I’m back from my business trip and while getting caught up on everything waiting here for me today, I thought I’d post a final report for the Applause & Pretentiousness survey. Since the last report, there have been an additional 52 responses…
Although each category changed a bit in the final tabulation, each question experienced more than a 2% +/- change. Here are the final results:
As for how respondents voted based on how they identified themselves, that data was within the same 2% +/- variance as the cumulative results. As such, I didn’t take the time to create new charts for that data but you can see how those groups voted from the previous article in this series by following this link.
This survey is now closed but look for additional surveys in the future.
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As long as music is considered nothing more than “entertainment” and a night out at a symphony concert a “social
occasion,” then Pavlovian responses like clapping at the moment the music stops, is what I guess the serious, “pretentious” concert-goer is going to have to suffer. No doubt, in time, one can wish, people who make a habit of going to concerts will catch on to the meaning of it all, coming full circle from the time when
looser standards of concert behavior prevailed. (I’m thinking of those audiences of the late 19th century who used to talk and parade around during the performance.) Education about music and an understanding of it is not “pretentiousness:” it’s genuine appreciation of what it’s all about.
The problem isn’t a lack of applauding between movements, it’s too much enthusiastic applause regardless of whether or not the performance was any good. It’s difficult to tell much about the quality of a performance from the applause it generates.
I’ll make you a deal. Let’s encourage clapping at random moments of greatness when we equally encourage boos and hisses for those that fall short of what we should expect. And for top tier orchestras with matching ticket prices, that’s a high standard indeed.
This is what would indicate that the audience is truly engaged with the music.
As long as music is considered nothing more than “entertainment” and a night out at a symphony concert a “social
occasion,” then Pavlovian responses like clapping at the moment the music stops, is what I guess the serious, “pretentious” concert-goer is going to have to suffer. No doubt, in time, one can wish, people who make a habit of going to concerts will catch on to the meaning of it all, coming full circle from the time when
looser standards of concert behavior prevailed. (I’m thinking of those audiences of the late 19th century who used to talk and parade around during the performance.) Education about music and an understanding of it is not “pretentiousness:” it’s genuine appreciation of what it’s all about.
The problem isn’t a lack of applauding between movements, it’s too much enthusiastic applause regardless of whether or not the performance was any good. It’s difficult to tell much about the quality of a performance from the applause it generates.
I’ll make you a deal. Let’s encourage clapping at random moments of greatness when we equally encourage boos and hisses for those that fall short of what we should expect. And for top tier orchestras with matching ticket prices, that’s a high standard indeed.
This is what would indicate that the audience is truly engaged with the music.