The most fundamental recent achievement in the building of new instruments is that of producing pure tones as well as rich tones in perfect harmonic structure without accessories. But for various reasons music has always utilized more or less inharmonic structures and has imitated, or at least tolerated, noises in the forms of hisses, twangs, and all kinds of inharmonic and noisy distortion. Recourse to discord will always be demanded in music; but it is a question as to what extent aperiodic sounds or noises are necessary. We have learned to accept the hisses, scratches, rattles, thuds, and bangs of countless varieties in musical tone. Some such accretions are present in the tone production of every instrument now in use. They have arisen as impediments in construction, but have come to be accepted as characteristics of the instrument and therefore have added greatly to the individuality of each instrument. Will the future musical public insist on having these or will there be a feeling of relief when we can get rid of them? The answer is probably in the middle ground because music, at least as we know it now, calls for a great variety of noises in the interest of realism. Possibly in the future, noise may be given a chastened and more honorable place in the family of tone qualities. The significant thing to note here is that in new types of instruments any kind of crude sound or noise can be introduced at will. This will answer the purpose of program music in that perfectly realistic reproductions can be made of the sound of steps in marching, the slam of a door, the squeal of a pig, the bleat of a lamb, the crow of a rooster, the roar of an airplane, the sigh of the wind. A comparatively small outfit of sources for accessory noises can serve a great variety of purposes in the hands of the artist. New responsibilities for the composer in these respects may be foreseen. PLAYING