 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-09-04 17:48
An interesting article from London says modern instruments are too loud -- they spoil the music and injury the players' ears:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/hottx/review.html?in_review_id=673980&in_review_text_id=645839
The article is over the top, but I think it makes a good point. I quit playing in bands because everyone was blastinb. Greg Smith has said he wears earplugs in Chicago. I now play more recorder than clarinet, because the music is human-scale.
We're used to pop music, played at 100 dB+ in stadiums, and, at least in New York, booming from every 10th car. People on the subway wear headphones with music too loud for me, even on the outside. TV commercials, and now programs themselves, have constant flashing lights and sound effects.
No one would argue that Mahler should be small-scale, but I wonder what Mahler expected to hear. If I had a time machine and could hear Mahler conduct his own music, I'm not sure my 21st century ears could adjust. I'd be expecting much more volume, or would have to adjust to a surrounding environment where everything else is, comparatively, much quieter.
I went once to a recital on a small organ in a stone chapel with lots of windows. The bellows were pumped by hand, and all electricity was turned off. With only breezes for ventilation, and without the 60 cycle background hum, the music came to life in a way I've never heard before or since. Of course we can't go back to that, but it's important to know what we've lost.
I've heard Eric Hoeprich and Larry McDonald play reproductions of old clarinets that, by modern standards, were vanishingly soft. Maybe it's impossible to get back, but we need to realize what we've lost.
Ken Shaw
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Author: GBK
Date: 2002-09-04 18:24
No surprise - just another example of society in excess.
Just add it to the list of things getting out of control:
1. portions of food
2. automobiles too large
3. decibel level of all forms of "popular" (and even classical!) music
4. wasteful overpackaging of products
5. the generally overweight condition of the human race
6. (etc...etc...etc...) ...GBK
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Author: beejay
Date: 2002-09-04 18:30
GBK
You need to be here in Johannesburg at the world summit on sustainable development where these issues have been under discussion for the past 10 days. Some g-r-e-a-t jazz here. I had no idea.
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Author: diz
Date: 2002-09-04 23:42
Yep - it's part of the reason why the Sydney Opera House's opera theatre is going to shut down for renovations next year - the noise in there is unbelievable and it's cruelty to animals, opps, pit performers. The pit is under the stage (rather like Bayreuth) - the trumpets and trombones reside in a perspex "room" within the pit so they don't blast the ears off the strings - this means that the ensemble is often shot to pieces as they can't hear the strings.
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Author: Willie
Date: 2002-09-05 00:54
In the article they pitty the piccolc player who sits in from of the bones. They obviously have never sat to the right of my wife and her pic. I keep ear plugs handy for when the conductor seats me near her.
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Author: diz
Date: 2002-09-05 01:43
Willie - piccolos are so damned loud - just ask any second violinist.
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Author: David Dow
Date: 2002-09-05 02:21
I would say everthing is too loud these days...
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Author: Kat
Date: 2002-09-05 02:55
Isn't the volume of modern instruments due ultimately to the 19th century modifications of performing spaces? During that time, performing halls changed from intimate Baroque and Rococo salons to large auditoriums. Instruments needed to change in order to fill a larger room. Music consequently changed, too, to reflect the added capabilities of the new instruments. Hence Wagner, Mahler, and Strauss.
BTW, Ken, it's wonderful to have someone mention my teacher, Larry McDonald....great guy!!!
Katrina
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Author: Bob Arney
Date: 2002-09-05 03:23
Hang in there David--In time, like me, you will be able to just reach up and switch off your hearing aids.
Bob A
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2002-09-05 13:34
Well put, Ken et al, YES, we [many of us] play too loudly. At our comm. band rehearsal, I commented [complimented] our excellent flute section, saying "we hear you-all every now and then" !! Don
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-09-05 14:11
That probably means they played too loud. :-)
And the rest were playing even louder.
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Author: William
Date: 2002-09-05 14:49
As a result of playing in too many bands, orchestras and jazz groups who thought that the louder they played, the better they were, I now have almost constant tinitus--hissing--to the extent that many softer sounds are, to me, inaudiable. To preserve what hearing I have left, I now use custom molded ear plugs in any playing or social situation where noise levels are too high--and I recommend their use expecially for anyone who must play under excessive sound/volume conditions--BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!! Once tinitus sets in, there is no remedy--at least this is what a hearing specialist (medical doctor) told me.
