Kevin Sutton replied to me:

>>Arts organizations, including symphony orchestras, are struggling for
>>survival and yet some worry about people who applaud classical music.
>>This topic has reared its head in this thread by people who describe
>>the associated performances as "great" and "fine".  Hello?  *This* is
>>a problem?!?!?
>
>That art organizations are struggling is not reason to dumb them down
>to the level of sporting events.  Orchestras etc are struggling because
>of a culture that values the lowest common denominator over that which
>truly takes more than brute physicality to accomplish.  We have a
>government that is more willing to make war than art.  A sad commentary
>indeed, when many less fortunate countries than ours still manage to
>uphold and support that legacy of their history and culture.

This is a splendid exposition, but it seems to have wondered in from
another topic and/or from the archives.  At least I don't see how it
applies to what I wrote in the paragraph that it refers to.  To restate,
my points were/are:

1 - Concerns about overly enthused audiences or audience members are,
at most, trivial at a time when symphony orchestras are struggling to
survive and/or attract audiences (regardless of the cause of these
conditions).

2 - I find it contradictory for someone to describe a performance as
"great" or "fine" and then criticize people who responded positively to
that same performance, as was done in this thread.

>>If I attend a sporting event, I stand and cheer when a touchdown, run,
>>or goal is scored by my team.  And when I attend a musical performance
>>that I honestly enjoy, I stand and applaud.  If I don't enjoy it, I don't
>>stand (though I don't begrudge those that do).  But I like most musical
>>performances that I attend, which is why I go in the first place.
>
>To compare a football game to a symphony concert is like comparing a
>comic book to Tolstoy.  They are at different levels of intellect, and
>value to our merit as a society.  ...

Whether I go along with this or not, relative value is not what we
are discussing, the subject is audience behavior.  At virtually any
type of public performance - musical, dramatic, or athletic - it is
normal, reasonable, and expected behavior for audience members to cheer
at specific moments during the performance, at their discretion.  Classical
music has no exemption from this.  How enthusiastically one applauds,
or whether they do so at all, is a personal and subjective decision.
Judging someone's reasons for doing so (or not) is presumptuous.

>>If you don't feel that a performance merits a standing O, by all means
>>keep your seat.  But don't look down your nose at those standing and
>>clapping - contemplate instead the empty seats next to them.  You should
>>hope for more of us non-discerning philistines.
>
>If we hand that which is the apex of our culture to the Philistines,
>then it will meet the same fate as other fallen great societies.  What
>we treasure as that which is our finest, will soon lie in ruins alongside
>the coliseum and the Colossus.  ...

Of course, I was being facetious in my reference to "non-discerning
philistines".  So are you saying that audiences that are reluctant to
provide standing ovations will help preserve the arts?  Or have you
wondered from the subject again?

Tim Dickinson
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