# Haydn murdered by cell phone



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

The scourge of our time...






Now in Haydn's time people had no respect either, and would happily sit and chat or walk in and out of concerts, but I don't think they had anything remotely as irritating as a cell phone.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

brianvds said:


> The scourge of our time...
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> 
> 
> ...


Those people should be banned from concert halls for life.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

brianvds said:


> The scourge of our time...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Doesn't happen as much but think it disrespectful when people walk out of encores. Musicians don't have to perform them so I think people should be more respectful!


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

Terrible...I guess they never found out who the culprit was, and I doubt that person had any intention about sincerely apologizing to everyone. I imagine a volley of boos would have resounded had he or she done so.

At the last concert I attended, and before the first performance on the program was given, a host appeared on stage. He asked all members of the audience to please turn off their cellphones. Frankly, I do not recall if he made an exception for doctors on emergency call.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I have stopped going to concerts and movie theaters because of all the selfish distractions thoughtless people create.

At concerts, the rustling of programs while the music is playing, the pneumoniacal constant coughing to keep the bored occupied, the snoring, the armrest bullies, the talking, etc;

At the movies, those damn cell phones that light up the whole theater when the lights are out. The cell phone "jingles" when quiet should be the norm. It never ends. Why do people feel they must constantly stay "in touch" during a movie?

There was a time when I was a kid when a "matron" would be patrolling the theater with a flashlight and if you weren't conforming to acceptable behavioral norms, you would be ejected from the theater. These days, it seems theater management doesn't care.

Modern technology and extreme self-centeredness have caused me to become a homebody out of necessity.


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## Myriadi (Mar 6, 2016)

Terrible. This is one of the reasons I almost stopped going to concerts. The last time I went, just this autumn, it was a pianoforte concert. Anybody who's been to one of those knows that those instruments are much quieter than modern pianos. At first I think most of the people in the audience couldn't understand this, but eventually they realized that even a squeak of a chair can be fatal in a slow passage, so after the first piece there was complete and utter silence.

I was overjoyed. We all were, I think, since the instrument that evening was a particularly good Walter copy, and the pianist was encouraged to use more of its timbral potential. This bliss continued for maybe 10 minutes, though, and then somebody's bloody cellphone rang and I swear, it was loud like a bomb going off or something. Didn't ruin my evening but I was once again glad I'm living in the 21st century and can enjoy any music at home, in my headphones.


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## JamesMB (Nov 27, 2016)

Myriadi said:


> Terrible. This is one of the reasons I almost stopped going to concerts. The last time I went, just this autumn, it was a pianoforte concert. Anybody who's been to one of those knows that those instruments are much quieter than modern pianos. At first I think most of the people in the audience couldn't understand this, but eventually they realized that even a squeak of a chair can be fatal in a slow passage, so after the first piece there was complete and utter silence.
> 
> I was overjoyed. We all were, I think, since the instrument that evening was a particularly good Walter copy, and the pianist was encouraged to use more of its timbral potential. This bliss continued for maybe 10 minutes, though, and then somebody's bloody cellphone rang and I swear, it was loud like a bomb going off or something. Didn't ruin my evening but I was once again glad I'm living in the 21st century and can enjoy any music at home, in my headphones.


I was at a jazz piano concert recently. Hiromi Uehara. The noise people made was so bad. Maybe it is worse here in Spain than other countries. No cell phones going off just stupid rustling and coughing. What is this thing that when a soft section is happening some people think it is OK to make noise? Or perhaps more annoying, when the slow movement ends and the finale or scherzo begins and they see it as a chance to unwind with all kinds of vocalisations! I would go for headphones too but the experience of live music has a magic to it sometimes.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Probably a bit more than a decade ago, I was at a concert by Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer. We returned from intermission and they had just begun performing one of Meyer's compositions, when a phone in the audience rang. They glared and continued. Then it happened again. And again. And two more times. It was about then that I noticed that the ringing was always in tune with what they were playing. It was, in fact, part of the piece. Meyer said it was inspired by a phone ringing while he was performing in Schubert's "Trout" - and he realized it was his phone.

Much more recently, I was listening to Angela Hewitt playing Bach's French Suites when the phone of a person several seats away rang - three times in the first half. The owner did not know how to turn her phone off.


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## Guest (Nov 28, 2016)

Funny,the same happened to me when I listened to a piece by Dutilleux last saturday.I heard blieb blieb blieb and I stopped the music and heard nothing ,it was part of the music.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

There are notices at concerts to turn off cellphones. There are messages on movies theater screens to turn off cellphones. But people still continue to ignore them. The way I see it is that when a cellphone goes off in a classical concert or someone keeps turning their cellphone on in a movie, it is like there is a big neon sign over their head that says, "I am a selfish, self-centered person."


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

The last time it happened to me, I was a MET in HD broadcast of _Tristan und Isolde_. There was a single guy across one seat from me who kept flashing his cell phone - apparently his girlfriend did not show up, and he was bored. Close to the end of Act I, just before the lovers' ship reached the shore, I leaned over and whispered to the guy: "Please, turn off your f***ing phone, or I will get you escorted out." The guy seemed to get the message - no more flashing.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

SiegendesLicht said:


> The last time it happened to me, I was a MET in HD broadcast of _Tristan und Isolde_. There was a single guy across one seat from me who kept flashing his cell phone - apparently his girlfriend did not show up, and he was bored. Close to the end of Act I, just before the lovers' ship reached the shore, I leaned over and whispered to the guy: "Please, turn off your f***ing phone, or I will get you escorted out." The guy seemed to get the message - no more flashing.


