<p>Well, this one is a tough one. I absolutely love street musicians/performers and would find a city dull without them. However, if I lived in a condo above them and they were there for hours at a time I guess it could get old. Of course anything beats a jackhammer and construction noise and I don’t see them getting arrested.</p>
<p>and heres a shout out to the dude who plays that mean sax outside the ball park…man, I’d love to hear you let loose</p>
<p>I know many of you are probably tired of me starting my posts with “when I lived in Germany” but…</p>
<p>There are quiet hours in Germany. They were a pain, sometimes, and I personally thought they were too restrictive. No noise before 7 a.m. Between noon and two. After 10 p.m. All day Sunday. </p>
<p>Certain noises were restricted further. No lawnmowing (or other power yard tools) after 6 p.m., or after 4 p.m. on Saturdays (and all day Sunday.) </p>
<p>Having a family of musicians, it was nice to have parameters to know when practicing was okay. Since so many people live in apartments, it helps to have those things spelled out.</p>
<p>However, the articles quoted above seem to be about noise during the daytime. And in public parks / squares. I don’t believe that anybody should have a right to demand 24 hour silence. It seems like the city could do some compromising here. Set certain hours. Require licensing. Set aside certain areas. Whatever. I think it’s short-sighted to bann it all together.</p>
<p>As for the guy in the apartment complaining about noise from the street - it seems an issue to take up with the landlord. If the apartment can’t be sound-proofed somehow, then moving might be a possibility.</p>
<p>Street musicians add a degree of culture and atmosphere. In Europe we kept a pocketful of change to give to street performers. We ignored those doing out-right begging, but we liked to reward anybody making an effort to work for it. We saw some amazing performances, too - really memorable. The guy playing classical music on glasses of water! The Russian group singing and playing opera. The 5 classical musicians who were spontaneously joined by a clown playing an accordian (who was quite talented and only added to their performance!)</p>
<p>I just read a news item that Harvard Square has 300 registered street performers (and most seem to be performing every evening in summer!) People throng to come and watch and listen (the Square will turn itself into Hogwarts on July 20).
I love the sound of a flautist performing classical music. What I’d like to silence are the gas-powered lawn-mowers, leaf blowers, chain-saws, whose noise is not nearly as euphonious.</p>
<p>Oh, and I’m used to buskers in Paris metros. They make the stations so much more interesting. My nephew used to perform (in his other life, he taught physics in high school).</p>
<p>Interesting thread as at this very moment, my 15 year old trumpet player is practicing with the windows open. No complaints so far. (It’s about noon and he is quite good.) I once “used” him to get back at a next door neighbor who was BLASTING rap music (is that really “music?”) outside. So, I asked my son to open his window which faced the neighbor’s house, and play his trumpet facing their house. It was quite effective in getting our point across. ;)</p>
<p>Marite - I’m not finding the article you are referencing. Nothing on the NYTimes arts page looks appropriate, and a search for Maestro or traffic jam doesn’t turn anything up. Can you share a bit more?</p>
<p>Sorry, I should have explained. If your scroll down a bit on that page, there’s a picture of the Geo. Washington bridge (I think) with a caption Celebrating the Bridge and The Bridge as Instrument. Click on the picture, and it will bring up a video of an interview with the “maestro” and clips of his “composition.” It’s the opposite of making music with glasses!</p>
<p>As someone whose office is on Broad St in center city Philadelphia, (on what is now called The Avenue of the Arts) the article in the Inquirer was particularly disturbing. It reflects a developing schizophrenia in a city that on one hand wants to be known as a center for performing and fine arts but on the other hand is now seeking to criminalize those who would perform their art in public parks, which historically have played such a critical role in all forms of 1st amendment activities. Not everyone can afford $100 a seat tickets at fancy performance venues and not every performer gets the opportunity to perform in them. Our public parks are the perfect place for for cultural and artistic expressions that might otherwise not have a place to be enjoyed. While reasonable limits on time, manner and volume are appropriate, outright banning of public performances in parks is not. Those who choose to live adjacent to a park like Rittenhouse Square should understand that they do so knowing that the park will be used by a variety of people in a variety of ways. If you want quiet and solitude, don’t live in the heart of a bustling city and certainly don’t live adjacent to a park that has been used in this manner for decades.</p>
<p>We enjoyed the street musicians in Jerusalem very much. It’s a measure of a city’s vibrancy to have art and music overflowing onto the street corners, IMO.</p>
<p>There used to be a sax player on the Savannah River Street- I think he bought his sax at a pawn shop, perhaps, and figured out how to play two or three notes. And did it all day long. It was excruciating. Wails and squacks and migraine-inducing repetition.</p>
<p>Sax, bagpipes, and accordians all can sound good in the right place at the right time with a talented musician. “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes at a funeral, as the piper walks off and the sound fades, is absolutely beautiful.</p>
<p>OK, that was probably an unneccessary dig at bagpipes and accordians. I apologize to all players of the above instruments. (But our family knows more jokes about those two than about violas, drummers, and sopranos put together.) ;)</p>
<p>I would say ANY instrument can sound horrible in the hands of a beginner, but some more than others.</p>
but…</p>![http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~memhall/images2/annen1.jpg[/url]](http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ememhall/images2/annen1.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
