"Losing Your Ears to Music: The Hearing Loss Epidemic and Musicians"
Peter Jeffery had planned to wait in a “parent’s room” while his 12-year-old attended a rock concert by Smashing Pumpkins. But a warm-up act had commandeered the parent’s room. So Jeffery, a leading scholar of Gregorian chant, inserted a pair of earplugs, walked into the concert hall with his son, and stayed to the end.
Big mistake. After the concert, Jeffery’s left ear was in pain, and he felt dizzy; both symptoms lasted until morning. The next day, a loud ringing persisted in his left ear. It turned out to be tinnitus caused by the decibel overload. The ringing would accompany Jeffery, his doctor said, for the rest of his life. Jeffery has since sued the concert hall, Smashing Pumpkins and their warmup acts, promoters, and record labels.
The defendants and the plaintiff would probably disagree over whether Gregorian chant is better for your soul than, say, Smashing Pumpkins concerts. But no one can reasonably disagree about which is better for your ears. Monks have never had to wear earplugs to vespers.
Early music—from chant through Bach—is safer for the ears not only than rock, but also than standard orchestral and opera repertory, which is often loud enough to damage the performer’s hearing…
…Not all old instruments are safe to the ears, of course: bagpipes are as loud as freight trains, and a large double French harpsichord played in a small, live room has enough intensity in the upper partials to cause tinnitus if you practice day in and day out. Organs can do the same. Still, in general, early music players and listeners have little to fear from their focus on music and instruments from the quieter past. [Full article]
(Via Jeff Culbreath.)
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Thanks for posting this very useful article. I’m definitely going to get some earplugs for myself, and was planning to even before I read it, as my ears rang for two days after the last concert where I sat next to the cymbals. Scary stuff.
The Church herself is not immune from this lunacy.
My husband and I left Mass, at St. Moncia’s Santa Monica CA, early (something he, a recent convert had NEVER done, never even thought of doing,) after spending most of the liturgy (including the Eucharistic Prayer!) with his hands over his ears, in pain from the music (I’m from a large family, and more used to ungodly noise
)
I can’t believe anyone thinks “Lifeteen Masses” and their ilk are promoting anyone’s spiritual well-being.
We spent a lot of time talking about this in college. There was one fellow who even wore earplugs when he gave recitals (as he was a pianist, I was in agreement that earplugs were beneficial). Then I realized something. My audience has lost all of the super high end partials, my colleagues have lost all of the super high end partials, why should I worry excessively? Now, I don’t go to a lot of loud rockenroll concerts, nor do I work a jackhammer, but I go to bagpipe fests, and jazz big band shows, and so forth, and I don’t worry. Even as someone with a career in the record business I don’t worry too much. My boss, who is 72, does miss some noise and distortion at high frequency. As long as he keeps hiring a few of us youngsters, we will catch that stuff before mastering. Meanwhile, he gets to enjoy flawed recordings that drive the rest of us batty.
I say, 17+KHz? What’s it good for?