On The Sensations Of Tone by Hermann Helmholtz would be a good publication to read to get the basics of sound even though this work was intended as a physiological basis for the theory of music. Written in 1863 it only briefly touches upon the difference between musical tones and noises, thereby presuming that noises by their very nature cannot be musical.

His observations are that musical tones are due to the rapid periodic motion of the sonorous body (sound generating instrument) while noises are produced by non-periodic motions.

Helmholtz further goes on to declare that musical tones are distinguished by their force, their pitch and their quality, where quality is used as a description for the harmonic content of a tone. Noises could therefore be distinguished only by their force and quality, where quality in noises is the coloration of the noise sound.

I apologize for the choppiness of these posts as they are made in order to establish the lay-out of this site. They will, however, get updated and polished or even totally re-written once the opportunity is there. I’m also hoping for guest writers with more knowledge and better writing skills.