Sound Arts

What's the business,
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!

If a tree falls in a forest, and no-one is around to hear it, does it make a noise?

Carpenters' and ironworkers' shops are dominated by the heavier sounds of machinery and occasional yells across the floor; in goldsmiths' shops the silences are punctuated by more delicate work noises, but the apprentices' sullen silence and the artisans' grim absorption in the work at hand are, if anything, more oppressive, although there may be a little amiable banter between a master goldsmith and an older apprentice clearly already in possession of advanced technical skills.