Applause between movements

[mmcirvin]

The music critic Alex Ross has been posting from time to time on his blog about how modern classical concert etiquette forbids applauding between movements. This rule seems to have taken hold sometime in the 19th century (before that it was common for people to applaud, not only between movements, but whenever they felt impressed, just as in modern rock concerts or musical stage shows). Ross doesn't approve of the ban; he thinks of it as part of a stuffy and hermetic atmosphere that drives audiences away from classical music. However, he's been having a lively time arguing with people who do approve and has acknowledged some points in their favor (here's what he claims is his absolutely final post on the subject).

Anyway, a while back he posted some speculations about why this happened in the first place. One he doesn't include is the first one that occurred to me, which is actually an unkinder speculation than the ones he lists. I thought back to the earliest classical concerts I attended as an adult (I'm excluding ones I attended as a kid, because those were children's concerts at which things were run differently). In those concerts I actually felt a considerable amount of anxiety about applause etiquette, because it was difficult for me to tell when the piece was over. Even when the movements were individually listed in the concert program, I wasn't 100% familiar with such things as the symphonic form, and how words such as "adagio" and "allegro" connected to the style of the movement, so it was easy to lose count; also, I hadn't developed sensitivity to the visual and aural cues that tell the listener what is a break between movements, what is just a fermata or a quiet bit, and what is the end of the piece.

It's easy to forget how nontrivial this is to learn, and it occurs to me that classical-music listeners might be taking it as a sort of initiation ritual. Not applauding between movements doesn't just mark you as a person who understands that you're not supposed to applaud between movements; it also marks you as a person who is able to identify the space between movements. Gaining that knowledge is part of the process of joining the secret club.

As a general rule, endowing appreciation of an art with the characteristics of a secret club is not a good way to attract new enthusiasts, except for the sort of people who like to be in all the secret clubs.

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

You have to learn that, though-- nobody tells you that the conductor is predictably going to turn around. Also, there's the situation I've seen more than once in which enough people in the audience are new to this that about a quarter of them get faked out and start applauding, and the conductor turns around to acknowledge the applause. What to do? What to do??

[glitter-ninja.livejournal.com]

I've always thought that the applause at a classical concert was a bit of "in clubbing". I had dozens of classical recordings in high school and even played classical in concert band and guitar, but I'm still extremely unfamiliar with appropriate applause etiquette. It's complex and unnecessary and, I'm convinced, elitist. That may just mean I'm an extreme newbie.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

See, i learned about when the music ends from "Phantom Tollbooth", when Milo drops his hands in frustration and the morning stops. When the conductor drops his hands, the piece is over. If he doesn't, it isn't.