Klarinet Archive - Posting 000999.txt from 1998/03

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Intermovement pauses
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 06:24:53 -0500

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.74
> Subj: Re: Intermovement pauses

> What do you mean by relatively recent phenomenon? I can't recall anyone
> clapping between movements during the last 30 years, and presumably this
> was the established practice long before that, or are you talking about
> previous centuries? Or is this a relatively new devolopment just in the
> U.S. you're talking about? I would be happy to applaud between
> movements, especially after a particularly difficult solo, but as you
> suggest, no one wants to show supposed ignorance by being the only one.

This one I have to jump into. The phenomenon of insisting that an
audience be absolutely silent until the end of a composition is
relatively new. In Mozart's time, for example, it was not uncommon
for an audience to interrupt the performance of a movement if the
performer did something they liked very much, and to insist on
a repetition of it. Mozart described exactly such a situation in one
of his concerts. And it happened to Beethoven and even Schubert, as
well.

And between movements it was also quite appropriate to show one's
appreciation, too. The Italians still do it within opera and they
will show their displeasure as well.

The idea that an audience's reaction to a performance is something
irrelevant to the performance dates from the mid 1800s at which
point it began to be considered bad form (or worse, insensitivity)
to interrupt before everything was done, and the development of that
attitude was one of the worst things that happened to classical music.

Do you see the audience reaction at a rock concert? Well that is
what an audience who likes one's playing should be doing at a
symphonic concert. Except social pressures are now opposed to it
happening.

When you hear a jazz concert and the tenor player does a particularly
beautiful thing during his solo, do you sit on your hands? So why
is it different for symphonic concerts?

If I went to concerts, which I rarely do, I would insist on showing
my pleasure (but not my displeasure) by applauding whenever and
wherever the performance thrilled me, and if someone did not like
it they could, as several of the Mozart scatalogical canons suggest,
leck mich in arsch!

>
> (Tim Roberts wrote:
> >
> > Several weeks ago, when I saw David Shifrin perform the Brahms
> > clarinet/cello/piano trio here in Portland, I noticed something I wanted to ask
> > about. They seemed to have VERY long intermovement pauses, and during the
> > pauses Shifrin looked out to the audience quite expectantly, with a bemused
> > expression and raised eyebrows. Frankly, it looked to me like he was waiting
> > for applause.
> >
> > Is it possible the relatively recent phenomenon of maintaining complete silence
> > between movements might be coming to an end, or is this just a case of a man
> > with a sense of humor trying to goad someone into incurring the wrath of his or
> > her audience-mates?
> >
> > --
> > - Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
> > Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.)
>
>
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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
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