concert etiquette, friend or foe

after reading alex ross's post on the history of concert etiquette i don't feel so bad. evidently the silence between mvts. is another "rule" that none of us got to vote on. it looks like much of the blame can be set at the feet of leopold stokowski who stated:

It has been the dream of my life to have a Temple of Music. This very minute I have the plans for such a temple completed at my House. Each of the audience would sit alone in a stall-like seat. No one would see his neighbor … Just before the music begins the light will be slowly dimmed so that the entire temple will be in darkness and the audience will be literally drenched in beautiful music.” (Kupferberg, p. 75). Stokowski actually made a trial run at the Temple of Music, and it turned out that the darkness was not quite total, as Abram Chasins relates: “Stokowski ordered the house lights extinguished and allowed only infinitesimal lamps over the orchestra stands, while a huge spotlight played upon the conductor from below so as to project mammoth shadows of his flashing, expressive fingers and hands onto the walls and ceiling of the stage.” (Chasins, Leopold Stokowski, pp. 104-5)

these strange rituals illustrate some of the barriers between audience and performer that alienates part of the audience. for new listeners its like going to a friends church and trying to mimic all their gestures and rituals, hopefully you will stand up and sit down at the right time, god forbid if you cross yourself wrong. i also agree the "silence" between mvts. is really about the power conductors have to focus attention on them.

as a teacher and music director i have been asked many times to explain to my students and parents what proper "concert etiquette" is. i have been pushed to ask the audience not to applaud between mvts, and a colleague even explained to me that we must make our community of parents and students more "civilized". it seems in opposition to our goals as musicians. the other day i was explaining to my students that in any performance our goal is to get beyond the physical and mental and communicate with each other (and hopefully the audience) on an emotional level. isn't it counterproductive to ask the audience to not participate, to deny one of the greatest nonverbal communications there is, the moment when everybody is transfixed and "it" happens. wtf!! is a civilized audience supposed to sit there and silently praise the magi?