I agree with David Dow--everything is too loud. At least, take measures to protect your ears from the noise--because, as GBK has pointed out, today's society demands excess and will have to grow fat, spend itself into poverty, waste all natural resources and GO COMPLETELY DEAF before realizing that, "less is more."
OK--off my podium and back to my long tones (soft ones!!!)
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Author: David Dow
Date: 2002-09-05 18:28
I am heading there quick, it seems I have chronic tintinuttis in my right ear which acts up every so often. A recent band rehearsal has set it off and now I feel like old Ludwig except can't compose for beans!
On the topic of noise --even restaurants and lounges are noisy, and you always get this feeling that noise must mean one is a genius. recently a brass player told me our orchestra needed to be louder...!!!! Sometimes I think a whole season goes by without a real piannissimo---I have irreversible damage from orchestral work in my right ear so a warning, take care of your ear holes!
Now its off to the Ear specialist(ontalarynoligist) for relief...
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Author: kes
Date: 2002-09-06 00:56
Yep! I think trumpets are too loud. When they're out of tune and loud, it's 10x worse! One of my friends went 1/2 deaf in one ear due to our teacher playing his trumpet too loudly when giving "examples" of how things were supposed to be played. I sit right in front of the trumpets in orchestra now. It's horrible! Oh well...maybe some people just need to learn to play a bit quieter.
;)
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2002-09-06 12:05
Has there been a parallel discussion of performers and ear plugs?
I believe there are some very good models out there offering a custom fit, and decent comfort.
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Author: ron b
Date: 2002-09-06 19:21
People who work around noisy machinery (printing presses, etc.) often use over the ears protectors (similar to ear muffs) or custom fit ear plugs. Kits are available for making molded ear plugs. You might get information about these from a local newspaper pressroom supervisor. Your pharmacy may also have stock foam type ear plugs. You roll them between thumb and finger, insert into ear canal where they expand to fit.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2002-09-06 21:09
Like William and others have said, I also have constant tinitus, the high-pitched "white-noise" variety, with occasional "resets" of lower frequencies. Like with minor skin cancers, I recall youthful "indiscretions" [too soon oldt, too late schmardt, in my "fractured" German]. I do get relief by listening during the day to a classical music FM station, and PBS/NPR, TV news, reading Cl BB posts and just forgetting! TKS for the "plastic ear-plug" info, sitting in front of Fr Horns and tubas in Comm Band, they might help, IF I can hear our conductor and other insts?? Don
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Author: Ken
Date: 2002-09-08 14:42
Continuing to bang the drum I can’t emphasize with enough peak to protect one's precious hearing before the Mormon Tabernacle Choir makes an unannounced visit and permanently takes up residence in your brain! As a working player I've gigged in the same injurious environments; large concert/jazz bands, matchbox-sized nightclubs, Chicago-style pop/rock groups and the occasional orchestra. I too have been offended by blasting brass, booming rhythm sections, overly miked drum kits (that looked more like a village), screaming hot monitors, low covered stadium festival stages and endless speaker stacks resembling Mt. Rushmore.
For years, I was foolish and macho (right again DAD, why didn’t I listen?); I allowed my ears to go unprotected and exposed to the elements...I even ignored the warning signs with on/off again ringing and shooting pain. 25 years later, I’ve developed an annoying case of tinnitus in both ears...for me, an incessantly high-pitched, audible ringing similar to a train whistle. Luckily, I got smart and caught it in time. I’ve only sustained a moderate shift in 2K, 4K frequencies with about 5% loss. Still, I have a slight case of the mumbles and must consciously speak up and enunciate my words.
I’d definitely recommend establishing “good habits” early and wear some form of hearing protection in whatever musical environment before doing irreparable harm to the inner and/or outer ear. The aforementioned custom-molded earplugs are pricey (mine run $110) but obviously worth the investment. For professionals, it can’t hurt to phone your health care provider, even if you think or know you’re not covered…it’s possible some provision can be made. v/r KEN
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Author: TDC
Date: 2002-09-12 21:58
If you go to see a Broadway musical these days, the singers are all miked, and instead of hearing the song coming out of the singer's mouth, you hear it from the sides, the rear of the theatre, the wings---in short, everyplace except where it should be coming from. Disgusting! I went to see Hal Prince's "Showboat" a whila ago, and "Ole Man River", although sung from stage front center by a great baritone, was every place but.
TDC
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