Franco Casavola

Franco Casavola (13 July 1891, in Modugno, near Bari – 7 July 1955, in Bari) was a Futurist composer and theorist. He is noted as one of the authors of the Le Sintesi Visive della Musica, a manifesto that proposed the intrinsic visual counterparts of music. Futurist movement In a letter dated 1 October 1922, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti wrote to inform the composer, theorist and writer Franco Casavola that: “I’ve listened to Tankas, Quatrain, Gioielleria Notturna, Leila and Muoio di sete on the piano. They reveal to me a strong and original musical genius. We Futurists would be pleased if you would join our fight against obsolete ideas.” Casavola (who had studied music at the Rome Conservatory) accepted this invitation and formally joined the radical Italian art movement. He began to compose new pieces under the influence of earlier manifestoes written by Marinetti and, later, the specific manifestos on Futurist music produced by Francesco Balilla Pratella and Luigi Russolo, variously dated between 1909 and 1914. Early Futurist work by Casavola included: Ranocchi al Chiaro d Luna (Frogs in the Moonlight) by A.G. Bragaglia and La Danza della Scimmie (Dance of the Monkeys) for the Teatr