According to Pitchfork, the German public railway system will not follow through with plans to use atonal music to chase away drug users and the homeless. The plan was to discourage criminal activity by playing the music, characterized by its lack of a tonal center, at Berlin’s Hermannstrasse Station. A concert staged by Initiative Neue Musik, helped put an end to that plan. The concert organized in protest, ironically, featured atonal music.
Initiative Neue Musik an organization that promotes contemporary music in Berlin, organized the concert in protest of the railway’s plan. Julius Eastman was one of the composers featured at the concert, who died homeless. Eastman was a composer from New York known for his deep rich singing voice and his unique musical compositions. He died homeless at the age of 45.
Berlin’s public train system planned to test the idea to lower the number of homeless at the station, as well as the instances of drug related activity, by playing the music at different volumes throughout the station. Hermannstrasse Station is a spot prone to drug related crimes. As defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, atonal music is “marked by avoidance of traditional musical tonality,” and considered unpleasant by some people.
Playing music at railway stations to deter loitering is not new, many railway stations currently employ this tactic. However, classical music is the most widely used type of music. Hermannstrasse would have been the first to try atonal music.
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