So that was you? I turned it off didn't I?


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Do not bring any electronics in. Pure and simple. Indeed.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

ArtMusic said:


> Do not bring any electronics in. Pure and simple. Indeed.


This is probably the best policy. However, I have to admit that I often do bring my cell phone to concerts. 

I know that I should probably leave my phone at home or in the car. But sometimes I have to check my email during intermission (never during the concert, I promise!) It would be very inconvenient to run to the parking garage to grab my phone at intermission for a quick email check! So I bring my phone with me and I double-check obsessively to make sure that it's on silent mode or turned off.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Might as well tell people to stop breathing.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

There is a company called yondr that makes a pouch you put your cell phone into. It is locked and you cannot open it until you use the special key. Some schools and some concert venues have begun trying this. You keep possession of your phone, but its locked inside the pouch. If you must use your phone, you will need to leave the venue and go to the phone zone.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I suppose some of those who leave their cell phones on during performances might do so intentionally because they care more about receiving calls or notifications than bothering others, but I assume those people are rather rare. I think the vast majority are people who simply forget and aren't paying attention when a stage manager asks everyone to quiet their phones. I imagine those people are frightfully embarrassed when the phone goes off.

I attended a music school concert when a phone went off twice during the performance. It turned out the phone was the principal violist's who we knew well. The student conductor was not amused.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

I grew up in the rural boondocks where, for many years, we had no phones at all. Not even a landline. And thus, phones just never featured much in my life and I am bemused by this obsession with constant checking for messages and e-mail. Not that I mind if people want to spend their lives glued to a screen. It's none of my business how other people choose to live their lives. But boy, do I get irritated when they make it my problem...


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

brianvds said:


> I grew up in the rural boondocks where, for many years, we had no phones at all. Not even a landline. And thus, phones just never featured much in my life and I am bemused by this obsession with constant checking for messages and e-mail. Not that I mind if people want to spend their lives glued to a screen. It's none of my business how other people choose to live their lives. But boy, do I get irritated when they make it my problem...


I know it seems excessive! Sometimes I feel like I've gotten too addicted to checking my email (even during intermissions, as I mentioned in a previous post).

But in my case, it is important for my job. I'm a piano teacher, and my students (or their parents) often email or text me to reschedule lessons. They also write to me with questions about their practice assignments. I don't want to make my students wait too long for a reply, especially if they're having problems during their practice sessions.

This might be why a lot of people are glued to their screens: many jobs nowadays require it. Or maybe I should say, clients/bosses/students seem to expect it.


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## Retrograde Inversion (Nov 27, 2016)

The truly sad thing to me is that in this age of cellphones and internet there seems to be less genuine _communication_ than ever before.


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## Myriadi (Mar 6, 2016)

jegreenwood said:


> The owner did not know how to turn her phone off.


Not the first time I hear this, and I'm baffled every time. How can one not know something like that?


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

These people should be arrested and given a hefty fine & community service - a hundred evenings reminding people to turn of their cell phones at concerts might be sufficient chastisement. If this isn't "disturbing the peace", what is?!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

This world would be so great if I could simply get rid of all the people. They are the worst!!!


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2016)

But then nobody listen to you.......


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Retrograde Inversion said:


> The truly sad thing to me is that in this age of cellphones and internet there seems to be less genuine _communication_ than ever before.


Yes. Kids who are addicted to computer games and cell phone texting do not have the vitally needed communication skills for interacting on a job, as an example.

How can one speak well, if one never speaks?


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

In my lifetime, the only time there was genuine communication was in the 1960's. "Turn on, tune in, drop out," if you will.

Prior to, everyone's mom & dad, teachers, etc. were molded authoritarians. No communication, "Just do it."

Afterward, plasticism was followed by political correctness, and then panic, of which we are embedded now.

That'll be $200, please.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Traverso said:


> Funny,the same happened to me when I listened to a piece by Dutilleux last saturday.I heard blieb blieb blieb and I stopped the music and heard nothing ,it was part of the music.


A similar happening yesterday, while enjoying atonal. I heard subtle meowing twice in short order. Our Burmese. Not part of the music.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Vaneyes said:


> A similar happening yesterday, while enjoying atonal. I heard subtle meowing twice in short order. Our Burmese. Not part of the music.


Dutilleux is mieux than atonal.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

brianvds said:


> *Haydn murdered by cell phone*


I knew it. I just _knew_ it! And I've maintained this position for ... I don't know _how_ long.
As for Mozart? It wasn't Salieri who killed him. It was Thomas Edison! I mean, that electric clavichord should have come with better directions. That's what happens when you translate from Chinese.
And don't even get me started on Beethoven. I mean, I've been fearful of silence ever since I learned the composer died while visiting an anechoic chamber with John Cage. The silence literally drove him deaf! And then he died! Didn't even have time to write a tenth symphony! Such a shame.
Thanks for the update. I'll post this on "Trending".


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Bettina said:


> This is probably the best policy. However, I have to admit that I often do bring my cell phone to concerts.
> 
> I know that I should probably leave my phone at home or in the car


It is possible to turn it off.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Sloe said:


> It is possible to turn it off.


What and be disconnected from the Borg...........


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