[Dixielandjazz] The Noise Dilemma (Same for OKOM Bands)

[Marek Boym]

Does that mean that noise levels at jazz concerts and pubs will be
kept down to a reasonable level?  The worst problem at the Breda Jazz
Festival has been over-amplification of open air stages, especially -
the blues/zydeco/you name it one, so that there was an overlap of
sound.  Hopefully, the new regulatons will resove taht problem.
cheers

On 20/04/2008, Stephen G Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net> wrote:
> What?
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
> www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband
>
>
> NY TIMES - April 20, 2008 - by Sarah Lyall
> No Fortissimo? Symphony Told to Keep It Down
>
> LONDON — They had rehearsed the piece only once, but already the musicians
> at the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra were suffering. Their ears were
> ringing. Heads throbbed. 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.
>
> So instead of having its world premiere on April 4, the piece was dropped.
> "I had no choice," said Trygve Nordwall, the orchestra's manager. "The
> decision was not made artistically; it was made for the protection of the
> players." The cancellation is, so far, probably the most extreme consequence
> of the new law, which requires employers in Europe to limit workers'
> exposure to potentially damaging noise and which took effect for the
> entertainment industry this month.
>
> But across Europe, musicians are being asked to wear decibel-measuring
> devices and to sit behind see-through antinoise screens. Companies are
> altering their repertories. And conductors are reconsidering the definition
> of "fortissimo." Alan Garner, an oboist and English horn player who is the
> chairman of the players' committee at the Royal Opera House, said that he
> and his colleagues had been told that they would have to wear earplugs
> during entire three-hour rehearsals and performances.
>
> "It's like saying to a racing-car driver that they have to wear a
> blindfold," he said.
>
> Already there are signs that the law is altering not only the relationship
> between classical musicians and their employers, but also between musicians
> and the works they produce. "The noise regulations were written for factory
> workers or construction workers, where the noise comes from an external
> source, and to limit the exposure is relatively straightforward," said Mark
> Pemberton, the director of the Association of British Orchestras. "But the
> problem is that musicians create the noise themselves."
>
> Rock musicians have talked openly about loud music and ear protection for
> years. The issue is more delicate for classical musicians, who have been
> reluctant to accept that their profession can lead to hearing loss, even
> though studies have shown that to be the case. At the same time, complying
> with the law — which concerns musicians', not audiences', noise exposure —
> is complicated.
>
> One problem is that different musicians are exposed to different levels of
> noise depending on their instruments, the concert hall, where they sit in an
> orchestra and the fluctuations of the piece they are playing. In Britain,
> big orchestras now routinely measure the decibel levels of various areas to
> see which musicians are subject to the most noise, and when.
>
> Orchestras are also installing noise-absorbing panels and placing antinoise
> screens at strategic places, like in front of the brass section, to force
> the noise over the heads of other players.
>
> "You have to tilt them in such a way so that the noise doesn't come back and
> hit the person straight in the face, because that can cause just as much
> damage," said Philip Turbett, the orchestra manager for the English National
> Opera. They are also trying to put more space between musicians, and
> rotating them in and out of the noisiest seats.
>
> At the Royal Opera House, the management has devised a computer program that
> calculates individual weekly noise exposure by cross-referencing such
> factors as the member's schedule and the pieces being played.
>
> Musicians are spacing out rehearsals and playing more softly when they can.
> As the Welsh National Opera prepared for the premiere of James MacMillan's
> loud opera, "The Sacrifice," last year, the brass and percussion sections
> were told to take it easy at times in rehearsal to protect the ears of
> themselves and their colleagues, said Peter Harrap, the orchestra and chorus
> director.
>
> Conductors are also being asked to reconsider their habit of "going for a
> big loud orchestration," said Chris Clark, the orchestra operations manager
> at the Royal Opera House. Composers, too, are being asked to keep the noise
> issue in mind. "Composers should bear in mind that they are dealing with
> people who are alive, and not machines," said Mr. Nordwall of the Bavarian
> orchestra.
>
> And companies are examining their repertories with the aim of interspersing
> loud pieces — Mahler's symphonies, for instance — with quieter ones. They
> are also buying a lot of high-tech earplugs, which are molded to players'
> ears and cost about $300 a pair. Many orchestras now ask their musicians to
> put the earplugs in during the loud parts of a performance.
>
> "I have a computer program that gives me a minute-by-minute timeline chart
> through the whole piece," said Mr. Turbett of the English National Opera. "I
> can go back to the musicians and say, 'Between bar 100 and bar 200, there's
> a very loud passage, so please put in hearing protection.' "
>
> But these remedies can bring problems. Some musicians in the brass and
> percussion sections resent being screened off from their colleagues, as if
> they were being ostracized. Musicians, even if they accept the need to use
> earplugs occasionally, tend to hate wearing them.
>
> Mr. Garner, the Royal Opera House oboist, said: "I've spent nearly 30 years
> in music and I know all about noise, and occasionally, if I'm not playing
> and there's a loud bit next to me, I might shove my fingers in my ears for a
> few bars. But I have yet to find a musician who says they can wear earplugs
> and still play at the same level of quality."
>
> The modern noise-level-conscious orchestra is also dependent, of course, on
> the indulgence of the conductor. Arriving at an orchestra to find that
> decisions have been based solely on musicians' noise exposure can be galling
> to the sort of conductor who likes to be in control, which is most of them.
>
> Although Switzerland is outside the European Union, an extraordinary
> noise-related argument between the conductor and the Bern Symphony Orchestra
> disrupted the opening night of Alban Berg's "Wozzeck" in March.
>
> The piece called for 30 string players and 30 wind and percussion players,
> all crammed into a too-small pit. When the stage director complained in
> rehearsals that the music was too loud, the conductor didn't order the
> orchestra to play more softly, but instead asked for a cover over the
> orchestral pit to contain the noise, said Marianne Käch, the orchestra's
> executive director.
>
> That meant the noise bounced back at the musicians, bringing the level to
> 120 decibels in the brass section, similar to the levels in front of a
> speaker in a rock concert. The musicians complained. The conductor held
> firm. But when the piece began, "the orchestra decided to play softer anyway
> in order to protect themselves," Ms. Käch said.
>
> That made the conductor so angry that he walked off after 10 minutes or so,
> Ms. Käch said. Told that there had been "musical differences" between the
> conductor and the orchestra, the perplexed audience had to wait for the two
> sides to hash it out.
>
> In the end, the orchestra agreed to return and finish the performance at the
> loud levels. For subsequent performances, a foam cover that absorbed instead
> of reflecting the sound was placed above the pit, and the conductor agreed
> to tone things down.
>
> "This is the problem you find in many places, that the conductors are
> conducting more and more loudly," Ms. Käch said. "I know conductors who have
> hundreds of shades of fortissimo, but not many in the lower levels. Maybe
> the whole world is just becoming louder."
>
>
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