10.3-15.2018
Thesis: I play music (sometimes with friends), (somewhere), people listen (and enjoy)
I play music
Rules for Performers
1. Play music
1.5 well
2. Look nice (how nice depends on the performance/ensemble)
2.5a Tuxedo
2.5b All Black
2.5c Other dress clothes
3. Talk
3.5 But not too much
4. There should be a program for the audience
4.5 Program Notes (written or verbal) keep the audience engaged
(sometimes with friends)
Always musicians
Almost always drummers
(somewhere)
Concert/Recital Hall
Audience sits together
Audience faces performer(s)
”Stage” is where the performers perform
Performer(s) face audience
people
Rules for Audience Members
1. Be on time
2. Stay the whole time
3. No sounds during the performance
3.5 Silence all cell phones, etc.
4. Clap between pieces
5. Don’t clap between movements
6. Don’t move too much
7. Pay attention
8. Don’t eat or drink
listen (and enjoy)
The 5 Senses (ranked by importance to “the concert”)
1. Hearing*
2. Sight
3. Feel (almost not important at all, but audience seating should be comfortable)
4T. Smell (c. 0% importance)
4T. Taste (c. 0% importance)
*Jim Culley disagrees with this ranking—he believes that the sound has become subservient to the image. People go to see concerts, not to hear them. He posits that the all black attire comes out of the tradition of the pit orchestra contributing sound “invisibly” and though it is still common for performers to wear all black, if the audience is not visually engaged, then the sound often falls by the wayside.
BUT
which of these are required? Which of these make sense and should remain and which don’t and should be left tied to 20th-century performance practice? Secular music hasn’t always been performed with such stodgy rules. Clapping between movements was expected and encouraged until around 100 years ago. Certainly, these rules are quite easy to break down—don’t use a program, wear whatever you want, let the audience move around freely, etc.
The greater challenge is fundamentally changing the idea of the concert:
the dichotomy between performer and audience
One performer (or a small group) plays for (hopefully) a much larger group of people. There is no overlap. You are either a performer or an audience member. Concerts rely on an audience or else it is just practice; performers are always performing but the inherent difference between a practice session and a concert is the presence of other people. This group of other people should also be somewhat unfamiliar with the music or the particular way the performer performs is (i.e. playing a piece every week for a teacher or colleague does not a concert make).
Sure, we can say that concerts are not dependent on an audience and that every time someone plays music, they are putting on a concert but this is a semantic argument, not a practical one—it doesn’t change the way anything is done in practice, just the way we define what we are doing.
Is there a way to blur the lines between audience and performer? This is difficult. Once an audience member participates, they are a performer. They are a performer AND an audience member, but not some in-between entity. Or are they?
Is there a third role to be played? I think of Marina Abramović’s The Artist is Present which relies not only on an audience viewing the art, but that each viewer in turn becomes part of the art for a time as others look on as some sort of audience-performer (A-P). The A-P certainly has become part of the artwork, but in being part of the work, they are experiencing the work in a new way. The work has changed for the audience because of the participation of the A-P, but the A-P is also experiencing a new work which is unique to their performance and in turn gives the audience a unique experience. Is there a cognate for concerts?
the unique focus on two senses
Should it be more? Music can impact your perception of taste. Percussive music translates not only sonic information, but also you can literally feel the notes. Sure, there are plenty of instances of concerts with wine pairings or similar type things. Are these gimmicks or are they actually drawing on some sort of greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts-type-experience? Or is it just that the Venn diagram of people who have money to pay to see classical music and have historically been patrons of classical music and people who have time and money to visit wineries overlaps nearly entirely?
Should it be fewer? Music is a sonic art. Concerts should be the transmission of sonic information, alone. Concerts should be the transmission of sonic information, alone? I’m drawn to the idea of a purely sonic concert. Performing “behind” an audience is perhaps one idea but this does not remove the other senses and the spacial understanding (a 6th of actually many other senses) of the audience will be impacted. Similarly, ears work best facing forward and there have been approximately zero concerts in the history of humankind in which the audience has not turned to face an off-stage performer. I’m drawn to the idea of blindfolding the audience, thus not changing the actual sound traveling to their ears, but perhaps changing their understanding as they are able to focus more of their attention to the sounds alone without being “distracted” or “further informed” by the visual.