Although this is not totally lute-related (how many decibels can a lute
generate?) I find it amusing/ironic:
Paul McCartney, a known animal-rights advocate, is in trouble with
Greenwich people: even though he rehearses across the river, complaints
from residents were issued, most notably one person complaining that the
noise upset their cat...
Consequently, McCartney was ordered to hold the noise to a maximum level of
92 decibels... (why 92?)
For more details see
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Music/05/13/britain.mccartney.ap/index.html
Paul's efforts against KFC's cruel treatment of chicken is detailed under
the
"<http://www20.overture.com/d/sr/?xargs=02u3hs9yoaUFVvTTCD%2FQy9K0c0xJSEJTRD0fG9SLD1ojuVJkKqIWDHaR%2B%2F1Qv6pvtk2z0vzy%2B8X7tdEb0wIl%2Bcb42MD7R7ZFeoz3Q8xYcGLWaHxz5xszju9rXP2p7%2F0NGrF0xXmislIUUUsshebeeKMNDGpJXUvKilv0mkDjJQVpnNxHIKS5FP4qgT2MsELTtbL9ogNc62s1u27KdTYrPJNCYSlhLyM8BQ5%2BO4EpLkpQIc5JwHa0IhmzfM1jTdNxti3%2FR6PhUFOdPZZC6hpkDDxxtmZo9OMsXJRiumMCnY%2Bbp7%2Bfd%2FhyfTzOFL%2F3tsB2%2BMgw%3D%3D&yargs=www.kfccruelty.com>Paul
Mccartney Sticks up for Chickens " link on that page.
Some higher-end supermarkets use a lot of early-music music background:
more lute music is to be heard at Ralph's than anywhere else in Southern
California... Probably some studies showed that (low decibel level) early
music can put people in the comfortable (zombie) state conducive to the
happy consomption of supposedly happy (yet now dead) chicken. Or perhaps
copyrights laws have something to do with it.
Should McCartney pick up the lute out of respect for animals?
Physiologically speaking, how decibels can human beings withstand before
turning into dead chicken? Has the history of music reached a ceiling where
music can no longer be heard through the noise or are we getting more and
more tolerant of high decibel levels? And finally, did anyone ever bother
to post a chart of decibel levels for Western music: say viol consort,
Corelli violin concerto, Mozart symphony, Brahms, Stravinski, big band
jazz, the Beatles (with the teenagers screaming), and today's pop stuff.
I'd be curious to know if the progression is simply geometric or exponential.
Alain
