Did They Throw Tomatoes?  The Performer-Audience Relationship in 18th-century England

Chloe Prendergast

Student Number 3111644 Supervisor(s) Stefan Petrovic and Jed Wentz Title Did They Throw Tomatoes? The Performer-Audience Relationship in 18-century England Research Question What was the nature of the performer-audience relationship in 18th-century England and how can this influence our relationship with audiences today? Summary With the explosion of the public concert in 18th-century England and the ensuing so called “rage for music”, it is clear that concerts were a vital part of the social life of England’s elite and burgeoning middle class. What created this experience? What roles did both audience and performers play? How did it differ from the ways in which we encounter classical music concerts in the 21st century? This research explores how 18th-century English music was publicly experienced in paid, secular concert settings. It was quite different from what we might now expect in the same setting, and therefore it engendered a vastly different performer-audience relationship than what we often have today. The concert spaces, audience makeup, and concert etiquette each were contributing factors in creating a varied and highly social experience for concertgoers. The aim of this research paper is to illuminate this experience and explore how something similar might be relevantly created in the 21st century. Short Bio Chloe Prendergast is a violinist originally from Denver, Colorado. She is the artistic director of the Beethoven Festival of the Hague, a member of Holland Baroque and the Butter Quartet, and has performed with groups including the Handel and Haydn Society, Pacific Musicworks, Henry Purcell Society of Boston, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Luthers Bach Ensemble, Collegium Ad Mosam, and Arcadia Players. Chloe currently studies at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague with Kati Debretzeni and Walter Reiter. She holds a degree from Willamette University, where she was a Phil Hanni scholar and studied principally with Anthea Kreston and Daniel Rouslin.

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Background

Before addressing the specific aspects surrounding the 18^th-century performer-audience relationship, let us begin by gathering some brief background information about the beginnings of public concert life, which exploded in England in the 18^th century. Though there had been a great deal of music in English restoration theatre and of course also ad hoc music in pubs and other public spaces, before the 1700’s the majority of “high art” music was being presented in court, in church as part of services, and for private concerts for the extreme elite. The 18^th century gave rise to the public concert, and with it the “rage for music”1. Participation in concert life as an audience member was an important sign of status and integral way of keeping up with society.

The first major public concerts documented were run by John Banister at Whitefriars music school in London in 16722. The concerts took place in Banister’s house and were advertised in the London Gazette on December 30, 1672.

These are to give notice, That at Mr. John Banister’s house (now called the Musick School) over against the George Tavern in Whyte Fryers, this present Monday will be Musick performed by excellent Masters, beginning precisely at 4 of the clock in the afternoon, and every afternoon for the future, precisely at the same hour.3

This was the first time that any member or society could pay money to attend a concert of only music and the proponderance of concerts and their popularity grew from here.

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