Audience Participation

One of the things those working to get more warm bodies attending classical concerts are suggesting is audience participation via Twittering during performances. A. C. Douglas over at Sounds & Fury is not in favor, to put it mildly. In this post he has a wonderful quote from Hilary Hahn on the subject, which I really like because it gets over into that ESP territory that music can induce. He found the quote in this post over on Life's a Pitch.

>>The problem is that acoustic performers rely on the audience's attention and focus and can tell when the audience isn't mentally present. Your listening is part of our interpretive process. If you're not really listening, we're not getting the feedback of energy from the hall, and then we might as well be practicing for a bunch of people peering in the window. It's just not as interesting when the cycle of interpretation is broken.<<