"Happy clappers" counterblast: J. Duchen on "how to be a nice audience"

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I mean, I can see people have a point when they object to me sounding my klaxon in time to the rhythm ....

So it was you all the time.

I confess to being a "right stuck-up contributor.

[cloughie]

So it was you all the time.

I confess to being a "right stuck-up contributor.

When the topic is that totally unnecessary intrusion into the music I'm a very stuck-up contributor! Otherwise I'm the model of tolerance.

[David-G]

11. Drink enough water before the concert, and during the interval, that you don't have to get out your bottle of water and take a swig in the middle of the music. It really is possible to survive a whole hour, even on a hot summer evening, without taking periodic swigs of water.

12. Take a break from your mobile phone! You might be pleasantly surprised how enjoyable it is to savour the expectation of hearing the music, rather than frantically checking your emails and sending texts up until the last second. And your phone will really not mind if you don't check emails and send texts between items on the programme!

13. Be thoughtful and don't leave unwrapping your cough sweets until the moment the conductor raises his baton.

14. A concert is perhaps not the best occasion to wear jangly jewellery.

15. Do try not to fiddle with your programme on your lap! You may not be able to hear it, but in raked seating it will only be a few inches from the ears of the person in front.

[Flosshilde]

The inter-movement clapping

Is that what happens when you fall between two stools?

[Flosshilde]

11. Drink enough water before the concert, and during the interval,

but not so much that you have to use the bottle for other purposes.

14. A concert is perhaps not the best occasion to wear jangly jewellery.

Was it John Lennon who asked the people in the satlls at a gala concert to just rattle their jewelry, instead of applauding?

[Nick Armstrong]

Is that what happens when you fall between two stools?

[Flosshilde]

Are you stalking me, Caliban?

[Nick Armstrong]

Are you stalking me, Caliban?

Just kept tripping over your jewels of wit this evening, Floss

[gurnemanz]

Because it is not normal practice, movement clapping tends to be done by only a relatively small minority of audience members. It therefore tends to sound weak and uncommitted. So what is intended as a show of enthusiasm usually comes across as an embarrassing aberration - hesitant and half-hearted.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Some people just cannot stand silence. At the Olympics they play loud background music when nothing else is happening, just as they do in 20-20 cricket. At the Proms, when the music stops for a momentary pause, some people feel they have to fill it up with noise. Mendelssohn tried to overcome this by linking his movements. Conductors do the same by rushing into the next movement, which is a pity, as it removes that precious moment of silence.

[JohnSkelton]

Say hello to your neighbour when they sit down. Chat a bit. Talk about the weather if you must, or ask them where they're from or how they like the performance.

Hello my name's John Skelton. I must talk about the weather but first ... yes! you are correct - I've brought my trumpet! I love to play along :-).

[salymap]

The worst inter-movement clapping I've heard this year, so far, was in the Smetana quartet arrangement. Perhaps they didn't realise that it STILL had four movements, or whatever.

Most conductors get very annoyed at noisy late-comers searching for their seats. I remember Beecham, turned round to face the audience and waiting a very long time for them to settle themselves, red in the face with embarrassment by then. And Sargent once stopped a piece of music when a flashbulb exploded or made a lot of noise, then started the movement again.

Both of them seemed to be able to control inter-movement clapping by keeping the baton aloft to signal 'more coming'.

[jean]

Some people just cannot stand silence. At the Olympics they play loud background music when nothing else is happening, just as they do in 20-20 cricket.

As they do at concerts of folk music as soon as the live players have stopped, and as they probably do also at concerts of other sorts of music I don't go to.

[Serial_Apologist]

As they do at concerts of folk music as soon as the live players have stopped, and as they probably do also at concerts of other sorts of music I don't go to.

At jazz gigs, the worst thing is when, intentionally or not, the promoter puts on a top classic recording in the interval, or straight after the end, to show up the band.

[Flosshilde]

Mendelssohn tried to overcome this by linking his movements.

Did this signal the start of no applause between movements & during choral works (Haydn's 'Creation' was interrupted by applause & even calls for encores of various numbers at its first performance)? In the early 19th century it was common - when did it cease to be so?