Why can a door slam or bell tinkle be used as part of a musical composition?

In the context of musical composition, sounds such as a door slam or a bell tinkle are utilized because modern music is no longer strictly defined by traditional, pitched tones. By the latter half of the 20th century, the distinction between "musical tone" and "noise" became an outdated yardstick, allowing composers to incorporate any auditory experience into their work as an artistic element.1

The use of such sounds is facilitated by several approaches:

• Musique Concrète: This experimental technique involves using recorded natural sounds as raw material. Composers can modify these recordings—by changing their pitch, intensity, or duration—to assemble them into a unified artistic composition.2
• Expanded Sound Resources: Composers often seek to extend their sound palette beyond traditional instruments. Through sound recording, sounds that were once beyond human ability to produce or imagine can be captured and integrated into a piece.13
• Timbre and Texture: Music is composed of various elements, including rhythm, texture, and timbre (tone colour). Composers may use unconventional sounds to explore unique tone colours or to create specific structural and emotional effects within a composition.14

Ultimately, these sounds serve as building blocks that allow composers to organize auditory experiences in time and space, regardless of whether the source is a traditional instrument or an everyday noise.15