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.

18^th-century Conclusion

While there is still much to be learned about the performer-audience relationship during musical concerts in 18^th-century England, we can deduce many important things. First of all, there was a great range of how much audiences knew about the music to which they were listening and therefore a great range of the degree and the ways in which they engaged. In general, it seems that there was a belief that the more involvement in the musical atmosphere, the better, though this did not mean that audiences were quiet and still throughout the evening. There was a great amount of talking, moving around, eating and drinking, and sometimes dancing as well. Audiences felt connected to their favorite performers and would call for encores as much as they wanted, giving both a spontaneous and also a connected relationship between those onstage and those listening. Another thing that created this connection with both the performers and the music itself was the trend of attending rehearsals as well as concerts. The community of people listening very much overlapped with the community of those playing, meaning that many performers and audiences really knew each other. The musicians were not subservient to the audience, unless it was the royal family, but neither was the audience subservient to the performers. There was an equality to the relationship that could provide great respect on either end. It is a connection that might inspire us all to try some new ways to connect with our audiences today. And no, I have not seen any sources that say they were throwing tomatoes.

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