Luigi Russolo’s Music: a strange, compelling failure

The Italian futurist’s 1911 painting was an attempt to define ‘the complex of musical emotion’. In fact, it revealed the artist as a pioneer of discordThe Italian futurist Luigi Russolo’s 1911 painting attempts to nail “the complex of musical emotion”, as he described it. The central shadowy figure is a spider pianist with five arms, suggesting speedy fingerwork. A backdrop of blue sky in rhythmic circles is cut by a whiplash of melody. The grinning carnival m