Klarinet Archive - Posting 000131.txt from 2007/07

From: "Lora Crighton" <lcrighton@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Thanks and Loud Bands
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:07:51 -0400

On 7/16/07, Martin Baxter <martinbaxter@-----.net> wrote:
>
> There is a fair amount of medical evidence that each generation is
> deafer than the previous one.

I've never heard that - references?

> (Didn't YOUR parents think that your
> records were played too loud?)

Actually, they didn't. Some of my older relatives (in their 70s & 80s)
put the volume on the TV louder than the kids liked it, but nobody
ever complained.

>. This causes each generation to play
> their music louder.
> Although this itself becomes a contributory cause to the increasing
> deafness it is not the primary cause.
>

What is the primary cause?

> Now I have accepted this I take precautions when I go to a
> concert. Even at 70 I don't need to hear a big band electronically
> amplified,

There are some smaller places that I won't go for concerts unless a
friend is performing, because I know that they will bring all their
amplification even though they don't need it for the size of the
space, and the music will be too loud for me to listen to.

> Classical music audiences, especially chamber music,
> contain few young people because, to quote avery musical pupil of
> mine, they are too quiet to be exciting. (He goes nevertheless).

If everything is loud, the volume loses its impact - you need some
kind of constrast &/or direction.

>
> If we want to encourage the audience of the future we need to be
> aware of this. If we wish to keep volumes at a level that we 'old
> stagers' prefer we must remember that as we die off there will be so
> few potential audience that live unamplified music will become
> unviable economically.

It seems odd to think of the young people as the ones having trouble
with their hearing, because it's the opposite of how things were when
I was a child. (I'm in my 40's, and not ready to call myself an 'old
stager' yet!)

> OK I love playing music in various genres
> with a bunch of friends, but I would be sorry indeed if I never could
> hear the kind of stuff we play played live by experts; recordings
> just aren't the same.
>

If they really need things amplified that much, how can they hear
other things, like bird song, wind in the trees or waves on the shore?
They are missing out on far more than just chamber music.

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