I have been to some concerts of pop singers but it was my first time to attend an orchestra. The concerts I went are quite different from an orchestra. Anybody can buy a ticket and it seems has no restrictions towards attendants except for not bring hazardous or threatening materials. Fans can dress as fancy or crazy as they want. Before concerts start, people are excited already, screaming the singer’s names, waving their signs and talking to each other about how much they are crazy about the singer. The whole atmosphere is heated from the beginning. When the singer shows up, interaction is involved by greeting audience and responding the performer. When the climax of a concert is approached, audience usually throw hats, flowers and clothes or anything they get into the air, they can even flood on the stage to give the performers a hug or gift. These are feedbacks that a musician desires most from audience and the success of a concert largely depend on how intense the interaction is and how much people get involved. People are more easily to be absorbed into it and to be moved by the performer, other people around and the whole music. Therefore, the participation of audience, as it were, determines how great a concert can be rather than the performer. That is the amazement of participatory music.
However, it goes the other way round for presentational music. According to Kenneth Mattaka, this kind of music is recognized as a sign of middle-class and is superior to indigenous music. Unlike participatory music, people enjoy it for joy; presentational music is an identity and distinguishes people from lower class. It is formal because it is more than music enjoyment but social layers and self refinement. We are told to be dressed up for the orchestra to show we are educated group and eligible to attend an exclusive occasion of arts. The decoration of theater, the politeness of ushers, the courtesy of attendants all demonstrate a fact that people who come to the concert emphasize with pride and status. It makes me have a doubt in mind: What is the real and original intention to attend concerts and orchestras for those who seem to enjoy them a lot? There must be a large amount of them really love music while I doubt that some people join a concert to gain a recognition of social identity from others or themselves. The most common conversation I have heard is “How do you like the orchestra?” “Oh! That was so amazing and I like it!” and there is no more thoughtful comment or feeling. Ironically, I am one of them who answered the question with the answer. To be honest, I did enjoy some of those songs but not all of them. It demands a lot to keep awake, pay full attention and pretend to completely understand the core or essence of each song during the whole performance. Some people can, due to their musical attainments and background while some people cannot. I hope I am not the only one who admits this point and hope I don’t disrespect these reverent musical lovers. Briefly speaking, presentational music is more sophisticated for it contains not only the pure interest for music but also a division of social classes.
However, the beauty of presentational music is that it has a magnet to seize people’s concern and keep them remain in seats without inappropriate behaviors for hours, regardless of whether they really want to act like that. I would like to regard it as a sort of power of music. When it starts, audience consent to keep quite and listen to performers. There is a pronounced separation between artists and audience. We can hear, feel and imagine but we cannot interrupt or influence it. Performers are in charge of dominating the consequence and atmosphere, which is a demanding and difficult role to play for they are supposed to sustain audience’ interests. It can be achieved by performers’ adept performance, complete devotion and audience’ s manners.
When it comes to the end, all the performers bow to audience and all the audience stand up to applaud and show their appreciation towards performers, that is the best part of the whole concert and it’s the only explicit interaction but the most intense and cordial part of the show. It indicates a remarkable performance and a satisfactory end.
To sum up, presentational music functions as a distinction of different classes, a symbol of higher status, a non-verbal involved form of musical performance. It requires strict rehearsals and proficient skills of performers and perfect cooperation of audience to reach a successful concert.
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