[Glice]

The problem with using the word 'noise', musicologically speaking, is that it has several different referents, usually dependant upon context and the interpretations of the individual.

Noise (1) - That which is unpleasant to the individual (a subjective interpretation based on a persons taste - I find Celine Dion to be noise; my family consider SY to be noise, in this sense)

Noise (2) - That which falls outside of the expected tonality of an instrument (String scrapes, feedback, artificially emphasised overtones). Technically I believe this is referred to, by the spectralists and the likes of Cage and Xenakis, as the 'enharmonic' - that which is outside of conventional Western harmonic and melodic notation but may still be organised into a coherent artwork.

Noise (3) - That which is opposed to silence. Under a Cage-ian understanding of sound in general, there is no silence to be opposed - all sound is noise/ all noise is sound; all of this may, with modern technology, be re-organised into 'pleasing' shapes. To whom this is pleasing relies upon the skill of the composer - Cage, Ives, Xenakis, Schaefer, Parmegiani (etc) are exceptionally adept at the compositional re-configuring of these 'noises' into a complete artwork.

Noise (4) - Any loud sound - This is the alternative to a Cageian approach, that is to say, any sound which goes beyond the normative thresholds of background sound - Drills, industry in general, etc.

Noise (5) - Sounds, usually of a high volume, which fall outside of the accepted norms of a societies musical endeavour - melodic inventions which trangress the tacit sonic-psychic-geography of an indivuals relationship to his/her culture. This is distinct from the above because it comes under the caveat of contrived art, rather than incidental sounds in general day-to-day life.

Noise (6) - A musical genre which relies upon dynamic, non-homogenous interpretations of timbre, pitch and volume as its basis rather than conventional melodic or harmonic relationships between homogenous entities (notes).


There are no doubt many other referents - however, I think you're never going to get through to this guy - I've met lots like him, and it's nearly impossible to make people see that their referent for 'noise' may not be commensurable with every referent for 'noise'. Unless you want to give him Silence, which helped some of my friends a little.