Tom Connor ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>In his autobiography Bruno Walter wrote about a performance early in
>his career where the audience was noisy.  He continued conducting, but
>indicated to the orchestra to play quieter, quieter, and quieter still.
>Finally, the audience seemed confused and became quiet wondering what going
>on.  Then Walter resumed a normal audio level.  So did the audience.

A rather more extreme example from another genre.  During his concert in
Manchester in 1966 with The Hawks, Bob Dylan's audience was split between
thos barracking and jeering, and those clapping and cheering.

Attempting to introduce one song, he began to mumble into the microphone,
on the verge of (but not quite crossing into) comprehensibility.

Gradually the audience grew quiter until suddenly Dylan's nonsense
syllables resolve into "If you only just wouldn' *clap* so hard".

Deryk Barker
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