Is it frowned upon to take scores to concerts?

I've always wanted to do this, but been scared that I'd look like fool, or distract people with page turning. Would it be faux pas to take a score to a performance at which it would actually help appreciate the music?

I don't think so... I've thought of doing this myself several times but in the rush to get out the door I've always forgotten the score.

The only issue I can think of is if the auditorium is too dark to read. Bringing a light source would definitely be out of the question. :)

I find it most helpful if you study the score beforehand, listen to some recordings and then be able to appreciate the music.

I agree with manos - just know the piece back to front, so you can appreciate every detail. To do this listen to it in its entirety several time, with score.

Though I don't see anything wrong with taking a score to a concert...

Def nothing wrong with taking a score to a concert.

I've never done it but I've been to concerts where I saw individuals following along with a score.

As long as you don't turn the pages noisily I see no problem.

I find it most helpful if you study the score beforehand, listen to some recordings and then be able to appreciate the music.

totally agree, i do it all the time.

I don't think it'd be a problem, but I'd prefer to know the music beforehand, so I could appreciate and/or criticize the performance and/or conductor ;).

Everything weighed up, I'm glad I took the score, because I got Angela Hewitt to sign it after the concert.

:)

Holy crap, my piano teacher's apparently good friends with Angela Hewitt! I've listened to several of her WTC interpretations, and I've found them very intellectual, but satisfying.

Anyway, my theory teacher went to Chicago last semester to attend a recital of the complete Art of Fugue. He took the score with him, and I'm sure he also knew it very well. He is a very proper guy, and I don't think he'd do anything he didn't think was good concert etiquette.

Reading the score is just fine (that's why study scores exist in such small versions >_> or not..)

Reading MAGAZINES is not. And sadly enough, I've seen that happen :(

Reading the score is just fine (that's why study scores exist in such small versions >_> or not..)

Reading MAGAZINES is not. And sadly enough, I've seen that happen :(

:O

Your kidding right? People read read magazines in a concert?!

How rude.

Hmm, this is an interesting topic though. I'm not sure whether I'd be strictly against reading magazines in a concert, as long as you do it quietly. In every exhibition of visual art you can walk away if a painting bores bores you, in a concert it isn't that easy. You are forced to listen to it, no matter whether you like it or not and more than once a concert evening that started out great with awesome pieces got ruined for me by a piece I found absolutely horrible, but which I was forced to endure for how long it lasted. But of course this isn't just negative. It is also an advantage to require people to listen to something even if they don't like it from the first tone on and might broaden their horizons.

Nevertheless, I've often thought that classical music could learn a lot from, say, jazz in this respect. Take out these uncomfortable chairs in long rows, put some tables in and let me drink a beer while listening to the music! That way, if I don't enjoy the music, I can comfort myself with alcohol at least :P I have heard non-popular music in such environments and I always found it worked out rather well, as long as the audience is civilised enough to stay rather quiet.

But of course I do understand the issues with reading a magazin. I might find it distracting or even respectless too. But maybe that's just because we have become so used to a concert culture where everything -has- to stay focused on the music all the time (which certainly isn't a bad thing per se).

I'm not against concerts in a traditional setting at all, but I think it's a habit that has to be questioned.

As a side note: Musicians -really- should stop wearing tailcoats and bow ties. It's just ridiculous! And all the rituals surrounding concerts, from standing up for the conductor to the whole applause ritual, seem horribly outdated too. There really are some things we can learn from popular music. (No, I don't mean we should scream around like mad in the middle of a concert.)

Hmm, this is an interesting topic though. I'm not sure whether I'd be strictly against reading magazines in a concert, as long as you do it quietly. In every exhibition of visual art you can walk away if a painting bores bores you, in a concert it isn't that easy. You are forced to listen to it, no matter whether you like it or not and more than once a concert evening that started out great with awesome pieces got ruined for me by a piece I found absolutely horrible, but which I was forced to endure for how long it lasted. But of course this isn't just negative. It is also an advantage to require people to listen to something even if they don't like it from the first tone on and might broaden their horizons.

Nevertheless, I've often thought that classical music could learn a lot from, say, jazz in this respect. Take out these uncomfortable chairs in long rows, put some tables in and let me drink a beer while listening to the music! That way, if I don't enjoy the music, I can comfort myself with alcohol at least :P I have heard non-popular music in such environments and I always found it worked out rather well, as long as the audience is civilised enough to stay rather quiet.

But of course I do understand the issues with reading a magazin. I might find it distracting or even respectless too. But maybe that's just because we have become so used to a concert culture where everything -has- to stay focused on the music all the time (which certainly isn't a bad thing per se).

I'm not against concerts in a traditional setting at all, but I think it's a habit that has to be questioned.

As a side note: Musicians -really- should stop wearing tailcoats and bow ties. It's just ridiculous! And all the rituals surrounding concerts, from standing up for the conductor to the whole applause ritual, seem horribly outdated too. There really are some things we can learn from popular music. (No, I don't mean we should scream around like mad in the middle of a concert.)

Satie tried something like that with his wallpaper music. I seem to recall people were being too respectful or too interested in the music, and he had to try to provoke them to act normally. Not what he was going for, I think.

Question: If musicians stopped wearing tailcoats and all that, who would get to wear them? 'Cause I might have to switch to that profession so I can wear a sweet tailcoat without looking like too much of an idiot/psycho. I like tailcoats, especially for pianists so they can fling the tails out from beneath their buttocks as they sit down with an affected flourish. Depending on the pianist, that move is either hilariously reminiscent of Horowitz/Bugs Bunny, or surprisingly contributive to the concentration/hypnotism of the audience.

