Don’t be surprised if someone asks if you’ve heard the new show at MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art has chosen sound as the subject of a major exhibition.

Barbara London, the museum’s associate curator in the media and performance art department, has spent the last few years listening to the work of sound artists and looking at related scores, drawings and installations. Her findings will be the subject of “Soundings: A Contemporary Score,” the museum’s first big show devoted exclusively to sound art.

“Sound has come into the limelight,” Ms. London said. “It’s getting recognized as a frontier.” Technology is an obvious reason. “There are more tools that are easier and less expensive to use these days,” she said. “And because of these tools there is more artistic freedom.”

The show, running Aug. 10 to Nov. 3, will feature work by 16 artists, most of them little known to the public. They are young, ranging in age from the early 30s to the mid-40s, and international, coming from the United States, Uruguay, Norway, Denmark, Britain, Germany, Australia, Japan and Taiwan.