Ivan Hewett recently wrote an article in the Daily Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/7527870/Standing-up-for-a-round-of-applause.html) urging audiences to feel free to applaud between the movements of a symphony.
I think this is a bad idea, and I wrote to the paper:
Ivan Hewett (Arts, March 27) wants us to applaud after each movement at a classical concert. This will lead to the ridiculous situation that exists in jazz, where some audiences applaud routinely after every solo – good or not.
Applause can be distracting as well as unnecessary. Between the third and fourth movements of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony it would ruin the tension of the dramatic contrast between the two movements.
Anybody got any feelings about this? - preferably agreeing with me, not Hewett!
Tony Augarde
Hmm, strikes me as a rather sloppy piece of journalism. For a start, anyone who reads music MBs will know the debate about applause between movements is not new. Also, I don't much care for the lip-curling references to tyrants and gatekeepers, but I suppose Mr Hewett thinks old stereotypes make good copy; they don't.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why he singles out Brucknerians for a special twist of the knife? Perhaps because the perceived 'spirituality' of AB's music chimes very neatly with Mt Hewett's preconceived notion that classical music lovers are way too devotional for their own good. Frankly, I'd say the average footie fan's attitude to 'the great game' is much more deserving of his penetrating analysis.
At bottom I still think this comes down to the vexed question of elitism and that persistent idea that because classical music is a minority sport that doesn't fill stadiums or clog up the aiwaves it can only be for snobs and the anally-retentive.
I have no problem adhering to what I see as sensible artistic conventions in the concert hall - no chatting, no eating and no applause between movements - and I suspect most regular concergoers feel the same way. Spontaneity is all very well, but how many times have the dying notes of a symphony been interrupted by someone screeching 'Bravo'? Is it some sort of a race to see who gets there first?
Spontaneity certainly prevails in cinemas these days, with lots of yakking, chomping and texting; it's irritating, but I've got used to it. I daresay I'd also accept inter-movement applause if it became the norm. I just hope it doesn't.
A few thoughts, compressed into a few lines:
ReplyDeleteI couldn't disagree more with Tony's point. The point of the article, for all its flaws, is not to replace one stilted, unnatural behavior (no clapping until last movement) with another (clapping after every movement).
The point is people to cast off the ridiculous constraints that the last 100 years have placed on concert goers and that have done their part in turning classical music into a taxidermist's venture.
We treat every classical piece of music, no matter how trivial or 'light' into pseud-Wagner; to be consumed with earnest reverence. I'll admit I probably wouldn't want to go back to the 'constant chatting, coming and going, and clinking glasses while the performance is ongoing' times of Mozart or Haydn or Beethoven, but the idea of *not* applauding after the first movement of a Tchaikovsky Concerto is so obviously absurd, I'm surprised and shocked it hasn't yet been challenged.
Mozart and Brahms, too, are no Bruckner. Symphonic movements used to be taken da capo--and Brahms was disappointed when the audience didn't ask for it.
Now times have changed to some extent--and we need to be mindful and respectful of the combined hundreds of years of experience and costly training of the performers. They can't just be treated as background music. But the real issue about clapping (or rather: not clapping) is psychological. We are afraid people clap (or don't clap) for the wrong reasons--out of ignorance.
It's that haughtiness that keeps classical music a stifled wallflower on the broader cultural scene.
jfl
I´m more afraid of people who clap out of enthusiasm to show how well they know the piece! As with all things there´s balance to be struck here. No one wants to stifle the relaxed enjoyment of any kind of music, but not all music was written for relaxed enjoyment. Just as one wouldn´t keep talking and clink glasses at a memorial service, respect and the absorbtion of a significant message is something which we should be able to tune into at a concert. Unfortunately, respect is a low priority for many in the younger generations, and empathic sensitivity to profound expressive art has been stamped out in, or avoided by the majority.
ReplyDeleteI can see I´m turning into a ´grumpy old´, but my comments are based on experience rather than speculation.
Right on, DC. I don't suggest treating all music as if it was Dittersdorf. I'm just against treating all music as if it was Wagner. Which is unfortunately exactly what we do. If you go to Vienna, and similar conservative places, the hushed air of artificial reverie is downright laughable. As if Otto Straus was anything more than convivial Spa-band music.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is: The music tells us 80% we need to know about applause, but part ignorance, part misunderstood erudition has completely undermined that. You wouldn't naturally clap after a Bruckner movement... except for those who feel that that's what one OUGHT to do after a 'piece' is finished. Others, as you point out, clap because they want to show how well they know the piece: Look, I can clap lustily and early, showing all how confident I am in my knowledge of this work. And then there are those who don't dare clap after Mvt.1 of Tchaik. PC1--when the entire purpose of that movement is to end with huge applause.
I don't know where jfl got the idea about applauding after a movement of a Tchaikovsky piano concerto. What I said in my original post was:
ReplyDelete"Applause can be distracting as well as unnecessary. Between the third and fourth movements of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony it would ruin the tension of the dramatic contrast between the two movements".
I would add that, if a symphony is an integrated piece of music (as symphonies are generally considered to be), it is ill-considered or ignorant to applaud between its movements.