Being surrounded by noise, especially in a city as grand as New York, it has become incredibly easy to block sounds out for the sake of one’s sanity. What most fail to realize is the beauty of being able to hear countless combinations of sounds, all creating their own unique symphonies of sorts. In “The Art of Sounds,” Russolo encourages people to really pay attention to the infinite sounds that surround them, because in a way they are art. Music is not the only form of art that we can appreciate with our ears, Russolo suggests that the limited variety of timbres produced by musical instruments can and should be expanded to include other categories of sound.
The idea of combinations of a wider variety of sounds to create art is demonstrated in “Various Throats: Volume 1”, by Bob Cobbing.
http://www.ubu.com/sound/throats.html
This form of sound art consists of the sixth category of noises, as defined by Russolo. It features the capabilities of the human voice, including coughing, gasping, and cackling. As evidenced through this piece of art, a combination of pretty much any sound can be used to capture people’s attention. In order to explain the desire of finding new and unique combinations of sound, Russolo writes, “For years, Beethoven and Wagner have deliciously shaken our hearts. Now we are fed up with them. This is why we get infinitely more pleasure imagining combinations of the sounds of trolleys, autos and other vehicles, and loud crowds, than listening once more, for instance, to the heroic or pastoral symphonies” (6). As time moves on, it has become increasingly difficult for artists to create genuinely new sounds with the same old instruments that have been around for centuries. A lot of people get in trouble nowadays for work that sounds too similar to sounds from the past. The expansion of sounds that are considered acceptable in music would make the possibilities absolutely endless. In many ways, all sounds can be shaped and combined to create something new and interesting for people to listen to.