At a concert recently, a man who had clearly, audibly, been paying no attention for the duration of a particular performance rose to his feet when the applause began and hollered an exemplary "bravo!" Clear, short, without lingering on the "o" like an amateur, he clearly knew his way round a standing ovation, weighing in a second time before settling back into the gradual diminuendo accompanying the soloist's exit.
I looked round at him afterwards for a sign of cynicism, but there was nothing doing. He, doubtless like many others in the room, had simply been caught up in the applause and given his best when the occasion demanded it.
Applause is like that, much more the expression of the group than of the sum of its individual members, it oddly both obliterates and then reinforces the sense of self. Political scientists of a certain persuasion even use applause as a model for voting patterns, so well recognised is the way in which group behaviour can override rational motivation.
And a good thing too, at times. As virtual communities replace physical ones, it's good to feel embodied in a civilised mob for a moment.
But over on the excellent contemporary music webzine, New Music Box, the composer Frank Otieri is complaining of inflation in audience responses. If, as has long been the case in the Netherlands, and is fast becoming standard in the US, according to some of Otieri's respondents, standing ovations and hefty bravo-ing are now the norm, what room does this leave for discrimination between a truly outstanding performance and an OK one? He has a right to complain, I suppose, but what are we supposed to do about it? If you enjoyed a performance, you can't very well sit down and dispense a few half-hearted finger claps while all around you the throng goes wild.
Another problem is that, had Otieri been in Britain and wanted to express his approval at the outstanding performance that my neighbour bravo-ed, he might have whistled. But whistling here is an expression of disapproval, like slow handclapping, although this also now signifies the desire for an encore. It's a confusing culture, perhaps a stumbling-block for the many who find classical music already too full of rituals and arcane standards of etiquette.
