Klarinet Archive - Posting 001001.txt from 1998/03

From: "Scott Morrow" <sdm@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Intermovement pauses
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 06:24:55 -0500

-----Original Message-----
From: Gary L Smith <garylsmith@-----.com>
Date: Tuesday, March 17, 1998 10:24 PM
Subject: Re: Intermovement pauses

(cut)

>I dunno. It gets pretty old when listening to lieder selections of about
>2-3 minutes each, and I'd hate to see overall etiquette at concerts get
>as bad as it is at, say, pop concerts, but many who are novices at
>serious music performances may feel, with some amount of justification,
>that this tradition mainly exists to make them uncomfortable as to what
>they should do when. It's not literally true, but if they felt that way,
>I could understand. Sometimes *I'm* not sure when something's ending, and
>that period of psychoanalysing the conductor's body language can be
>tense.
>

I've always followed the "watch the conductor" method:
If the conductor raises his/her arms at the end of the movement, you remain
silent.
If the conductor's arms drop, you applaud.
If the conductor collapses, it's probably intermission.

-Scott

Scott D. Morrow
DNA Synthesis Core Facility
Department of Biochemistry
The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
Baltimore, MD 21205
(410) 955-3631