Composer Develops “Cell Phone” Symphony

There’s nothing that drives an artist to anger faster than a cell phone going off during one of their performances.

But not musician David Baker.

In fact, he’ll be disappointed if the mobile devices don’t ring when his latest composition is on stage.

In case you missed it, Baker, a U.S. jazz musician, has confirmed he plans to stage the world’s first ‘Concertino for Cellular Phones and Orchestra’, a piece he wrote specifically to include the world’s most ubiquitous electronic device.

Members of both the audience and the orchestra will be asked to turn on their phones or ring tones when the Chicago Sinfonietta classical music festival opens next month.

Red and green lights will be used during the performance to tell those watching when to take the silencer off their devices, with instructions for those participating to randomly turn the volume up and down as the orchestra plays. 

Baker’s goal: demonstrate how the cell phone has changed society’s norms and become part of the background of everyday life, bringing both order and chaos to society.

“There’s a wonderful balance … because that’s how our lives are,” he explains. As a music professor at a U.S. school, Baker knows it’s an interesting experiment. But as a musician, he’s also aware it’s a risk. It’s the first time he’ll be debuting a piece in which he has no idea what the finished product will sound like.

“There’s just no way to replicate 1,000 cell phones going off at once,” he shrugs.

So hopefully he’ll wind up with a musical number – and not a wrong one.