Thanks for the precisions Jon. In order to bother a cat on the other side of the Thames, the music must have been fairly loud... That reminds me of the concert in the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy where the band is so loud it has to be on another planet. We seem to be the only animals who can react to very loud sounds as pleasurable, or perhaps we force ourselves to find them so. Alain
At 12:09 AM 5/14/2004, Jon Murphy wrote: >Alain, > >Ninety two may be arbitrary, but decibels are on a log scale - so the extra >two might be a significant level of some normal sound that is defined by the >town. Ninety is pretty loud for music (except for the noise we hear now). >I'll not look it up, but I think it approaches the level that will cause >long term hearing damage. I'm pretty sure that standing directly behind a >jet plane taking off is about 120 db, and a NYC subway train coming into the >station is about 110. I'll stand corrected if someone has the actual facts, >but my aging memory tells me that 90 db, as a sustained level, is damaging. >Of course, in Mr. McCartney's case, it is a question as to where the >measurement is made - in his house, or at a certain distance. Sound >dissipates over distance (unless in a wonderful concert hall with a >"whispering gallery" effect). > >My guess is that a lute won't generate more than about 60db or so, if >measured at a reasonable listening distance. And likely less. > >Best, Jon > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Alain Veylit" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "Lute Net" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 5:37 PM >Subject: Re: Friendly fire, music and cruelty to animals > > > > 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%2FQy9K0c0xJSEJTRD >0fG9SLD1ojuVJkKqIWDHaR%2B%2F1Qv6pvtk2z0vzy%2B8X7tdEb0wIl%2Bcb42MD7R7ZFeoz3Q8 >xYcGLWaHxz5xszju9rXP2p7%2F0NGrF0xXmislIUUUsshebeeKMNDGpJXUvKilv0mkDjJQVpnNxH >IKS5FP4qgT2MsELTtbL9ogNc62s1u27KdTYrPJNCYSlhLyM8BQ5%2BO4EpLkpQIc5JwHa0IhmzfM >1jTdNxti3%2FR6PhUFOdPZZC6hpkDDxxtmZo9OMsXJRiumMCnY%2Bbp7%2Bfd%2FhyfTzOFL%2F3 >tsB2%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 > > > > > > > >
