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A friend sent me this article. My immediate response was that there's something akin to such occurrences as 'road rage': most people can be extremely annoyed about the way others behave (not always without cause) but most people also have enough self-control not to re-act, and to weigh up the point of their spontaneous reactions getting the better of them. More anger management classes needed for many people, not just people who go to classical music concerts who seem to be regularly picked on …It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world. -
Interesting to note that the recipients of others' not-so-passive aggression reported in this article were all female. I doubt that anyone would poke a well-built bloke for moving his head to the Music in a concert - and it certainly wouldn't happen twice![FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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and ( caution, incoming assumption) in the posh seats.Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post
Maybe a " No Poking " sign would help?
Ahem....
or maybe angry pokey Festival Hall woman would be a bit less angry if there were sometimes seats available for concert goers to have that expensive drink and read the programme........I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
I am not a number, I am a free man.Comment
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I could subscribe to most of her rules, but would amend No 5 to clapping when you want to AND a substantial part of the audience already does so - that way, even a newbie who might not know when the piece actually ends won't clap at inopportune times.
I also wouldn't restrict myself from admonishing talkers if necessary (i.e. if they are not first time 'offenders') in a civilized way (certainly not during the piece or physically as described in the article
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Edit: if anyone is quite sure the piece did end and is alone in thinking there should be any applause, he/she should obviously feel free to do so
Last edited by Demetrius; 18-09-15, 09:18.Comment
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This simply isn't true. Hardly anyone one does. It's very rare away from the BBC Proms and is mostly copycat behaviour. Presumably you can now clap during Die Zauberflote Overture.Originally posted by Demetrius View PostComment
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I've just come back from a wonderful week of singing early music with one of the most inspiring directors around.
Mention of audience head-nodding here reminds me that one of the things he mentioned was how difficult it is for a conductor to ignore the singer who keeps their own time which is not quite the same as what the conductor is indicating.Comment
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Ok, let me correct myself.
Not sure about the Proms audience, but most of the concerts I attended had few (certainly <10% of the audience) to no happy clappers between movements. Problem is that they tend to infect those that are not too sure about what is expected (copycat behaviour, as you said). I told a friend that he could clap if he wanted (or refrain from clapping at all if he didn't like it), but should wait until at least 1/3 of the hall was clapping. That worked fairly well. Frankly, if 1/3 of the hall is clapping between movements, a few more don't make much of a difference as the experience is shot to hell anyway.
He followed the advise and easily managed to clapped at the end of the piece, without having any concept of movements and silences and the overall duration of it.Comment
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I find rhythmic movement of any kind other than by the performers intensely annoying. At the Schmidt 2 last week (otherwise a very involving piece, IMHO) I was reduced to holding up my hand to screen out the hand-waving of the chap next to me. Some time ago a similar incident drove me to purchase some black felt to make blinkers I could thread onto my glasses, but I never made them up. I really must before next season.Comment
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And for folks like Mr T we have acousmatic concerts
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It's only September, but this has got to be the 'post of the year'. Can't see it being beaten.Originally posted by PhilipT View Post
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And yet many people do have problems with others', erm, bodily involvement in music. There is of course the problem of the person sitting somewhere in the same row of interconnected seats whose movements are crazily out of sync with one's own... and from another person's pov that can be one's own distracting movements. As happens I was once told off for swaying to the music, and informed that my movements were very distracting visually. To which I replied that for me music is above all a listening experience, though I had to admit to myself that the visual can be an important component of the live musical experience, especially in jazz or improvised music, where body language and communicative vibes can count for so much; and my accuser said "We don't all listen to music with our eyes closed you know!". In fact the above experience was at a jazz gig - at The Vortex, one of London's prime jazz venues!Originally posted by MrGongGong View PostAnd for folks like Mr T we have acousmatic concerts
I subsequently looked up and there the audience was, spread out in front of me (I had moved to the back to indulge my jiggle tendencies), sitting stock still like rows of gravestones to this incredibly rhythmically involving music that was imploring me to put more than just my head into it, thinking, what are all these people here for??
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