Stephen Dubner

He teaches composition at Yale.

I found an online lecture where Lang was talking about his composing career.

He was so interesting and disarming and well-read that I immediately wanted to hear this new Wealth of Nations, but it didn't exist yet.

So I decided to follow the process as Lang finished writing the piece and as it made its way to the New York Philharmonic.

Today on Freakonomics Radio, David Lang explains why he felt compelled to set Wealth of Nations to music.

This is Freakonomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything, with your host, Stephen Dubner.

By the time I first spoke with David Lang, he had finished writing Wealth of Nations, the score had been distributed, and rehearsals would start soon.

And how would you identify the themes as they ultimately emerged?

OK, I'm going to cheat a little bit here.

Like I said, this conversation happened before Lange's Wealth of Nations had even gone into rehearsals.

So it was a bit like Schrodinger's cat.

It existed and also didn't exist.

And that's why I'm going to cheat and play you some of the recording from later when it was performed by the New York Philharmonic, because it's fun to hear in the music the ideas that David Lange is talking about.

This recording is from a movement called What Is Money?

One thing that's always struck me as paradoxical is that so many people have come to see money and economics as leaning toward the inhumane.

Whereas I think of money as an invention, as a social construct.

I think of it as probably the greatest social lubricant that's ever been invented.

If you compare it to the alternative, what would that be?

It's either physical goods or maybe just beating people up when you want something.

I'm curious whether reading Wealth of Nations and then writing the Wealth of Nations oratorio