Can organ music prevent nuisance phone calls?

[Colin Pykett]

Like everyone else we suffer from nuisance phone calls from time to time, even though we use just about all the means available to block them.  The main problem seems to be that international calls (which they usually are) cannot often be blocked, and their origin is either not shown on a caller display or it presents a false (often local) number.  They seem to come in waves which last for a few days and then go away, and recently we had another one peddling the hoary old chestnut of 'this is an official Microsoft call - your computer needs disinfecting' etc, etc. 

It so happened that I was listening to some organ music at realistically high volume since my wife was out, which I paused so I could answer the phone since its display came up with the said (plausible but false) local number.  So I just set the CD going again and put the phone down on the sofa beside me.  I was listening to the Toccata and Fugue in A minor by J L Krebs played on the Gabler organ at Weingarten by Gerhard Gnann.  When it finished the caller had long since hung up.  It might be coincidence, but we haven't been troubled by this caller since.  Perhaps they didn't like the composer, the piece or even the way Professor Gnann played it (which was totally wonderful should there be any doubt).  Anyway, it's something I might try next time as it's preferable to insulting some impoverished worker in a sweatshop of an offshore cold-calling centre who is desperate to earn a pittance.  My daughter once worked in such a place in Scotland as a student trying to sell kitchens, and ever since I've had the greatest sympathy for such people.  Putting on some organ music seems a gentler way of saying no.

[AJJ]

A quick burst of BWV 565 on the house organ in the front room got rid of the trick or treat crew pretty fast at Halloween....

A