Musicians With Earplugs

The optimal decibel level at which music is enjoyed has often been a source of strife between parents and their adolescents. Now the New York Times brings news that, in the New Europe, it's also become a point of contention between classical musicians and their government.

It seems that a new European law designed to protect employees from damaging noise conditions has imposed several cumbersome regulations on classical musicians and, in respect of the long-suffering Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, rendered at least one planned performance verboten. The average decibel level of the planned piece, "State of Siege," was 97.4 decibels, well above the 85-decibel limit now required by law. Critics of the law have pointed out that it also means an effective ban on some pieces by Wagner and Strauss.

Musicians are also required by the law to wear earplugs during performances and rehearsals. "It's like saying to a racing-car driver that they have to wear a blindfold," Alan Garner, a professional oboist, told the Times.

The sheer absurdity of the law is enough to make anyone laugh. After all, nothing in this world is more obviously subject to personal discretion than the point at which something becomes too loud. Two soul mates watching television often fail to agree on this issue.

The law's absurdity also discloses the extent to which modern governments have undertaken the responsibility of supplanting individual human judgment at its most basic level. On Thursday these pages ran a column about a proposed law in France to criminalize "encouraging extreme thinness." This prohibition would apply to magazines running photos of women deemed too thin.

However risible such laws are in Europe (when will it establish a continental bedtime?) our own country is moving in the same direction. These very pages have been covering the controversy over a New York City regulation requiring restaurant chains to post the content of calories on menus.

We do not doubt that magazines running glamorous photos of women who are underweight may influence the minds of some readers, that musicians playing exceptionally loud music might want to consider wearing earplugs, or that eaters watching their weight should patronize restaurants where the calorie content of the food is readily available. But must the blunt instrument of government be required to solve such issues? Or can this problem be solved by having those who want to live in a nanny state pack up their earplugs and move to Paris?