Klarinet Archive - Posting 000796.txt from 2001/09

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] Audience & performer (was: Cage knocks)
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 14:10:45 -0400

<><> Virginia=A0Anderson wrote:
Whatever the audience does or does not do, is part of the piece.
[large snip]

[Virginia, after I typed this, I find it more confrontational than
I had intended; and your previous posts show that you have both musical
credentials and musical skills. Therefore I can't and don't dismiss
what you say out of hand, nor do I intend this as a flame.]

Cheers,
Bill

*****************************************

Many different relationships are possible between audience &
performer. I spent time recently in Irish pubs during a major music
competition. I haven't posted anecdotes here because the list isn't a
personal diary; but in retrospect, I realize how completely different
the audience-performer relationship was in those pubs than on a stage.
[and I'm _not_ talking about the effects of a few extra pints. I've
seen inebriated people in concert halls as well.]

Some of the conceivable performer-audience relationships are
mutually exclusive. After reading the posts here, I've concluded that
4'33" evokes a very specialized relationship that excludes most other
relationships, and therefore 4'33" lacks fundamental significance or
applicability in music.
Especially I don't think that 4'33" is music itself, and therefore
it says little about how an audience responds to actual musical
performance --- despite an attempt to extrapolate from 4'33" tomusic in
general. Without meaning any offense, it seems to me that 4'33" is an
amusing gag. While it attracts attention, when viewed in the context
of 'musical performance' it is somehow dishonest, or perhaps insincere,
or perhaps invalid, or perhaps contemptuous of the audience.... I
haven't found the perfect description yet....

Somewhere in all of this is the concept to which I am always forced
to return: performance is a _subset_ of music. An audience is not an
essential part of music. Or to put it another way: most activities
(including such basic things as eating & drinking & bathing) can have a
social aspect. But these activities do not lose their validity when
the socializing is absent. I agree that some activities require
socializing, but not music. 4'33" seems (imo) to claim that audience
reaction is an essential ingredient of music, and I don't agree with
this.
And when it comes to the social aspects of music, I perceive 4'33"
to be --- at its root --- contemptuous of the audience. It's an insult
that I can survive, of course; but it doesn't express any fundamental
aspect of music. It only shows what people do when they get nervous or
bored.

That's imo, of course.

Regards,
-Bill

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