Much amusement has been expressed in the posh papers about the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) criticising the noise levels orchestral musicians have to tolerate while working. Chaps have expressed wonderment at the very notion of tuba players being asked to wear ear plugs, and some other recommendations. The ear plugs were suggested more for use by string players who normally sit in front of the brass sections, in the standard orchestral arrangement. What has not been admitted by any of the writers – except maybe in the musicians’ professional publications – is that orchestras are much louder than they were when the ‘standard repertoire’ was written, mainly the period from about 1790 to about 1920.

Stringed instruments for all of that period used ‘cat gut’, actually it was sheep’s innards rather than those of moggies. That was replaced in the 1960Seand ’70s with nylon. That made the instruments louder, one could see string players’ lean into their fiddles, violas, celloSeand basses, especially in Mahler and similar composers, happily competing with the brass. Latterly, they have been using metal strings on their instruments the effects of this are patently obvious – string sections are now louder than the brass. Both can drown out the sound of the woodwind instruments.

The brass instruments have also been ‘improved’ over the last century, they are no longer hand crafted but are extruded in factories, largely in China, the quality is excellent. Especially if what is wanted iSean instrument which can be heard at the opposite end of a very large hall – or parade ground.
The soft, rather lovely sound of recorded music from the period roughly 1930 to 1980 was not simply a matter of the taste of the time, it was also due to the fact that the instruments were simply quieter. The music was thereby quieter, an orchestral tutti (meaning literally ‘all’) was loud in comparison with the general run of relatively quiet sounds most orchestras produced. They did not induce temporary deafness. Today, conductorSeand orchestral musicians, who are, after all, in showbiz, the same as McFly or Shirley Bassey, can ‘blow the roof off’ concert halls. This whole question of the loudness of the bands is amplified by amplification. Even concerts that are not due to be broadcast can be ‘miked-up’ and a distorted notion of the sound can be conveyed to the listening public. There is, admittedly, some excuse for this in that – as implied above – the woodwind instruments are still largely hand made and soft sounding.

There is a long-standing tendency opposing this in the ‘authentic instrument’ movement. This started aSean antiquarian movement playing music from the Ars Nova period of the 1610s to Baroque (up to 1750). It was, and to an extent still is, called ‘the early music’ movement. But the movement has extended its well-honed practices into the Romantic period, music by Berlioz, Wagner, BrahmSeand Elgar is sometimes played on ‘period’ instrument. The effect can be quite startling – sounds that have been obscured by ‘advances’ in instrument production – have been highlighted. The ‘turgid’ Brahms has been shown to be a master of the orchestra.

Between this tendency, which is now extremely popular, having been regarded as eccentric or antiquarian and the HSE, ‘classical ‘music may return to being something to be enjoyed, rather than endured, in the concert halls. The – specialised – audience for the really raucous stuff can be catered for on a regular basis. This is not – one hope’s – snooty, but people who are prepared to pay between twenty and forty quid for an evening of barn-storming ‘bleeding chunks’ from Wagner all rounded off with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 complete with cannon and Cossacks, tend not to turn out for Couperin or Cassella. (Though the latter wrote extremely noisy scores – for better or worse, they tended to be attached to words rejoicing in Fascist victories – in Libya and Ethiopia.)