Klarinet Archive - Posting 000872.txt from 1998/12

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Cynthia's Christmas Concert
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 21:26:42 -0500

Cynthia M. Lee wrote,
>The Wind Orchestra in The Netherlands that I play with gave a Christmas
Concert last night at a local community center. The center is the home for a
large number of mentally and physically challenged people of all ages. I
would guess that there were about 100 people in the audience. They were the
most enthusiastic, appreciative crowd that I have ever experienced. >

I witnessed something similar when my husband's amateur string ensemble
learned that one of the "regulars" couldn't go to rehearsal because she had
checked into a mental hospital. Fine: The rehearsal went to her. The
ensemble played in the community room on the locked ward. There were no
formal invitations and it was an ordinary, informal rehearsal, complete with
stops, starts and discussions. Anyone who wanted to come out and listen was
welcome. Soon the room filled to overflowing, with all the chairs and sofas
filled and people sitting on the floor and backed up into the hallway. Some
of the patients sang (or yelled, or chanted) along. One man banged his head
against the wall in time to the music. Our friend, a semi-pro musician,
played as well as ever,
despite the distraction of the audience and heavy medication. She went from
looking haggard and scared to joking around and looking like her old self by
the time the rehearsal ended. A doctor told me that this was the first time
she had seen some of those patients voluntarily leave their rooms to interact
with other people. It was an overwhelmingly terrific experience. Our friend
got past the bad patch and improved quickly, BTW. After her release from the
hospital, she continued on with the group as usual, until she moved away years
later.

Dan Leeson wrote,
>> There is a great bond between the audience and the performers. We play
better when we know that the audience is appreciative, and vice versa.
Cynthia has described exactly that phenomenon and it is unfortunate
that that kind of audience behavior is seen as abberant. >>

I agree, but I think it's also unfortunate that audiences for classical music
are so strongly discouraged from expressing disapproval. I'm not actually in
favor of chucking rotten tomatoes at the stage -- no property damage, please!
-- but I think the reaction of the Parisian audience to the premiere of
Stravinsky's ballet "The Rite of Spring" (many people shouted their disgust,
threw fruit and stomped out -- see Robert Craft's books about Stravinsky for
descriptions) was basically healthy, even though I happen to love that music
-- which of course I heard in a completely different context, many years after
Stravinsky composed it and audiences had time to get used to it. That first
audience got involved. Good. Music is a dialogue, a form of communication.
It need not be so one-sided; and people need not feel coerced into giving
dutiful and insincere applause, then waiting to see what a professional critic
says in the newspaper the next day. The only way to develop musical taste is
to think for ourselves, even though sometimes we're wrong.

Lelia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I like Wagner's music better than anybody's. It is so loud that one can talk
the whole time without other people hearing what one says."
--Oscar Wilde, _The Picture of Dorian Gray_ (1891)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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