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Changing Concert Behavior
In today's classical music world, audiences musn't clap between movements and performers must never improvise or deviate from the printed score. That, at least, is how tradition has evolved. But in his new book "After the Golden Age," pianist and author Kenneth Hamilton explains how concert behavior in the 19th century was much freer and more spontaneous. He joins us to explain why.
Weigh in: Do you prefer silence at a classical music concert? What would you change about concert-going?
Our blog: John Schafer on classical's wild years.
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I say bring on the boisterous audiences! I remember clapping after a movement at a Philadelphia Orchestra concert when I was seven, and being told by my mother not to do it. Classical music concerts, I concluded, were kind of like church. If you want to attract young people back to classical music, you'll have to let them express themselves.
Re. applause between movements, I'd rather applaud.
Re. noise during concerts, I'd rather people be quiet so I can hear the music. Otherwise, I can listen to the music at home. I don't want to pay money to hear audience members making a lot of noise. I'm not there for the communal experience.
I think LPs and CDs have made people more likely to listen to quiet details, and we want to hear them in the concert hall as well.
I always wondered why classical music has been referred to as the pop music of it's time. It sounds like the original concerts were much more fun and interesting than now. You once did a segment on how classical is dying out. This sounds like a way to breathe some life back into it.
I bet you didn't see people sleeping in classical concerts-it would have been exciting! It makes perfect sense: why have a live performer if there is no interaction, no musicians feeding off the audience's energy and vice versa. It would really be like hearing a recording, which is often a complaint of a concert goer nowadays.
It may be the reason why you tend to hear so much coughing and other petty noises being made at most concert halls. It just isn't natural for human beings to be so totally immobile, both physically and emotionally, when listening to music and the noises that do come out are a response to the tension that comes when forced to do so.
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