Concert Etiquette - Western Classical Music

Western Classical Music

Concert etiquette is particularly strong at concerts featuring music from the Classical tradition, especially those featuring an unamplified orchestra. Such audiences have come to expect quiet, and disapprove of fellow members making any kind of noise louder than light breathing. Unavoidable noise such as coughs or sneezes should be delayed until a loud passage if possible, and muffled with a handkerchief, which is most effective placed at the inner elbow joint with the entire arm then pressed over the mouth. Mobile phones and pagers should be turned off for the duration of the concert, and it is increasingly common for an announcement to this effect to be made by venue management before the commencement of the concert.

Concert-goers are expected to arrive and take their seats before the music commences. The audience waiting for a concert or opera to begin may talk freely until the end of the applause greeting the entrance of the conductor (or the concertmaster if the orchestra tunes on stage). Dress requirements have become less formal in recent decades, corresponding to a general "casualisation" of Western social standards. Some expect that the audience will at least meet "smart casual" standards, but some performance companies and theatres explicitly tell audiences to wear whatever makes them comfortable. Hats are not tolerated as they block the view of the stage.

The convention of silence during performances developed late in the 19th century. Mozart expected that people would eat and talk over his music, particularly at dinner, and was delighted when his audience would clap during his symphonies. Mahler clamped down on claques paid to applaud a particular performer, and specified in the score of his Kindertotenlieder that its movements should not be punctuated by applause. Wagner discouraged what he considered distracting noises from his audience at Bayreuth in 1882.

During the 20th century, applause even between movements of a symphony became regarded as a distraction from its momentum and unity, and is now considered a gaffe or faux pas, though usually tolerated as a well-meaning one; most audiences applaud after the third movement of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony Pathétique and conductors seem resigned to this fact. As most concert goers are considerate enough to restrain themselves while the musicians are playing, a rise in audience noise may be heard between movements, as people shift in their seats, stretch their legs, release pent-up coughs, blow their noses, pass comments to their neighbours, and enter or leave the hall. The musicians will wait for this noise to die down before continuing the performance.

Audience members who are too eager to applaud at the end of a piece are sometimes resented, particularly in the case of a quiet finale such as Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony. The conductor always signals the end of the performance by lowering his or her hands to his or her sides. Sometimes this is prolonged past the cutoff of the orchestra, with hands held in the air or slowly lowered over several seconds, in the hope of allowing the audience to stay joined with the artistic creation even for just a brief moment after its sounds have ceased.

Upon conclusion of concert performances of substantial dolorous works, particularly sacred vocal works such as settings of the requiem, Passion or mass but also secular works of comparable gravity, it is common for audiences and performers to reflect in a moment of respectful silence or even silent prayer before applauding. Applauding as soon as the instruments and/or singing fall silent is thus frowned upon.

In Western opera a particularly impressive aria will often be applauded, even if the music is continuing. Shouting is generally acceptable only during applause; almost always the word bravo (or brava in the case of a female singer, or bravi for a plural number of singers or the orchestra itself, though this distinction is not always made outside Italy). Both words have original senses of "great" and "skillful" but bravo has come to mean "well done" and is used even at the symphony. Occasionally the superlative form, bravissimo, will be extolled for a performance appraised as exceptional. Shouting the French word encore ("again") at the end of a concert is understood as request for more, but the French bis and Italian da capo ("from the start") are obscure in English. While particularly enthusiastic concertgoers may implement their applause with whistling in some cultures (e.g., Britain), this can—on the contrary—be an expression of disapproval in others (e.g., Italy), equivalent to booing.

Perhaps the most famous collapse of concert etiquette occurred at the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring in 1913. The music and violent dance steps depicting fertility rites drew catcalls and whistles from the crowd, soon followed by shouts and fistfights in the aisles. The unrest in the audience eventually degenerated into a riot. The Paris police arrived by intermission, but they restored only limited order. Chaos reigned for the remainder of the performance, and Stravinsky was so upset at the reception of his work that he fled the theatre in mid-scene.

Similarly, Steve Reich's piece, Four Organs was booed at Carnegie Hall in 1973, with people allegedly applauding and shouting to hasten the end of the piece. Michael Tilson Thomas even recalls a woman walking down the aisle and repeatedly banging her head on the front of the stage, wailing "Stop, stop, I confess."