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Re: [microsound] beware the decibel...



Before this goes on any longer, I feel a very serious need to inject some
realism, or at least a very personal experience.

I am a 51 year-old intermittent composer and most definitely former
performer, who has lost approximately 80% of my once very, very good
hearing.  I have lived with this now for more than ten years, and will live
with it the rest of my life.

I say "intermittent" because the frustration of trying to work within the
constraints of this disability is, well, let's just call it frustrating.
And I say "former" because direct exposure to even the sound levels of an
acoustic chamber ensemble on stage could cause still further damage.

The aesthetic points in this thread are all well-taken - Graham Miller, and
others, are doubtless correct that sheer amplitude may be a vital component
of an aesthetic position.  It is, after all, as foolish to imagine a Glenn
Branca symphony at polite levels as a Morton Feldman composition at other
than approaching the threshold of audibility.

So far, so good - this is, truly, the prerogative of the artist.  But let us
not lose the deep thread here.  An artist may change their intention at any
time.  Hearing loss, on the other hand, is irrevocable.

The result, for me, is that now, with some $5K worth of hearing aids (US
readers take note - they are not covered by health insurance), I can
function more or less normally, at least socially. But this thing, music,
that I loved more than life itself, whether it was Satie, Stockhausen, Miles
Davis, or Autechre, is now hardly more than a memory.

The damage caused by exposure to loud sounds is cumulative - in other words,
the problem is not just that one, really, really loud performance, but the
many (only just) loud gigs.

Please, my friends, if you are reading this, take care.  There have been a
number of interesting threads on the aesthetics of laptop performance - does
it really work, as performance, to watch someone poring over a keyboard?
Good question - but imagine what it would be like if that was all you had,
and there was no sound.

My point here is, finally, fairly simple.  We don't need debate, though it
is an important question, the aesthetics of amplitude, or its socio-cultural
matrix in modernity and postmodernity.  Take whatever position you like on
the aesthetic debate - but I suspect you would still like your voice, so to
speak, to be heard.

Thought experiment: take an ice pick to your eyes, then decide to be a
painter, and let me know how it works out.

RD


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andras Hargitai" <andras.hargitai@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "microsound" <microsound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <info@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 4:21 PM
Subject: Re: [microsound] beware the decibel...


> I don't agree. Feeling the sound doesn't necessarily come with volume.
> Of course to a certain extent yes, e.g. in the case of bad speakers
> when you can hardly hear anything or situations like that.
>
> 2006/7/12, Xdugef <info@xxxxxxxxxx>:
> > Yea earplugs are a must because if you want to feel the sound you need
> > volume.
> >
> > > So again: I ask why?  If you play your music at physically damaging
> > > volumes, why?  What do you hope to get out of it?  And what are you
> > > expecting of your audience?
> > >
> > > I'll also say that I'm 26, I hate being this curmudgeonly, but I want
> > >
> > > to be able to hear in the future.
> >
> >
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