The only aspect of the ritual I can't stand is the automatic curtain call. There was a time when audiences applauded for stuff they liked, and didn't for stuff they didn't like. Now, any idiot can come on stage, produce sounds reminiscent of an elephant loving a goat for five hours, and be sure of at least one curtain call from the remaining fellow who stayed out of some masochistic urge. If I find I have attended a performance I didn't find musical and beautiful, I quit clapping when I feel is appropriate. I have been known to boycott standing ovations, too. This used to be a show of extreme gratitude and enthusiasm on the part of the audience, people seem to do it now because they want an excuse to get up and massage their tingling asses back into sensibility. It is a sad state of affairs.

Bringing a score, while I don't think it would be rude, would be a sign to me that the music isn't good enough. If I go to see a performance then I want to see the performance and focus on listening. If that's not enough and I need to read along with a score to be able to appreciate what I'm experience then I would rather not go and just sit at home reading it for study purposes. I think it's that I want to listen to music, not read it, especially if I'm going out to a performance to be entertained.

I'm not saying it would be wrong to do so at all, I'm just saying if it were me I definitely either read the score before or after as some have suggested.

Satie tried something like that with his wallpaper music. I seem to recall people were being too respectful or too interested in the music, and he had to try to provoke them to act normally. Not what he was going for, I think.

Well, if you have a performance of "V

I don't know that it would be considered "rude", but I know that in some circles it might be considered pretentious.

It doesn't really matter, does it, in the end. As long as you are the one gaining something from the experience.

Although, to be quite frank, I think that you learn more from watching the orchestra rather than from trying to read the score in the diminished lighting of a concert hall.

Unless, of course, you are specifically studying the orchestration of a piece on the concert, and need to know details. I listened to the Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Suites in live concert for this purpose, and the score was invaluable. If you need a light, bring one of those tiny little reading lamps, and cover it with blue cellophane or lighting-gel.

Now that would be ridiculous. Bringing your own lamp would definitely be out of the question.

With regards clapping, I'd rather it were spontaneous too, but it would probably make things unmanageable at larger concerts. Angela Hewitt had everyone clap every four preludes and fugues, which seemed more than a little contrived. The venue was so intimate that it probably would have worked if people clapped when they felt compelled to do so.

Out of interest, there's one letter by Mozart in which he explains that he expected people to eat, drink and talk over his symphonies. On the tailcoat note, Gustav Leonhardt also, famously, gave a series of concerts at which all his performers wore late baroque clothing, complete with perruques (even for his treble choristers!).

I'd have to agree with QCC on this...the whole point of going to a concert is to experience the performance. Why waste it with your head buried in a score? Save yourself $80 and listen at home: comfortable chair, you can eat noisy foods, no old people to "shhh" you...

Analysis and score study take place with a stereo at home...not at the concert hall.

$0.02 :whistling:

Regarding the whole "tailcoat" thing... I think that while dressing up might not be the best thing to do, it does help to have some kind of un-distracting uniform. I know with my school band, we simply have to wear all black. It looks sharp and isn't distracting, but it's not "tailcoat" pretentious either.

I think we should all do it and everybody come back and tell how people reacted

I think a light would be a little annoyin though

Regarding the whole "tailcoat" thing... I think that while dressing up might not be the best thing to do, it does help to have some kind of un-distracting uniform. I know with my school band, we simply have to wear all black. It looks sharp and isn't distracting, but it's not "tailcoat" pretentious either.

Yes, I hear this often that standartised musician uniforms are there so the audience doesn't get distracted. I never understood this though. I'm not going to be distracted by people wearing their everyday clothes, as long as they're not wearing huge top hats and clown shoes. Or wearing nothing at all. Someone wearing a red shirt isn't really interesting enough for me to pull me away of the music (unless the music is very boring, in which case I'm probably glad if I have at least something to look at :P).

I'm sure it's not a sin to take the score to a concert.

...

HOWEVER

...

To be flipping throught it as the ensemble plays......

If I was sitting three rows behind you I would definitely start throw M&Ms at you before the second movement started. Then I would turn to my brother and ask him "what kind of freak brings the score to the concert?"

No offense or anything, I'd just think it would be really wierd (not that I'm not). I would probably get kicked out for laughing or something...:P

Someone might get offended and think that the moment the clarinet misses an Eb in a sixteenth note run you'll stand up and point accusingly at her and yell "WRONG!"

But it'd probably be a good learning experience, to see how the ensemble plays it. I dunno, maybe I'm too self-conscious:whistling:

~Kal

Hmm, this is an interesting topic though. I'm not sure whether I'd be strictly against reading magazines in a concert, as long as you do it quietly. In every exhibition of visual art you can walk away if a painting bores bores you, in a concert it isn't that easy. You are forced to listen to it, no matter whether you like it or not and more than once a concert evening that started out great with awesome pieces got ruined for me by a piece I found absolutely horrible, but which I was forced to endure for how long it lasted. But of course this isn't just negative. It is also an advantage to require people to listen to something even if they don't like it from the first tone on and might broaden their horizons.

Actually I've walked out and quite noisily so in 2 theatrical plays and 1 concert in my life! :D I only do it when it's impossible to stick around, but these were simply ridiculous! It's a stand against people who think they can sucker money without making ANY effort AT ALL!

It's not all that bad to show your annoyance in something that really annoys you, as long as you DO have a reason and are not just tired looking for a way out, or wanting to go for food afterwards, for example...

There's always txt messaging with friends, as well as mobile games to pass the time, as well. :P