Under Construction Journal Issue 6.1 UNDER CONSTRUCTION JOURNAL 6.1 | Page 11

When To Clap? (And Other Concerns)
Recent ethnomusicological studies show that for the uninitiated, Classical music can resemble a world
abounding with rituals that must be observed; a world replete with erudite congregations fully reverential
to an all-powerful figurehead leading a uniformed rank-and-file raised and set apart. In 2010, Njordur
Sigurjonsson revealed that 'sitting and listening' and 'when to clap' topped the list of anxieties commonly
felt by first-time classical music attendees. 1 Sigurjonsson's interviewees also suggested that:
“[the] attitude of regular attenders [were] perceived as uninviting [...] it felt a little bit like
[...] sitting with a cult [because] they seem to appreciate it on a level that you can’t quite
comprehend.” 2
In 2011, Melissa Dobson and Stephanie Pitts extracted similar worried responses from classical audience
first-timers including, "I’ll just wait until someone else starts to clap [...]..then I’ll clap," as well as, "make
sure you’re not the first one to start clapping in case it’s the wrong place." 3 Earlier, in 2005, Pitts had
researched into, what she called, the classical audience's silent vigil, revealing a landscape of scientifically
engineered performance spaces whose very construction and formal layout, she asserts, impacts directly
upon audiences disinclination to react spontaneously. With such regimented arrangement and exacting
etiquette, the uninitiated would, according to Tim Baker, view classical concerts as 'pompous and
superficial [adding to feelings of] "this is not for us".' 4
Even for the musically trained, the hallowed hallways of higher education institutions seem to
echo with frustrations. Reflecting on his experience as an undergraduate music student at York University,
Thom Andrewes asserts that:
“It wasn't just the rigidity, [...] assumed knowledge, [and] suspect discourses of
transcendence, autonomy and universalism. Nor was it [...] the ghettoisation of new
1
See Njordur Sigurjonsson. "Orchestra Audience Development and the Aesthetics of “Customer Comfort”." The
Journal of Arts Management Law and Society Law 4 (October 2010), 271
2
Ibid., 271.
3
Melissa Dobson and Stephanie Pitts, "Classical Cult or Learning Community? Exploring New Audience Members’
Social and Musical Responses to First-time Concert Attendance," Ethnomusicology Forum, Vol. 20, No. 3
(December 2011), 368.
4
Tim Baker, Stop Reinventing the Wheel: A Guide to What We Already Know About Developing Audiences for
Classical Music, (Association of British Orchestras, 2000).
2