Klarinet Archive - Posting 000609.txt from 2001/02

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] The "one-chord" clarinet solo on THE MACARENAthatsaved the gig
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 17:34:57 -0500

Allen, I am not sure if you were replying to my note since there was no
reference to it. And judging from your answer, we may not have any
dispute at all.

The point that I was trying to get it is that audiences began to be
conditioned to behaving as if they were in church when they went to a
concert, sometime in the middle of the 18th century. Prior to that
time, an audience let the performers know AT ONCE how things were going.
They applauded when they liked something (often in the middle of the
movement) and booed when they did not.

Occasionally they insisted that a certain movement be repeated even
before the piece was over, and the performers behaved in a very obliging
fashion.

Mozart often wrote how he would be interrupted with applaused while in
the middle of a cadenza if the audience liked it.

Today, the audience is not a participant in the performance of works.
They are played AT. They are obliged to behave as if they are in
church. Don't yell and holler and scream if you like something. Just
shut up and let us do our work, is the attitude.

I am of the opinion that the audience is a participant in the entire
event, as they are at jazz concerts or rock concerts. And one of the
many reasons why classical music is being seen more and more as
irrelevant is because the audience is treated as if they were outside
the events instead of being a part of them.

Dan

"Allen J. Levin" wrote:
>
> Not really. When I was a student and KNEW everything - yes. But then I
> also KNEW that you never drank red wine with fish or white wine with meat.
> And I KNEW what Mozart intended and that everyone else was a barbarian.
> Above all, music is to be enjoyed. But I still get a kick from people who
> - for reasons other than the quality of the performance - applaud when they
> think they should. Now that I take Zoloft very little bothers me.
>
> Allen
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
> Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
> Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
> Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org

--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org