How should concert audiences be expected to behave? Recent events at concerts have quickly brought this question to prominence. For quite a long time, there has been a distinction between what is and what isn’t allowed at a concert, depending on the genre of music being performed. Audiences at a symphony orchestra, opera, or ballet performance are to sit still and silent. Popular music audiences can clap when they want, sing along, and dance to the music. Jazz audiences can talk quietly, maybe dance, but generally don’t sing along (at least not so anyone can hear them.) These different ways of behaving at a concert have served each type of audience well. But lately, things have been called into question by symphony orchestra presenters on the one hand, and have gotten out of hand at popular music concerts, with calls for a return to better behavior. Is it time to find common ground as it were between all of these musical genres, and establish an etiquette that is less restrictive for symphony, opera, and ballet audiences, and more restrictive for pop and rock music audiences? Has the jazz crowd really had it right all along, with quiet conversation, cocktails, and enough respect and appreciation for what the musicians are doing not to interrupt them or disturb other listeners’ enjoyment of the music? Very possibly. 

The whole issue of concert etiquette comes down to the extent to which audiences should be allowed to interact with the performers, or indeed become part of the performance itself. For example, a jazz big band playing for a dinner party wants people to get up and dance to the music they are playing, and may even invite the audience to sing along at times. In that instance, the audience, by dancing and maybe singing, becomes part of the “performance,” and the distinction between those who are musician performers and those who are non-musicians/audience becomes happily blurred by mutual consent. 

The whole idea that audiences should sit silently while musicians perform is a relatively recent demand. It came about during the nineteenth century. In Mozart’s time, for example, it was common for people to converse, dine, even play cards during concerts and especially operas. When the first public opera houses were founded in the mid-17th century, they were designed more as venues for social interaction than as sites of aesthetic experience. Fanning out from the stage in glittering tiers were the boxes. Owned or leased by aristocrats or wealthy bourgeois, these intimate little spaces were perfect for entertaining guests, exchanging gossip or simply being seen. Down below was the parterre. Usually left open and generally without seating, this was the preserve of lower-income groups, including soldiers, students and servants, who used the space to meet friends, share a drink and gamble. Accordingly, the music was treated with noisy indifference, at best, or vocal contempt, at worst. Audiences were more interested in their own conversations than with what was happening on stage. They might perhaps listen to an aria, or watch the ballet (if there was one), but no more. (Lee, A., 2017)

Public concerts didn’t become widespread until after 1800, and well into the nineteenth century they took the form of “miscellanies”—eclectic affairs at which all kinds of music were played before audiences that seldom sat still or quieted down. Movements of symphonies and concertos were mingled with solo-piano pieces, songs and arias, dances and other lighter items. Applause usually erupted after movements, and at times during them, if the audience heard something it particularly liked. (Ross, 2008) 

With public seating replacing open spaces or parlor style furnishings, concert venues are now less conducive to group conversations and certainly to dining during a performance. What’s more, the very nature of the music requires quieter attention owing to the exclusive use of acoustic instruments, and music that at times is performed at barely above the volume of a whisper. This contrasts to, for example, a rock concert, where everything is amplified and most everything is too loud to ever be obscured or drown out by anyone’s conversation. Clearly, the nature of the music is not going to change, at least as long as the canon by the likes of Beethoven, Mozart, and so forth is on the program. No, if the requirement of being quietly attentive during a classical music concert is going to change, one or both of two things need to be reformed. First, orchestras will need to start playing music by contemporary composers, and those composers are going to need to write music that is meant to be played more informally, like, for example the serenades of Mozart. If they are written with the intent of being talked over, there should be no problem doing so. Secondly, audiences must relinquish the prioritized objective of paying such close attention to everything that is being performed. Again, this has a lot to do with the music on the program. An opera overture, for example, does not require the same attention as the opening of Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto. Rossini or Verdi did not expect rapt silence during their overtures, so why demand it when transplanting these works into the concert hall. So-called occasional music does not instantly become formal concert music just because the venue has changed. 

Perhaps presenters such as the Boston Pops, with programs that mix popular music, with “light classics” and the occasional heavy hitter, with the audience enjoying their favorite beverage and light fare is a model that could be followed by symphony orchestras as well. 

On the other end of the spectrum, throwing phones, candy, jewelry or even deceased human ashes, or what have you at performers, as has been done recently, is clearly an indication that a new version of popular music concert etiquette is sorely needed. It is regrettable that adults need to be told not to throw things at musicians who are performing for them, but that is the current state of affairs. How many of those unruly concert goers would accept having someone come into their workplace and start throwing things at them? 

Concert goers need to acquaint themselves with practicing respect. The concert venue is a musician’s workplace, and if someone attends the concert, they have been invited and allowed in by purchasing a ticket. The musicians have probably spent more money and hours and hard work getting themselves to the point where they can offer them those performances than most people in attendance have ever dedicated to anything, so the musicians at least deserve respect for that. Let all the other issues be decided from there, all born out of respect for the performers and those who are nearby who also paid for their ticket and want to enjoy the performers on the stage, not the ones in the audience. 

Be sure to visit musicbyrobertadams.com to preview and purchase my original sheet music for bands, orchestras, and chamber ensembles.

Notes

Lee, A., (2017). The sound of silence, History Today, 67, 9.

Ross, A. (2008). Why so serious? How the classical concert took shape, The New Yorker, September 8, 2008.