The Proms and its peculiar atmosphere
Aug. 29th, 2007 07:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
julietI nearly didn't go to the Proms at all this year. Finally got round to it in the last fortnight: Copland/Adams/Adams last week with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dogrando & catsgomiaow, and to Tchaikovsky & Prokofiev (though we left at the interval due to impending starvation) with my friend Elaine last night.
There are several good things about the Proms. One is that if you go up to the Gallery, you can lie down on the floor and close your eyes (should you so desire), which can be excellent for listening to music. This also means more freedom to move around a bit, rather than being stuck in a chair. Another is that it's only £5 entry, so if you should find yourself drifting off and ceasing to pay attention, you are less likely to feel guilty.
Despite an extensive classical music education, I do quite often find it difficult to keep concentrating for the length of a full piece. (It's noticeably easier with anything I've played myself.) In a standard sort of concert, this can feel like a problem, and I can get impatient with myself and irritable (and then it's even harder to concentrate and I risk getting bored...). At the Proms, I feel much more relaxed about the whole thing.
On both occasions this year, I also found myself writing things in my head - non-music-related things. The music was switching between something I was actively enjoying and involved in, and a pleasant backdrop to other things going on in my head - and again, this felt OK; legitimate. I'm considering next year going along more often with the aim of treating it like that - a pleasant space to give my brain some freedom in.
I think this is also partly because the expectations of behaviour are different. Shutting the hell up & listening: yes. But I've seen people reading during Proms; I've taken my knitting (though only with non-clicky needles); I've seen people doing the crossword, and wandering round the gallery, and writing. All things that at a standard concert (and, I suspect, in the proper seats at the Proms) would get you Frowned At. Or at least I've always felt so.
(Of course, having said all this & vowed to go more often next year, doubtless I'll wind up once again finding that it's late August & I haven't got around to it. Ah well.)
dogrando & catsgomiaow, and to Tchaikovsky & Prokofiev (though we left at the interval due to impending starvation) with my friend Elaine last night. There are several good things about the Proms. One is that if you go up to the Gallery, you can lie down on the floor and close your eyes (should you so desire), which can be excellent for listening to music. This also means more freedom to move around a bit, rather than being stuck in a chair. Another is that it's only £5 entry, so if you should find yourself drifting off and ceasing to pay attention, you are less likely to feel guilty.
Despite an extensive classical music education, I do quite often find it difficult to keep concentrating for the length of a full piece. (It's noticeably easier with anything I've played myself.) In a standard sort of concert, this can feel like a problem, and I can get impatient with myself and irritable (and then it's even harder to concentrate and I risk getting bored...). At the Proms, I feel much more relaxed about the whole thing.
On both occasions this year, I also found myself writing things in my head - non-music-related things. The music was switching between something I was actively enjoying and involved in, and a pleasant backdrop to other things going on in my head - and again, this felt OK; legitimate. I'm considering next year going along more often with the aim of treating it like that - a pleasant space to give my brain some freedom in.
I think this is also partly because the expectations of behaviour are different. Shutting the hell up & listening: yes. But I've seen people reading during Proms; I've taken my knitting (though only with non-clicky needles); I've seen people doing the crossword, and wandering round the gallery, and writing. All things that at a standard concert (and, I suspect, in the proper seats at the Proms) would get you Frowned At. Or at least I've always felt so.
(Of course, having said all this & vowed to go more often next year, doubtless I'll wind up once again finding that it's late August & I haven't got around to it. Ah well.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 07:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-31 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 09:37 am (UTC)Thank you again for the time a couple of years back when I randomly decided to join you and you suggested that - wonderfully relaxing and exhilarating at the same time. I really should go again at some point ...
no subject
Date: 2007-08-31 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 10:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-31 01:26 pm (UTC)music
Date: 2007-08-30 02:34 pm (UTC)Classical things I'm planning on doing in the next four months:
Emma Kirkby and English Viol Consort, Fri, 5 October
(possibly) THE HOLST SINGERS* and THE ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC*, Handel's Israel in Egypt, Saturday 17 November at 7pm, St. Johns, Smith Square
The Rose Consort of Viols, Sat, 10 November, 1:45 - 2:45pm, Greenwich
Emma Kirkby and Polyphony, Handel's Messiah, December 23rd, St. John's Smith Square
I haven't bought tickets for any of these things yet, but if you are interested in them, let me know and we can go together.
Re: music
Date: 2007-08-31 01:26 pm (UTC)The Messiah is nice in patches (I've played it, or possibly sung it, I forget), but there is quite a *lot* of it iirc...