杏吧原创

MOST days it started around 9 or 10 am, and carried on until early evening. Usually it was Chopin, played ad nauseam by the piano student next door. The playing wasn鈥檛 bad, just incessant 鈥� for nearly two years.

After an experience like that, it didn鈥檛 surprise me to learn in Mike Goldsmith鈥檚 spectacularly good book that the word noise is derived from 鈥渘ausea鈥�. But Discord is far from a morose dirge about one of today鈥檚 major blights. It is full of rich anecdotes, scrupulously researched historical narrative and lucid descriptions of the sometimes bewildering science of sound.

Goldsmith shows that noise pollution is no modern problem. The Greek colony of Sybaris, founded in 720 BC, banished potters, tinsmiths and other noisy tradespeople to outside the city walls. In London, the first official noise complaint was in 1378, against an armour-maker.

鈥淣oise pollution is not just a modern problem. The first official noise complaint in London was made in 1378鈥�

London rapidly became the world鈥檚 noisiest city, followed inevitably by New York, but the actual science of sound took longer to mature. Goldsmith hilariously describes how Isaac Newton used 鈥渇iddle-factors鈥� to 鈥渃alculate鈥� the speed of sound. With the industrial revolution came a new thrum to modern life, which only grew with the rise of trains, planes and automobiles. Yet it wasn鈥檛 until the 1930s that the decibel was born, providing a way to measure sound levels and impose some control over them.

Goldsmith points out that managing noise is not just about being pernickety. Research shows that constant exposure to noise and lead to heart attacks. Our bodies react to noise even when we鈥檙e asleep.

Great strides have been made to control big sources of background noise, particularly in Europe, but neighbour nuisance remains largely untackled. Goldsmith hopes that inconsiderate noise will become as socially unacceptable as other antisocial habits, such as smoking in public. 鈥淯nwanted noise is bad; inescapable noise is terrible,鈥� he writes.

I will keep that in mind because, ironically, I鈥檓 getting my own piano tuned today. I have been revisiting some Chopin pieces that I grew to loathe 鈥� only when the neighbours are out, of course.