Balilla PratellaManifesto of Futurist Musicians 1910 (Excerpt)

"I appeal to the young. Only they should listen, and only they can understand what I have to say. Some people are born old, slobbering spectres of the past, cryptogams swollen with poison. To them no words or ideas, but a single injunction: the end. I appeal to the young, to those who are thirsty for the new, the actual, the lively. They follow me, faithful and fearless, along the roads of the future, gloriously preceded by my, by our, intrepid brothers, the Futurist poets and painters, beautiful with violence, daring with rebellion, and luminous with the animation of genius. Futurism, the rebellion of the life of intuition andfeeling, quivering and impetuous spring, declares incxorable war on doctrines, individuals and works that repeat, prolong or exalt the past at the expense of the future. It proclaims the conquest of amoral liberty, of action, conscience and imagination. It proclaims that Art is disinterest, heroism and contempt for easy success.I, who repudiate the title of Maestro as a stigma of mediocrity and ignorance, hereby confirm my enthusiastic adhesion to Futurism, offering to the young, the bold and the reckless these my irrevocable CONCLUSIONS" (Excerpts)"

1. TO CONVINCE YOUNG COMPOSERS TO DESERT SCHOOLS, CONSERVATORIES AND MUSICAL ACADEMIES, AND TO CONSIDER FREE STUDY AS TIIE ONLY MEANS OF REGENERATION.""

3. TO ABSTAIN FROM PARTICIPATING IN ANY COMPETITION WITH THE CUSTOMARY CLOSEDENVELOPES AND RELATED ADMISSION CHARGES, DENOUNCING ALL MYSTIFICATIONS PUBLICLY, AND UNMASKING THE INCOMPETENCE OF JURIES, WHlCH ARE GENERALLY COMPOSED OF FOOLS AND IMPOTENTS.""

4. TO KEEP AT A DISTANCE FROM COMMERCIAL OR ACADEMIC CIRCLES, DESPISING THEM, ANDPREFERRING A MODEST LIFE TO BOUNTIFUL EARNINGS ACQUIRED BY SELLING ART.""

5. THE LIBERATION OF INDIVIDUAL MUSICAL SENSIBILITY FROM ALL IMITATION OR INFLUENCE OF THE PAST, FEELING AND SINGING WITH THE SPIRIT OPEN TO THE FUTURE, DRAWING INSPIRATION AND AESTHETICS FROM NATURE, THROUGH ALL THE HUMAN AND EXTRA-HUMAN PHENOMENA PRESENT IN IT. EXALTING THE MAN-SYMBOL EVERLASTINGLY RENEWED BY THE VARIED ASPECTS OF MODERN LIFE AND ITS INFINITY OF INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS WITH NATURE." "

7. TO PROCLAIM THAT THE REIGN OF THE SINGER MUST END, AND THAT THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SINGER IN RELATION TO A WORK OF ART IS THE EQUIVALENT OF THE IMPORTANCE OF AN INSTRUMENT IN THE ORCHESTRA.""

11. TO PROVOKE IN THE PUBLIC AN EVERGROWING HOSTIUTY TOWARDS THE EXHUMATION OF OLD WORKS WHICH PREVENTS THE APPEARANCE OF INNOVATORS, TO ENCOURAGE THE SUPPORT ANDEXALTATION OF EVERY THING IN MUSIC THAT APPEARS ORIGINAL AND REVOLUTIONARY, ANDTO CONSIDER AS AN HONOUR THE INSULTS AND IRONIES OF MORIBUNDS AND OPPORTUNISTS."

11 October 1910, Published in Pratella's Musica futurista perorchestra ridizione per pianoforte. Bolgna, 1912