I have a hearing problem.

My father was mostly deaf, but leave it to me to be contrary; to me things sound much louder than they actually are.  I also can’t tolerate sharp or shrill sounds for long.

My husband worked for public radio stations for many years, and those stations played mostly classical music.  As I’ve gotten older, I am less and less able to tolerate the sounds of violins sawing away, so I tend to shy away from the local classical-music station, which seems to lust after violins the way the local classic rock station lusts after Led Zeppelin. (About whom I feel the same way.)

Last night, as we were listening to a recording of a fabulous concert featuring the new pipe organ in Orange County, I brought up (once again) my idea of a violin-free day.

If I had the money, I would underwrite one full day of programming, with the stipulation that there be no violins.  My husband raised the objection that that might be difficult to do, given the love of classical composers for stringed instruments, but as we got to talking about it, we realized it wouldn’t be that hard at all.  The organ concert we were listening to was a prime example of good music that would fit into a violin-free day.

There’s organ, and vocal, and brass, and woodwinds.  There’s music written before the violin was invented.  There’s piano, harp, and guitar.  I could probably tolerate some of the larger stringed instruments (cello and bass) if they were used sparingly.  The local classical music station long ago fell into a rut of playing Classical Top 40, and the announcers don’t coordinate with each other on what they pick to play on any given day, so on any given week you’re going to hear a lot of old warhorses you’ve heard five times already in the past week.

A violin-free day would be a challenge to them to think, for a change.  It would give the listeners a chance to hear music that doesn’t get played all day, every day.

Sure wish I had the money to bribe them underwrite that day.  Anybody want to join me in a letter writing campaign?  🙂

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