The MTT Files - Program 1: You Call That Music?!

250 years ago, when composers included “noise” in their music, they mimicked the sounds of the physical world, like farm animals and gunshots. But by the late 1800s, they were using harsh, aggressive sounds to represent the internal, psychological anxieties of the coming modern age.

And then, of course, during the 20th century, composers blurred the line between noise and music even more. From the dissonance of early modernism to music that glorified the machine—from musique concrete to the ear-deafening throbs of hyper-amplification—art music gave us just about everything an increasingly noisy world could offer.

What’s music, and what’s noise? In this program, MTT demonstrates that noise is in the mind of the listener. His guest is contemporary composer Steven Mackey.

This is the 1st episode in The MTT Files radio series.