"Life in ancient times was silent. In the nineteenth century, with the invention of machines, Noise was born.  Today Noise is triumphant, and reigns supreme over the sense of men. The art of music at first sought and achieved purity and sweetness of sound; later, it blended diverse sounds, but always with intent to caress the ear with suave harmonies.  Today, growing ever more complicated, it seeks those combinations of sounds that fall most dissonantly, strangely, and harshly upon the ear.  We thus approach nearer and nearer to the MUSIC OF NOISE.  We must break out of this narrow circle of musical sounds, and conquer the infinite variety of noise-sounds."

--Luigi Russolo (1913)