Applauding Live Music

"Audiences at the Proms are ignorant of the correct time to clap and need educating to avoid spoiling the music for others, according to a classical music expert."

Clapping live music is an interesting debate, and one that I found myself caught up in after a visit to the Royal Albert Hall for a Prom this year.  My brother-in-law was playing bass clarinet with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and members of our family had a very enjoyable evening in support of him, and in appreciation of an excellent program of classical music.  

It's true - quite often an audience at a classical concert doesn't really know when to clap, and in between movements of  Chopin's 2nd Piano Concerto and Roussel's Symphony No. 3, I could feel the tension as people's hand moved closer together, waiting to see if someone else would initiate applause.  Annoyingly, we were sitting next to a group of young people whose main objective seemed to be to toy with the clapping habits of this anxious audience.  A movement came to an end; the conductor rested his arms; pages of music were turned; throats were cleared.  Suddenly a clean and crisp *CLAP* came from the seats next to ours which set off a Mexican ripple of applause around the hall.  Hilarious, apparently.

I can understand the difficult in knowing when to clap - and is there a right or wrong place to do it?  Certainly in jazz, the whole performance is interspersed with applause as the audience shows appreciation of individual musician's skill.  However, this is usually in response to a solo which is improvised - so you are effectively applauding the on-the-spot composition as well as the playing skills of the musician.  This wouldn't be the case in a classical concert, as the composer has laid down absolutely which notes are to be played and when - and the effect of a piece is in its entirety, not in its individual movements.  

Clapping at the Proms has initiated quite a few interesting discussions.  Jonathan Lennie, the classical editor of Time Out magazine, contributed this to the discussion "You don't have to reward the performers halfway through, this isn't opera, they do not expect it and most often resent the intrusion." [Telegraph Online]  I would be willing to bet that not a single person who was clapping between movements did it to show their appreciation of the music that had just happened - rather to break the embarrassment of silence, or to hide any embarrassment of 'not knowing when to clap.'  I am with the school of thought that it's incorrect to clap in the middle of pieces, but can understand that the Proms - a world-renowned concert series - attracts many listeners who aren't necessarily classical music aficionados.  Much better that people are actually attending the Proms and appreciating the music, than leaving the decision of when to clap to a smaller audience.

I would say that it's easier to know when to clap at jazz gig - for a start, it's rarely in a totally silent atmosphere that you would be listening to jazz, so the worry of breaking the silence doesn't exist so much.  Quite often the band leader will point to, or even announce, the soloist during the tune so inviting applause.  In fact, I've done gigs where I've felt surprised and a little uncomfortable when someone in my band has done a solo and not been applauded.  I have found myself thinking 'Doesn't this audience know anything about jazz?!'

I do find myself getting frustrated at classical concerts when the time between movements is interspersed with nervous applause.  Perhaps it's the nervousness that gets to me; if it were rapturous applause I may not mind so much.  

It's hard to know where the debate will end.  Proms director Roger Wright contributed to the above article by saying "Mozart rather enjoyed audiences clapping and Brahms was rather disappointed when they didn't clap between movements."  

Who knows what the accepted norm will be in another 100 years time?