Photo by Karon.

Well, at least it’ll be more pleasant than a high-pitched tone: WTTG reports that the National Portrait Gallery has recently installed outdoor speakers that play classical music, a measure designed to keep kids from hanging out and trashing the steps of the National Portrait Gallery.

Regardless of whether or not the strategy will prove effective, a little classical music being played in one of the busiest sections of town meets with our approval. So we were curious: what is the Gallery playing, precisely? Well, we haven’t heard back on our request for comment from the NPG — but if we might, perhaps we could suggest pumping in a recording of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen — the collection of four epic operas (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung) which clocks in at around fourteen-and-a-half hours would at least allow museum management to not have to worry about having to change the playlist very often.