Coming home latish on Friday, we went past Budgens in Sandy. There were some youths a little distance away, who were presumably deterred from actually blocking the entrance to the supermarket by the sounds of Mozart’s Requiem being played in the doorway. I had heard that playing music was being used to deter undesirable young people from nice sheltered community spaces like shop doorways. But Mozart’s Requiem?! Playing one of the most wonderful pieces of music ever written is hardly going to work is it? If they played Frank Sinatra or Gilbert & Sullivan then I might understand. It explains why the youths were not far away in any case: they wanted to listen; and, seeing as Budgens had only started playing the Kyrie, they weren’t going to get rid of them for about another hour.
Last night, our three year old son was a bit anxious about the noise of the wind coming down the chimney, so we set up my wife’s ipod and the little speakers from the computer with a classical selection. I’m sure you can guess what piece of music gave the little one enough peace to drop to eventually drop off the sleep…