# Visceral Reactions to Classical Music: A Joke Thread



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Since I consider this a joke thread, I didn't put it in the classical forum but in the community forum. However, I'd prefer it to stick with the topic of classical.

Has this ever happened to you?



> ... the general public demonstrated to me at every performance of my new work that it had the capacity to achieve greater popularity than all its predecessors and could even stir audiences to extravagant enthusiasm. One evening, at the Salle Vivienne, after the apotheosis, some young men had the idea of seizing the chairs and smashing them on the ground with shouts of applause. The manager immediately gave orders that on subsequent evenings this novel way of applauding should not be allowed to spread.
> *- Berlioz on his Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale*




I wish people would get this excited about classical music again. To tell you the truth, I do sometimes have those kinds of feelings, but of course I would never act on them in my right mind (if I was drunk now, I'm not sure... ). But has it ever happened to you that you had such an ecstatic reaction to a piece of classical music that you _wanted _to smash or throw something? Or scream? Or do something else otherwise reprehensible?

My usual -extreme- reaction is to stand up and try walking around (or fake dance) to the beat of some piece of classical music I'm listening to. I've never actually thrown or hit anything.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Sadly, we live in an age of emasculation, when even a smatter of applause between movements is condemned as the boorish act of an uncultured public. Correctness is all. We are good little citizens.

Compare Ligeti: "Music should not be normal, well-bred, with its tie all neat."


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Sadly, we live in an age of emasculation, when even a smattering of applause between movements is condemned as the boorish act of an uncultured public.


LOL. Equating masculinity with uncultured boorishness (what you've done above) is seriously funny, hugely insulting to what (positive) traits are considered masculine, and perhaps a titch tragic.



KenOC said:


> Compare Ligeti: "Music should not be normal, well-bred, with its tie all neat."


P.s. I never thought of music as wearing any sort of clothing at all


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

PetrB said:


> P.s. I never thought of music as wearing any sort of clothing at all


Like Bartok, eh?

Anyway, I have a tendency to shout "What?" when I hear a composition do something completely incomprehensible. This happens not infrequently when I listen to amateur work...


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PetrB said:


> LOL. Equating masculinity with "uncultured" boorishness (what you've done above) is seriously funny, hugely insulting to what (positive) traits are considered masculine, and perhaps a titch tragic.


You don't think women can be emasculated? It's really an equal opportunity thing...


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## Guest (Feb 4, 2014)

Yeah, I tend to get pretty "vocal" when some piece or other gets me in the guts. When the music has an _extra_ special effect on me I tend to become like a crazed chimpanzee, jumping all over the place and hang screaming off the chandeliers.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KenOC said:


> You don't think women can be emasculated? It's really an equal opportunity thing...


Well, to use a word which, like 'entitled,' never used to be an official word, people, any sort, can be "disempowered," (dat be foh sho.')

For "emasculated," (since that happens and I think I know what you mean to mean) I just use "Wussified," a politically correct, polite and non-gender specific equal opportunity descriptor


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> But has it ever happened to you that you had such an ecstatic reaction to a piece of classical music that you _wanted _to smash or throw something?


yes, I have a tendency towards sweeping arm gestures. Once in a restaurant, whilst discussing something classical I was excited about, I swept the cutlery basket and the contents flew off and clanged loudly against the floor. The people from the neighbouring table were kind enough to only chuckle. It's also happened at home for similar reasons and the carpet in my lounge bears the scars of many drinks swept off the coffee table


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

So you know that story about Dostoievsky giving a speech on the occassion of Pushkin anniversary, when the speech was so amazing that one of the students ran to him and wanted to say something but he passed away from awe. Awe that came not from the poetry or the poet but from a speech about it. Seems like even lectures were exciting once upon a time. I really loved that anecdote when I read it first, my narration here doesn't give you the full image of how cool it was.

Or I like the story of young Toscanini playing in cellos at premiere of Verdi's _Otello_ when he fell into such an awe that after it was over, he ran into his house late at night and brutally woke his mother up just to tell her that Verdi is a genius. Not that she would care much.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Mahlerian said:


> Anyway, I have a tendency to shout "What?" when I hear a composition do something completely incomprehensible. This happens not infrequently when I listen to amateur work...


Which goes to show how charmingly original amateurs can be. In visual art, there has been a long and venerable tradition of naive art, produced by artists untrained in traditional methods. Rousseau and Grandma Moses for example. So why not in music as well? The composer can even consider utterances of "what?" and "aaargh!" as part of the performance.


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## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

Express your appreciation however you want
If the piece warrants it (in your opinion) then SHOUT about it
Share it with it with everybody around you
Life is too short to be serious


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## Lyman (Feb 2, 2014)

I think if you like a performance enough to stand up and applaud, you owe it to everyone to yell at the top of your lungs. 

Thankfully, they haven't banned me from Jones Hall yet.


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