Why no applause between movements

Let it happen. In the time of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms, concertgoers regularly applauded between movements of larger works, even demanding encores at times.

Classical audiences used to engage more directly with the music, voicing their pleasure or displeasure with equal abandon. But these were isolated moments. We are trying to reach the heart of the people. But no matter why, symphonic music remains the only musical genre wherein audience reaction is so completely dictated by a set of rules.

Popular genres — rock, country, pop and so on —tend to be noisy affairs both on- and off-stage. Listeners often applaud after solos at jazz concerts and even after particularly fine arias at the opera or a show-stopping Broadway hit. If it makes you feel, you should clap.

The music directors also agreed that cell phones ringing, a bag falling or loud shuffling between movements breaks the mood just as much as applauding between the movements, and that a movement or work that ends softly or contemplatively should not immediately be met with loud cheers.

A Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra social media poll distributed through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram received 1, cumulative responses, with against clapping between movements and for.

But we should not silence the people who feel that they should applaud. If new people face censorship, why would they come back?

When classical concerts became public in the 19th century, organised groups of professional applauders called claques were often hired to applaud particular performers. Many composers strongly objected to them.

Mahler even specified in the score of his Kindertotenlieder that its movements should not be interrupted by applause. Schumann did the same for his piano and cello concertos, as well as his Symphony No. By the time recording equipment came around in the 20th century, applauding in between movements came to be heavily frowned upon.

AssCon stood there for a moment, panting and sweating and revelling in the epic emotional journey or public masturbation session, depending on your point of view he had just taken us on… and then realized nobody was clapping.

So he quickly turned around, and there was polite applause, and everybody left. The following year, when we went back, the pastor in his pre-concert remarks made jovial? Then he asked how many people in the audience had come to one of these concerts at his church before. About 4 people raised their hands: in other words, out of the people who had been there the previous year, virtually nobody had returned. That was the last year they invited us. Cool story!

Another lifeline to the continued dumbing down that has infected just about every other realm. These people, in their despair surrounding ever dwindling audiences, will stop at nothing. Need to clap between movements? No problem. Do it in your living room or family den or at the local bowling alley, say.

Yes, definitely! As if you ever went anywhere else? The Bowling Alley is the perfect place for you. You can lick the mayo off your fingers there, too.

Gabrilowitsch was a phenomenal pianist, check him out on Youtube — a glistening legato….. They played pianos in the house they shared. Stokowski was fourth pianist…………. As far as audiences applauding between movements I well remember Erich Leinsdorf of all people turning for a smiling, courtly bow after the first movement of the Jupiter Symphony with the LPO in the early s. He knew what he was doing in Mozart………. Much of this depends on the way in which you were brought up to listen to music — or fell into listening to it.

My own old-fashioned habit is to frame the music with silence, as a picture is often framed, separating it from the mundane. I for one feel deprived if an audience spoils that impact. Paul gave some examples where I would feel clapping to be appropriate, too.

Although in general I prefer that people do not clap between movements in most circumstances, I am in favour of people clapping instead of noisy coughing and clearing throats. Even more important to me is that people do not disturb the music by clapping or booing.

Please wait until the music stopped and give the music at least 2 seconds of rest whether it is a symphony, a solo piece or opera. I sometimes wonder if the pause between all movements of post-classical works is part of the work itself, as conceived, and therefore not to be interrupted with applause.

I want the momentary space after the movement, so I can come down from what I just heard and prep in anticipation what is to come.

Applause has mood and character, which I find can infringe on what I feel during that silence, which I want to define myself and not have the audience do it for me. So count me in with the no-applause group. And…I am absolutely non-elitist in saying that. As my former piano teacher used to remind me often: Play the silences. They are as crucial to a composition as any written note or direction.

Same goes for the pauses between movements, be they in a piano sonata or concerto or symphony. They demand, and should command, respect. They do, and in many cases such respect can be best expressed by enthusiastic and audible appreciation. Nelsons does that. After a few seconds he turned to the audience and told us why there was a pause. It contributes to the tension of the event.

The hall, which was sold-out, was full of dignified Germans in evening dress it was a premiere night who listened in utterly respectful crematorium silence, also after the acts. But you could see in the faces that something was brewing. At the end of the last act, suddenly and without warnig, hell broke loose in wild screaming of disapproval which took some 20 minutes to disperse, the most respectable listeners suddenly turning into a wild crowd ready for a lynch party.

But it appeared just to be the regular reaction to such events. No doubt, such expressions of commitment would not be so intense if it were allowed to ventilate between acts. So, maybe at symphony concerts and chamber music evenings, the audience should sit still and silent until the very end to explode in gestures of commitment, to keep the tension during the concert going.

During guzzle performances in Pakistan and India, which are long recitals by a singer and a small ensemble with traditional instruments, these age-old ballades about life and love are listened to in deep, concentrated silence, which is interrupted after each couplet with moaning or mumbling approval, encouraging the performers.

For those moments, a purely instrumental episode is inserted to make such interaction possible and which in the same time keeps the musical flow intact. It greatly contributes to the contact between audience and performers, also because everybody is sitting on the floor. These performances then take-on the form of half-religious community experiences.

After the first movement, one solitary chap in the stalls side boxes clapped a few times. Maestro Kocsis, dressed in formal tails, correctly locating the source, turned slowly and bowed deeply to the man, before continuing. Back when I performed, I wanted to keep laser focus and concentration on the piece and for the audience to do the same.

For me, the sound of a quiet hall between movements is also settling. To interrupt that with applause spoils the moment. Toronto audiences used to know not to clap between movements, but I remember a performance of the Berlioz Romeo and Juliet under the then conductor Andrew Davis, who courteously acknowledged the spontaneous applause that burst out after the Capulet ball movement.

A single overeager clap or shout the moment the last note of Mahler Ninth has been played provokes murderous thoughts in my mind and is in my opinion far more criminal than loud applause after its middle movements. In other words, it all depends on the musical context. If there is applause between movements is the conductor supposed to recognize the featured players in the movement that was just completed or wait til the end?

If you applaud between movements, then does that mean the applause at the end is just for the last movement? How is that their emotional reaction? Me too. I can see both sides of the argument but have difficulty coming to a decision. In my very early days of concert going, I also wanted to applaud after the 1st movement of the Tchaik Violin Concerto and the 3rd of the 6th Symphony.

The problem for me was that I assumed — not having read the programme notes — that the 6th actually ended with that rousing March. At its start I even thought the final movement was an encore!

I do believe, contrary to some of the more flagrant notifications to an audience given above, that conductors can and should do more if they prefer silence after a movement. With the 6th symphony, as the March ends so many conductors have their arms raised in triumph which they then immediately drop to their sides. To the uninitiated that indicates that it is an ending. However, if the arms are kept raised for a few seconds after the final note, with perhaps the palm of the left hand opened and kept raised whilst only the right hand is slowly lowered, the conductor is sending a definite but not intrusive signal that there is more to come.

Certainly that is one work where I think applause during the performance is detrimental to the overall musical experience. But this ass of a conductor made a show of holding his arms motionless in the air for a full minute after the last note ended. I wish he would stick to silence the rest of the time too.

All of us would be heartily grateful. None of us want to hear out-of-place noise. I had a music history professor who suggested that. The worst condemnation of a particular movement was silence.