Noise

What it means

A noise (German Geräusch) is a sound event without a determinable pitch. Physically speaking it lacks regular vibration: instead of an ordered series of partials it contains many frequencies in irregular distribution. That is why a noise cannot be placed on a scale but can be described by colour, density, volume, and duration. The boundary to the note is fluid: many instrument sounds contain noise components, for instance the blowing noise of the flute or the response of the bow.

Musical use

For a long time noise counted as what music is not. In percussion, however, it was always present, and in the music of the twentieth century it expressly became material: movements around noise music, musique concrète with recorded everyday sounds, and electronic music fundamentally extended the stock. Noise components are also deliberately brought out on conventional instruments — playing at the bridge, air noises, key noises. Attention thereby shifts from pitch and harmony to tone colour and course.

In the music of the twentieth century, noises became material, for instance in Futurism and in musique concrète.

Performance practice

If a score calls for noises, read the preface, for the notation for them is not uniform. Practise the sounds demanded for evenness: a noise is to be executed as exactly as a note, and accidentality seems careless. Watch the volume relations, because noises are often quiet and disappear in the ensemble. Check the effect in the room, since high noise components depend strongly on the reverberation. Avoid damaging instruments through unusual techniques, and, when in doubt, settle how an instruction is meant.

Bear in mind that noise components on conventional instruments are technically tricky: playing at the bridge, air noises, or key noises demand exact control, because otherwise they seem accidental. Practise them for evenness like a note. The preface of the score is the first source here.

With unusual playing instructions, settle whether the instrument can suffer damage from them, and, when in doubt, look for a gentler execution.