No Fortissimo? Symphony Told to Keep It Down – New York Times
Tests showed that the average noise level in the orchestra during the piece, “State of Siege,†by the composer Dror Feiler, was 97.4 decibels, just below the level of a pneumatic drill and a violation of new European noise-at-work limits. Playing more softly or wearing noise-muffling headphones were rejected as unworkable.
Some rock concerts peak at 150db. Combine rock concerts with much listening to mp3 players at high volume and our future will be noisy – because the public will be deaf or near-deaf…
Interesting that they aren’t already wearing hearing protection. I have a custom set of musician’s plugs that are great for symphony rehearsals – those horns will kill ya! I always thought that was a norm for most major symphonies!
I knew they’d develop a better hearing aid since so many of the technological age are needing them now. My new Delta Oticon lightweight hearing device is so much more advanced from my other ugly big one that looked like a giant wart in my ear … it’s like the different between hand cranked phonographs, and the CD’s etc of today. It does what it’s supposed to do. and doesn’t do all those annoying things the old one did like making background noises eaasier to hear that near ones, and hearing myself chew,etc, I’m happy now to be able to hear once more. and oh yes it cuts down the too-loud-for-your-ears noises.