A Night at the Symphony

I have never been a part of a drum circle, nor have I ever been in a jam session; basically I’m not usually exposed to participatory music on a regular basis. Although I am not privy on the fun times of participatory music, my years of school band have taught me well on he aesthetics of presentational music.  I performed many school concerts and I have attended a great amount of shows at the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia’s symphony and ballet house).  Although these all occurred on separate occasions and they were all different pieces, every single experience involving the audience is exactly the same; and Fridays performance was no different.

            The basic aesthetics of attending an orchestral concert at any level has the same expectations for the audience.  When attending a performance the audience sits, talking amongst themselves or relaxing in their seats waiting for the music, then the lights dim, next either the first violinist or the conductor appear on the stage (polite applause), suddenly everyone is quiet, no one dares to make a sound; finally the gorgeous music plays for about seven minutes, when it ends polite applause (slightly more energetic this time).  This cycle happens again; then there is an intermission. After the intermission the cycle happens once again, but this time there is a potentially dangerous aspect of the next piece that could lead to an embarrassed audience member; that is, a three movement piece.  The reason why a three-movement piece can be so difficult for an audience member is that it could lead to the mistake of clapping in between the movements, mistakenly believing that the piece is over, luckily this did not happen on Friday, but I have seen it happen before.  This process is the furthest thing from participatory music there is; for example, the audience is quiet the entire time, people are afraid to even perform basic human functions, such as coughing, and it is entirely frowned upon to participate in any way shape or form (except for tapping your foot along to the beat).  Is this fun? Why go to hear music that you have no part of? Why do we go to these shows?

            How does this music provide any social use, when we can just stay at home and listen to the same pieces of music, where one can dance and sing along to it without being scrutinized for doing so?  The primary answer to that question is that it brings people together to enjoy great works of presentational art. This form of presentational music brings great individuals together to become one whole. Likewise with the audience, these people all have the common interest of classical music. Whenever there will be classical musicians and fans of classical music, this art form will always exist.