Decibel Levels...interesting!!

[drewbugler]

A friend of mine sent me this article, I thought you guys might be interested in it....

THE NEW YORK TIMES

March 24, 2002

No More Fortissimo? Europe Wants a Little Quiet

By BERNARD HOLLAND

The European Union is coming down hard on Beethoven, Berlioz,

Strauss and all those other symphonic loudmouths. Politicians

think it's high time. The trumpets in Beethoven's Fifth

Symphony, the big bass drum in Verdi's Requiem, even

Tchaikovsky's squalling little piccolo in "The Nutcracker" have

poisoned our environment long enough. A little peace and

quiet, please.

The union isn't kidding. A directive being debated in the

European Parliament and getting a lot of support around Europe

would reduce noise in the workplace, concert halls and opera

houses included, The Times of London reports.

The bill calls for a workplace decibel limit of 85 without

earplugs, 87 with them. Some members of the parliament, Helle

Thorning-Schmidt of Denmark among them, think the directive

doesn't go far enough. He is looking for an amendment to lower

the level to 83.

European musicians are not happy. They say that noise in a

factory and the noise of a Bruckner finale are not the same

thing. (Biased listeners might argue the point.) The Times

quotes Libby MacNamara, the director of the Association of

British Orchestras: "It will virtually stop us playing any

loud repertoire whatsoever." The European Union, however, seems

to be closing ranks. The culture secretary will defer to the

health and safety executive, whose office sympathizes with

musicians, but adds: "Noise is noise. It doesn't matter whether

it's Tchaikovsky or a power drill." (And veteran concertgoers

will remember performances in which distinguishing between the

two was not that easy.)

Classical music has brought this problem on itself. The

business, beset by cultural competition of every kind, has an

increasingly hard time holding the listener's attention, and

being loud is one answer. How could one ignore the famous brass

section of the Chicago Symphony, especially when it was egged on

by its former music director Georg Solti? Trumpets and

trombones,

and the people blowing into them, have found new ways to reach

earsplitting levels. One toot on a trumpet can reach 130

decibels

instantaneously, the Times report says.

Concert pitch is another culprit. In the interests of civility

and uniformity, the music world has long since agreed that the

note A equals 440 cycles per second. Yet naughty elements in the

symphonic and opera world have surreptitiously engaged in an

upward creep. Conscious violators are looking for ticket-selling

brilliance. Unconscious ones are often European orchestras,

whose wind soloists are highly competitive within their own

ranks and tend to push upward in the heat of battle. (American

players are usually more collegial and thus truer to A = 440.)

How the proposed laws would speak to rock concerts is an even

bigger question. Loudness at arena concerts has become a musical

property all its own. Turning down the volume at Madison Square

Garden would be the equivalent of deleting lyrics or taking away

guitars. Players are protected to a degree by standing behind

the mountains of loudspeakers, but their fans by the thousands

have fallen to the epidemic of hearing loss among the young.

(Rock critics take pride in their tailor-made earplugs.) Maybe

outdoor noise will not apply.

Were there ever good old days? Did our forefathers bask in

afternoons of a faun with sounds no louder than the pipes of

Pan? Did listeners once adorn their ears with flowers, not

earplugs? Pitch varied from place to place in the 18th century,

but it was usually lower than A = 440, sometimes much lower.

Bach's devilish high trumpets aside, most old instruments had a

grainier, less knifelike quality. At least they sound that way

to our ears.  The 18th century probably had less noise

altogether, so perhaps what soothes us now caused headaches 250

years ago.

Let us not forget that the European Union's legislation has

more to do with musicians than with those listening to them. And

here the problem is very real. Hearing loss among orchestra

players is universal: the normal state of affairs rather than

any abnormal affliction. There is a longstanding joke about

backstage conversations peppered with "Huh?" and "What's that?"

Sharp-eyed concertgoers may from time to time have noticed

clear Plexiglas shields the size of music stands separating

brass players from the string players in front of them. You

seldom see them, because orchestra managements don't like the

message they convey to audiences. Some violists have an

alternative strategy. They mark the big trumpet and trombone

passages in their scores and bend down on cue.

One solution offered to the government-versus-music conflict

is weekly averaging. Tuesday's uproar would be mitigated by a

more peaceful Wednesday and Thursday. It would be like swapping

air rights in the real estate business. This would also answer

the eternal musical question of what "loud" and "soft" actually

mean. With decibel counter in one hand and the week's

tabulations in the other, monitors could calculate a "piano"

or a "fortissimo" in terms of the weekly quota, as a form of

rationing. If you want that quiet place in Mozart's Requiem any

stronger, you'll have to make that Mahler climax measurably less

loud.

The other solution to the noise quandary is fewer musicians.

Let's do away with those pesky second violin parts in Haydn

string quartets. What about the Two Tenors? I know which one I'd

drop. How about you?

[Machine]

You've gotta be kidding me!  This is the most rediculous thing I've ever read!  Give the violin players some earplugs and call it good :)

[brassguymike]

According to Army doctors...if you play at 95 dB when you practice, you can only practice for 8 minutes per day before hearing loss is expected.  Also, they say you should were ear plugs for anything over 60 dB.  So, according to the Army experts we should be wearing earplugs while we practice and limit our total playing to 8 minutes per day to protect our hearing!

You can read more about this and the replies it got at

dBs during practic

Mike

[mrshowfan]

Earplugs for rehearsals. No way. I am one of those guys in the stands that is cupping his ears so it can be louder.

[Drumcorps4life]

I think these guys are on crack.  Give it to me at 200 decibals for all I care.

Mark

[randomnoise]

Lots of horn staffs do decibel measuring - I've seen Steve Bentley with a dB meter in his hands in front of the Blue Devils - but what is the highest decibel level ever recorded for a drum corps?

Somebody around here has got to know!

[canos pytter]

Lots of horn staffs do decibel measuring - I've seen Steve Bentley with a dB meter in his hands in front of the Blue Devils - but what is the highest decibel level ever recorded for a drum corps?

Somebody around here has got to know!

i heard 128 for star 93, but maybe i'm confused... i know it was around that range

[Blaringbrass]

I probably sure BD is around the tripple digits range.

[WoofInTheWoods]

Lots of horn staffs do decibel measuring - I've seen Steve Bentley with a dB meter in his hands in front of the Blue Devils - but what is the highest decibel level ever recorded for a drum corps?

Somebody around here has got to know!

Let's get Dennis Delucia or Steve Rondinaro to use a decible meter at DCI Finals so they can tell us who really was the loudest this year!

[wolf1]

Lots of horn staffs do decibel measuring - I've seen Steve Bentley with a dB meter in his hands in front of the Blue Devils - but what is the highest decibel level ever recorded for a drum corps?

Somebody around here has got to know!

Let's get Dennis Delucia or Steve Rondinaro to use a decible meter at DCI Finals so they can tell us who really was the loudest this year!

And put a camera on it, ala judge cam 2001.

]:-)