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Land of elf 'n' safety: EU Proms police order musicians to keep the volume down
Last updated at 08:38am on 28.08.08
The crashes and clashes, rumbles and booms, and twittering, flittering trills are all part of the drama of the Proms.
But the Health and Safety police obviously have no ear for music.They are demanding that performers ease off on extra-loud crescendos during the concert series to protect their hearing.
BBC employees will have to measure decibels and put barriers up between musicians to guard the delicate flautists, for instance, against too many trumpet blasts.
Land of health and safety...The usually rousing end of the Proms
Under an EU directive, passed in April this year, the BBC is responsible for making sure performers are not exposed to excessive levels of noise.
As a result, the corporation has been subject to the extra costs and time-consuming bureaucracy to ensure the two-month-long programme at the Royal Albert Hall meets European standards.
Host: Terry Wogan told his Radio 2 listeners that a new EU directive will limit how loud music can be played at this year's Proms
The restrictions have caused consternation at the BBC, not least with Roger Wright, controller at Radio 3.
Terry Wogan told listeners on his Radio 2 breakfast show yesterday morning: ‘Last weekend I was privileged to be at the wonderful BBC Proms along with Roger Wright.
‘He was telling me about the EU directives on loudness.
‘They are going to have to tone down the loudness at the Proms because it might be affecting people’s ears.’
He added: ‘Roger Wright told me, “I should warn you that matters are about to take a turn for the worse at the Royal Albert Hall”.’
However, the BBC insisted that the changes, while time consuming and expensive, would not alter the audience’s experience.
A spokesman for Radio 3 said: ‘In April this year EU laws governing musical performers mean that we have to alter the decibel level they were exposed to.
‘The legislation is designed to protect the performers and in the Proms’ case how many decibels they are exposed to over the course of a week.’
The spokesman explained: ‘They have had to put things in place to make sure musicians are not exposed.
‘Woodwind players must now have a level between them and the brass section so that they don’t have a trumpet blasting down their ear drum.
‘Spacing on the stage has to be changed to make room for barriers and levels between performers.’
From April this year, the BBC must 'tone down the loudness' when the Proms are held at the Royal Albert Hall and other venues (file picture)
The BBC has also faced additional costs to transport musicians to larger rehearsal spaces. And the directive limits how long rehearsals can go on for.
Extra BBC personnel are required at rehearsals to take volume measurements and ear plugs are provided backstage for use by staff, crew and musicians.
The maximum noise level must not exceed 140 decibels, which is about the same level as a gunshot or firecracker.
A spokesman added: ‘If they go over this danger level we have to ask them to play more quietly.’
However, since most of the Proms relies upon acoustic sound and very few amplified sections the overall output will not be noticeably quieter.
The Proms, which were founded in 1895, now comprise more than 70 concerts in the Albert Hall, a series of eight chamber concerts and four Saturday matinees at Cadogan Hall, additional Proms in the Park events across the UK on the last night, and associated educational and children’s events.
The series is the biggest classical music festival in the world.
Proms is short for promenade concerts, a term which arose from the original practice of audience members promenading, or strolling, in some areas of the concert hall during the recital.
Promming now refers to the use of the standing areas inside the hall (the arena and gallery) for which ticket prices are much lower than for the reserved seating.
This year’s Proms programme runs from July 18 to September 13.
The final night of the Proms in the Park is held in Hyde Park and is hosted by Terry Wogan. Every Prom is aired live on BBC Radio 3.
Reader views (6)
I think this is going over the top, the word used by the E.U.
directive was ... might and not will or does.
The people attending the Proms could if they wished take along ear plugs, but to lower the sound of music to a level which would spoil the festive experience of the proms in my view would be daft.
Would another tradition of our Capital City the 21 gun salute to our Queen be targeted by the E.U. or even our fantastic marching bands, please leave us alone.
The word "nanny state" is used a lot, and now we have the "European nanny state". Why not have us all wrapped in cotton wool and have done with it. I think sometimes the people who make these rules are just lunatics who are running the asylum and we should all do what we think is right... pump up the volume?
- John L., Scarborough N, Yorks.U.K.
As it happens we only have ourselves to blame since the BBC is the only institution in the whole of the European Union that is carrying out these tests and enforcing the 140 decibel limit. Can you imagine the Italians at La Scala or the Spanish at the Madrid Opera House doing the same! Well they don't and no one else cares except the politically correct jobs-worth zealots at the BBC. Yet more sterilization of our culture by these unelected bureaucrats!
- Anthony, Bournemouth, UK
I'd far rather be deafened by the proms than driven to distraction by the tinny sound leakage from the countless zombies walking around with iPods etc plugged into their ears at maximum volume. At least if I go to a concert I invite and expect loud music - MP3 fall out I get no choice over.
- Paul, London
Damian, I agree with your comment that Westminster is no longer needed. All it does is rubber-stamp E.U. Directives. The equivalent in the U.S. or Canada to this new E.U. noise law would be Wash. D.C. or Ottawa passing legislation in the area and making widely known that it has done so. In the deceitful E.U., however, new E.U. federal laws are rubber-stamped by the provincial governments, such as the one at Westminster, so as to hide as much as possible from the people of the U.K. province that they now live in a "bigger country", and that their cherished U.K., the preservation of sovereignty of which many hundreds of thousands gave their lives, is now a province. It's THE BIG LIE, from start to finish. Unfortunately, most of the British people still do not fully understand that "their country" is now the E.U.!
The E.U. federal government passing a noise bylaw shows how very much more centralized government is in the E.U. than in Canada or the U.S. In the latter two countries, noise control is definitely still at the provincial level. In fact, each Canadian province and U.S. state still has jurisdiction over about 2/3 of the legislative fields, while the respective federal governments control the remainder. In the new E.U. country, things are totally opposite. The E.U. federal government passes laws in about 80% of the areas affecting the British people, and the provinces about 20%. The E.U. is a much "tighter" federal state!
- Phil Jones, London UK
"Under an EU directive, passed in April this year, the BBC is responsible for making sure performers are not exposed to excessive levels of noise."
Has everyone had enough yet?
- Rogan, DFW TX
...when our own parliament and our own local authorities can no longer make even these most basic of rules like these, and have to simply obey and implement Directives (Orders) imposed from outside, however daft, it makes you wonder why we actually have to have these "lower levels" of government any more. But it is when you get to the really big disasters like the Common Fisheries Policy, that you see this type of government in the raw - unchanging, monolithic, unresponsive and standing commonsense on its head. And there is not a thing our elected politicians can do about it because all these areas are controlled by the EU.
- Damian Hockney, London, UK
