Russolo, a Futurist Musician

Luigi Russolo (1885-1947) was an Italian painter and self-taught musician. In 1913 he wrote The Art of Noises, which is considered to be one of the most important and influential texts in 20th century musical aesthetics. Russolo and his brother Antonio used instruments they called "intonarumori", which were acoustic noise generators that permitted the performer to create and control the dynamics and pitch of several different types of noises.
Russolo and Marinetti gave the first concert of Futurist music, complete with intonarumori, in April 1914 (causing a riot).