I'm not german but since I've lived here for a while now I can agree
with Rainer. People want to be sure the performer is finished before
clapping. Sometimes I even feel clapping is completely
inappropriate, and we only do it because it is the expected
reaction. It would be interested break those expectations even
more.
@jayrose - that sounds like a nice place. performance art is my
approach but in the end there is no need to make categories.
categories only block creativity. I guess it is only a question of
the expectations an audience has when coming to see the performance,
and how much responsibility does the artist have in carrying those
expectations or breaking them...
Am 22.09.10 10:59, schrieb Toby G:
98CB9821CAFE4318AF0010627A8FF111@NORBY11"
type="cite">There is at least one piece where it is acceptable to
clap after the third movement, Tchaikovsky's 6th Symph. And
Sibelius's 7th Symphony is all in one movement so it is acceptable
to clap after the "first" movement there as well.
t
----- Original Message ----- From: "Rainer Straschill" <moinsound@googlemail.com>
To: <loopers-delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 1:48 AM
Subject: German audiences (WAS site specific looping)
Mark said:
"Is this normal, directed at the german LDer,s Rainer etc?
I think manly it because germans really listen, and listen hard (I
think Stockhausen said this at a lecture I attended - is he
German? I
think so.. that the rest of Europe has to learn to listen!!!) and
as
such, maybe they are more absorbed, and it takes some time to snap
out
of it?"
So, here's my theory of it:
First of all, I just claim that people who listen to the odd stuff
a
lot of us do (including Nadja and you ;) do often have a
background in
classical (including contemporary classical) music.
The accepted behaviour for classical concert audiences (mainly
ever
since the Romantic era - see below) is not to interfere with the
performance as long as it lasts and save the applause for after
the
piece (for works with multiple movements, until after the whole
performance has been finished). And as there are works which work
with
extended pauses, the safe bet for the audience is to wait until
the
performer clearly shows that he is done.
[note: behaviour in classical music events hasn't always been like
that. Especially during the Wiener Klassik era (CPE Bach, Mozart,
Haydn), a lot of performances happened by the ensemble of a
wealthy
peers to accompany their dinner or garden parties. This did only
change when performances were moved more into a public context,
and it
also took composers as prolific and self-assured as Beethoven to
keep
people from loudly talking or walking around during a performance.
As
another note, Richard Wagner was the guy who, against great
resistance
from the opera audiences at that time, would include the rules
that
the lights in the audience were turned off during the actual
performance and talking was prohibited.
This mode of enjoying music performance has more or less remained
constant since then in the classical realm - except from
occasional
fisticuffs and punchfests like at the premiere of Berg's "Zwölf
kleine
Orchesterstücke", or Strawinsky knocking out Debussy at the
premiere
of "Le Sacre du Printemps".]
So simply, even if you're working with chainsaws or whatever, as
long
as it's understood it's "neither rock nor jazz", audiences in
Germany
will behave like this. You all be the judge if that is good or bad
-
but at least, it allows us to use a huge dynamic range, include
drawn-out periods of silence etc.
Yours,
Rainer
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