss]], [[Elgar]], [[Mussorgsky]], and [[Sibelius]].  By contrast, the Italian [[symphony]] was dominated by [[opera]] in an "absurd and anti-musical form".  The [[College or university school of music|conservatories]] encouraged backwardness and mediocrity.  The publishers perpetuated mediocrity and the domination of music by the "rickety and vulgar" operas of [[Puccini]] and [[Umberto Giordano]].  The only Italian Pratella could praise was his teacher [[Pietro Mascagni]], because he had rebelled against the publishers and attempted innovation in opera, but even Mascagni was too traditional for Pratella's tastes.  In the face of this mediocrity and conservatism, Pratella unfurled "the red flag of Futurism, calling to its flaming symbol such young composers as have hearts to love and fight, minds to conceive, and brows free of cowardice".

[[Luigi Russolo]] (1885-1947) wrote ''[[The Art of Noises]]'' (1913),<ref>[http://www.thereminvox.com/article/articleview/117 The Art of Noises on Thereimin Vox]</ref><ref> [http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/futurist/art_of_noise.html The Art of Noises]</ref> an influential text in 20th century musical aesthetics. Russolo used instruments he called ''[[intonarumori]]'', which were [[Musical acoustics|acoustic]] [[noise]] generators that permitted the performer to create and control the [[Dynamics (music)|dynamics]] and [[pitch (music)|pitch]] of several different types of noises.  Russolo and Marinetti gave the first concert of Futurist music, complete with ''intonarumori'', in 1914. 

Futurism was one of several 20th century movements in art music that paid homage to, included or imitated machines. [[Feruccio Busoni]] has been seen as anticipating some Futurist ideas, though he remained wedded to tradition.<ref>[http://www.ubu.com/papers/lombardi.html Daniele Lombardi in ''Futurism and Musical Notes'']</ref>  Russolo's ''intonarumori'' influenced [[Stravinsky]], [[Honegger]], [[Antheil]], [[Edgar Varèse]],<ref name=Humphreys/> [[Stockhausen]] and [[John Cage]].{{Fact|date=December 2008}} In [[Pacific 231]], Honegger imitated the sound of a steam locomotive.  There are also Futurist elements in [[Prokofiev]]'s ''The Steel Step''.

Most notable in this respect, however, is [[George Antheil]].  His fascination with machinery is evident in his ''Airplane Sonata'', ''Death of the Machines'', and the 30-minute ''[[Ballet mécanique]]''.  The ''Ballet mécanique'' was originally intended to accompany an experimental film by [[Fernand Léger]], but the musical score is twice the length of the film and now stands alone.  The score calls for a percussion ensemble consisting of three xylophones, four bass drums, a tam-tam, three airplane propellers, seven electric bells, a siren, two "live pianists", and sixteen synchronized player pianos. Antheil's piece was the first to synchronize machines with human players and to exploit the difference between what machines and humans can play.