 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Neal Raskin
Date: 2008-04-09 19:45
I sure hope this doesn't lead to a ban on loud pieces of music. Do professionals wear ear protection normally? Like Musicians Earplugs? I could understand how they think the sound is compromised. From my experience, wearing the earplugs while playing is difficult because its like plugging your ears while talking. But if you are a conductor, it seems like hearing protection is a must have. The new musicians earplugs are designed to only reduce decibels and not quality or certain frequencies.
anyway, i think machine guns are a little over the top...
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Author: blazian
Date: 2008-04-09 20:06
My ears are plugged naturally because of my allergies, and it's bugging me like crazy. I can only really hear myself playing so I can't tune or even really match my tone. Ears plugged = not good.
- Martin
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2008-04-09 20:58
As I recall, the Tchaikovsky 6th has both ffffff and pppppp, six of each.
Ken Shaw
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Author: davyd
Date: 2008-04-10 04:28
Are the gunshots truly live? Or are they prerecorded (either acoustic or sampled)? It didn't seem clear. Unless synchronizing with particular shots is important, I should think prerecording would be preferable.
I've occasionally worn earplugs when playing in jazz bands that featured particularly aggressive drummers. I've noticed orchestra colleagues doing the same when in front of a particularly powerful brass section. I can't say that I like the idea of earplugs in performance, but I have to admit there times when that's the way to go.
One piccolist colleague wears an earplug in her right ear when practicing (though not for rehearsal or performance), which makes some sense.
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2008-04-10 06:24
Many people in my orchestra wear earplugs during performances. Some even wear them for the whole performance. (you get special ones that take away a certain number of decibels) After years of orchestral playing peoples ears get damaged. Several of my colleagues have had to take early retirement because of damage to their ears.
I'm really glad that this orchestra decided to do this. When a composer can be so arrogant as to disregard the health of the musicians that are supposed to play his piece then he should rather get some machines to play it.
I find it pretty horrible playing the clarinet with earplugs. I can hear my own intonation very well with earplugs in, but can't judge my sound and dynamics very well. I just use them for the really loud stuff- where you wouldn't really be able to hear if I was playing anyway!
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2008-04-10 06:33
If I remember the name right, I played in one concert where there were two sets, the first was this composer. He plays lots of wind instruments and he had a computer playing too. It was very loud too 
Post Edited (2008-04-10 07:47)
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Author: crazy karlos
Date: 2008-04-10 10:30
I guess the 1812 is also right off their list ...
I play with a singer whose eardrums were permanently damaged during his national service with the South African Defence Force, some idiot let off an explosion right next to him. Johnny always performs with earplugs, he has a whole range depending on how much sound he needs to block out in a given situation.
Not as bad as our keyboard player, who is almost completely deaf, we're always yelling at him. We have a part-time violinist who is also almost completely blind. I always want to introduce us as the "Challenged Orchestra" ... he's deaf, he's really deaf, he's blind, he's the drummer and we all know what a disability that is, but spare some sympathy for me, *I* play the clarinet ...
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2008-04-10 11:28
Hearing loss is a serious problem for pipe organists, sitting in the middle of thousands of pipes.
I used to get concerned about my hearing in high school orchestra, where I had to sit directly in front of the trombones, in tight quarters (tight enough so that when the first trombone got bored, he'd amuse himself by leaning forward, slipping his slide over my shoulder and dumping his spit valve down the front of my dress). Apparently either my hair offered a better buffer than I thought or the guys weren't as loud as they hoped, because I've still got ears like a dog's. But then again I don't go to rock concerts and I make a point of wearing huge, ugly, Army surplus earphones into my local movie theater, just to try to get the point across to management that they've got their blasters turned up waaaaay too high.
Just bought a decibel meter. Local Best Buy clocked in at 96 decibels the other day. That's well over the OSHA limit of 80 decibels in the workplace.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: crazy karlos
Date: 2008-04-10 12:21
From that "Death by Oboe" reference:
"And whether they started that way or got that way en route, a certain percentage of drummers are simply nuts."
As I was saying ...
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Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2008-04-10 13:11
In the right place and right setting loud can good. One of the most moving musical listening experiences that I have had was a concert by the Marine Band at the Lincoln memorial in D.C. of the 1812 overature with appropriate cannon fusalide from an Army artillery battery. You could feel the percussion waves as well as hear them. As a recent adopter of hearing aids for high frequency hearing loss I will second the protection of your ears with ear plugs where possible. Really good hearing aids now are programable for specific frequency deficits without messing up your playing experience - at least in my case.
L. Omar Henderson
www.doctorsprod.com
Post Edited (2008-04-10 13:21)
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Author: Adam W
Date: 2008-04-10 18:17
If I recall correctly, I think it's suggested in the score of John Mackey's "Damn" (for clarinet and FOUR percussionists) that the clarinetist should wear earplugs.
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Author: Jkelly32562
Date: 2008-04-11 01:16
Reminds me of marching band season......
Jonathan Kelly
jkelly32562@troy.edu
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2008-04-11 02:52
Earplugs are my friends. Three weeks ago I went to a birthday party in a bar. The not very large place was jam packed, and there was a pop band with a big sound system. Conversation was a matter of people screaming in each other's face and reading lips.
The plugs stayed firmly in my ears all evening, but even then I had to step outside frequently. I didn't see anyone else with ear protection - how do people stand it, even enjoy it?
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2008-04-11 11:03
>>The not very large place was jam packed, and there was a pop band with a big sound system. Conversation was a matter of people screaming in each other's face and reading lips.
>>
Yeah, the "Galloping Gertie" effect: amplitude increases over time! Put lots of people in a loud room and they shout louder and louder to hear each other over the din, and thus they increase the din and need to shout still louder. My usual response to places like that: I leave.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2008-04-11 12:29
Let's look at the idea of this piece from another slant. If we are talking about the art of cooking, this piece is like asking people to quickly drink a new kind of soup that is served boiling. From visual arts, it is like making people stare at magnesium dropped into water- the light can blind you.
Why do some musicians try to play (or in this case, compose) things so damn loud? Even from the audience, some orchestra brass sections can throw you to the back wall! I am ecstatic when I hear a brass section that actually *blends* into the orchestra- when they know that the notes they play are not mini concertos, but actually no more important than the rest of the orchestra.
What is the point of it all?
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2008-04-11 17:29
Attachment: Snovit_och_sanningens_vansinne.jpg (18k)
Dror Feiler being an Israeli-Swedish composer is well-known for his critics of Israeli politics towards the Palestinians. He is among other things president of the association “European Jews for a Just Peace”. The work “State of Siege” is about life in a Palestinian refugee camp.
In 2004 he presented an installation called "Snow-white and the madness of truth" at the Museum of History in Stockholm. It was a presentation about a female suicide bomber and her way to become one. He wanted to show a life in desperation until you have nothing left to lose, or how people in desperation can do terrible things.
The installation (see att.) was a pond filled with red water (blood). In this pond floated a little boat with a sail showing a picture of the suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat, who in October 2003 killed 21 people including herself at a restaurant in Haifa. A text for reading was put on a wall. From the speakers came Bach’s: “Mein Herze Schwimmt im Blut” from cantata 199.
The installation was demolished by the very hands of the Israeli ambassador to Sweden at the time Zvi Mazel. To Swedish media he said he acted in a state of sudden anger. To Israeli media he claimed that he had planned the action beforehand: http://www.shotinthedark.info/archives/000331.html
Feiler says that he has no reason to believe that the decision taken in Bavaria was political.
Alphie
Post Edited (2008-04-11 19:49)
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