Jump to content

Some conductors not suited to judge manners


ASUmusicMAN

Recommended Posts

Some conductors not suited to judge manners

Judith Martin

As if they don?t have enough fun dressing up and waving those sticks about, orchestra conductors harbor an ill-disguised desire to take over Miss Manners? job. Once again, a prominent concert was followed by a tirade on the subject of manners delivered by the maestro.

The conductor, who sounded off after a concert in Naples, Fla., earlier this year, was more restrained than the director in Rio de Janeiro last fall who indicated what he thought of the manners of the audience at his Tristan and Isolde. He mooned them.

Music has a long history of such incidents. Well, not exactly these incidents; the mooning revealed that the offended gentleman was wearing green drawers, which may be a first. Nevertheless, attempts from the podium to persuade audiences to be polite have been going on for centuries.

Perhaps a career exchange could be arranged. It is true that Miss Manners can?t count terribly well, but she looks fetching in evening clothes and has some experience at terrorizing people into silence with a mere glance. How difficult can the rest of it be?

Apparently, that is the same view that conductors take of her august calling. Judging from their performances, they believe that her highly complex discipline involves nothing more than berating people of whose behavior they disapprove, and that it is not necessary to employ good manners when doing so.

Musicians have always complained that audiences paid them insufficient attention. Mozart whined to his father that people were multitasking ? chatting and drawing ? while he was playing. Long before the invention of television, classical music audiences had invented television manners, including wandering in and out during the performances.

Impresarios saw it as a class problem. In Europe, the blame was put on arrogant aristocrats who attended to show off, as opposed to the modest folk who loved music. So, in Paris, the boxes were made smaller and prices reduced to attract a better crowd.

In America, the blame was put on rowdy riffraff, as opposed to the rich and refined who loved music, so expensive seats were installed to replace the pit and attract a better crowd.

But audience behavior only changed radically in the late 19th century, when some fed-up conductors went into the manners business. Threats, sarcasm, stomping out, singling out individuals and silence (where the music should have been) changed the standard of audience behavior to the one-cough-and-you?re-dead expectations of today.

Miss Manners does not claim that the problem has been solved. In addition to eating, humming, chewing, talking, telephoning, snoring and conducting along ? all the activities that people go to concerts and opera to do ? we now have the rude machinations of music vigilantes armed with rolled-up programs. We have come to the sad point where every performance now opens with an elementary etiquette lesson about cell phones and beepers and cameras, which someone should set to music.

Finish it HERE

http://www.citizenonline.net/citizen/archi...erFriendly=true

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The conductor, who sounded off after a concert in Naples, Fla., earlier this year, was more restrained than the director in Rio de Janeiro last fall who indicated what he thought of the manners of the audience at his ?Tristan and Isolde.? He mooned them.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Our picks

    • Wait, Burning Man is going online-only? What does that even look like?
      You could have been forgiven for missing the announcement that actual physical Burning Man has been canceled for this year, if not next. Firstly, the nonprofit Burning Man organization, known affectionately to insiders as the Borg, posted it after 5 p.m. PT Friday. That, even in the COVID-19 era, is the traditional time to push out news when you don't want much media attention. 
      But secondly, you may have missed its cancellation because the Borg is being careful not to use the C-word. The announcement was neutrally titled "The Burning Man Multiverse in 2020." Even as it offers refunds to early ticket buyers, considers layoffs and other belt-tightening measures, and can't even commit to a physical event in 2021, the Borg is making lemonade by focusing on an online-only version of Black Rock City this coming August.    Read more...
      More about Burning Man, Tech, Web Culture, and Live EventsView the full article
      • 0 replies
    • Post in What Are You Listening To?
      Post in What Are You Listening To?
    • Post in What Are You Listening To?
      Post in What Are You Listening To?
    • Post in What Are You Listening To?
      Post in What Are You Listening To?
    • Post in What Are You Listening To?
      Post in What Are You Listening To?
×
×
  • Create New...