Applause

[MrGongGong]

I would rather compare the practice with school dinners. There are those whe eat politely and those who chuck food around because they feel the urge to express themselves in a challenging way.

I notice that you completely ignore this ........

Regardless of content and context ?

in favour of an absolutist rule ........ do I need to ask permission to clap between movements in my own music ?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

in favour of an absolutist rule ........ do I need to ask permission to clap between movements in my own music ?

In a public concert, where people are paying to hear your music? Yes, it would be polite.

[french frank]

do I need to ask permission to clap between movements in my own music ?

Absolutely, you do! Or let's put it another way: just because you composed the music doesn't mean to say you 'own' the performance.

Now if you have written into the score: 'Please applaud at this point ...'

that would be different

[Bryn]

I think the reference to RN in this instance was his gesture to the audience to applaud between movements in the Elgar.

Which is, of course, a figment of your imagination. I take it you are referring to the Prom performance in 2008. I attended and the only gesture which a deluded observer might force themselves to interpret as an invitation to applause followed, rather than preceded, the brief outbreak of clapping. A polite acknowledgement is what it clearly was. The applause was, to my taste, inappropriate at that point, but it did not in the least disrupt my concentration on a particularly fine performance of what is, by some margin, my favourite Elgar work.

[Bryn]

Absolutely, you do! Or let's put it another way: just because you composed the music doesn't mean to say you 'own' the performance.

Indeed not. That ownership would lie more with the performers whose work was being applauded. I take it they accepted the applause graciously, in the spirit in which it was offered.

[french frank]

That ownership would lie more with the performers whose work was being applauded.

What about the people who actually paid for it - the ticket-buying public?

The composer should take the performers out for a drink afterwards

[Bryn]

What about the people who actually paid for it - the ticket-buying public?

The composer should take the performers out for a drink afterwards

Ah, so for you and EA it's a purely economic contract. Nothing to do with humans listening to and responding to the music.

Anyway, what about those members of the audience who applaud along with the composer? Should they pay extra in your scheme of things?

[MrGongGong]

The composer should take the performers out for a drink afterwards

That's why I am so poor !
I wrote a piece for the Philharmonia and took them all to the Archduke afterwards

I'm not sure that "the ticket buying public" ever really are the people who actually pay for it ? not for Wagner , Bach, Mozart, Boulez etc etc ....... maybe if you are in Metallica they do and then clapping between movements is perfectly fine

[french frank]

Ah, so for you and EA it's a purely economic contract. Nothing to do with humans listening to and responding to the music.

Non sequitur. It is about the ticket-buying public, and about them listening and responding to the music. But some/most people can respond quietly, internally, without the noisy banging of hands together

I'm not sure that "the ticket buying public" ever really are the people who actually pay for it ? not for Wagner , Bach, Mozart, Boulez etc etc

They pay for the performance, not the music itself.

[MrGongGong]

Non sequitur. It is about the ticket-buying public, and about them listening and responding to the music. But some/most people can respond quietly, internally, without the noisy banging of hands together

So would YOU say that it's contextual ?
some seem to say that it's absolute

[french frank]

So would YOU say that it's contextual ?
some seem to say that it's absolute

I don't understand the question . Is what contextual? Or absolute?

[MrGongGong]

I don't understand the question . Is what contextual? Or absolute?

The appropriateness of inter movement applause

[french frank]

The appropriateness of inter movement applause

Well, I'm not 100% sure about that. But I can't think of any performance I would be likely to attend where I would welcome the opportunity to applaud 'between movements'. But that may be because I don't find myself in the appropriate context

[Serial_Apologist]

Well, I'm not 100% sure about that. But I can't think of any performance I would be likely to attend where I would welcome the opportunity to applaud 'between movements'. But that may be because I don't find myself in the appropriate context

But isn't it sometimes fun being appropriate in an inappropriate context!

[JFLL]

If it's OK to show appreciation by applauding during a piece (and I would say that 'during' includes pauses between movements), what about disapproval? A few boos or hisses or hoots after the first movement of a symphony or string quartet would do wonders for concentration all round.

I remember once, a long time ago, hearing the Chilingirian Quartet playing Schubert at a South Place concert in Conway Hall. There was an old chappie in the row behind us who made his disapproval obvious by chuntering to himself and chinking coins in his pocket. At the end of the movement the leader asked him, in polite terms, to put up or shut up, for the benefit of other members of the audience (that did get a clap), at which he stomped out of the hall. You could say he was only expressing his feelings, though.