Silence after the last note

[AtomicClock]

Sometimes the silence after the final note is vitally important. Does it have a name? How often do audiences allow it to unfold?

[Posaunus]

The best concert I've ever experienced: Boston Symphony Hall, ~1972.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Georg Solti at the height of their Mahlerian powers.
Schubert "Unfinished" / Mahler Symphony #5.
End of Mahler: Entire audience sat in stunned silence - seemed to be at least 30-40 seconds.
Not a single "bravo" - no applause ... nothing.
Finally ... the audience erupted into a wild ovation.
I've never seen anything like it.
Feel free to coin a name for this phenomenon.

[Crazy4Tbone86]

The length of the silence after a piece should be controlled by the conductor. The video used as an example involved a sophisticated audience. They waited very patiently for a gesture from the conductor to applaud. It was a glorious pause.

I believe conductors, above all, are educators. Even with a professional ensemble, conductors must inform groups of their musical intentions and explain WHY that is the direction of the phrase or piece. A lot of times this can be done non-verbally, but not always.

When I conduct, I consider it my responsibility to educate the audience as well. I have explained the tradition of “waiting for the conductor to indicate it is time to clap” many times. It is fun to see if the audience is “locked in” and understands their contribution to certain concert traditions and decorum.

A tough thing to teach an inexperienced audiences is the tradition of NOT clapping between movements of a multi-movement work. A conductor friend of mine taught me a humorous trick to solve that problem. I have tried it a couple times with college-aged audiences (they tend to clap after everything) and it was very effective. I’ll share that trick some other time.

[AtomicClock]

They waited very patiently for a gesture from the conductor to applaud. It was a glorious pause.

And a subtle gesture.

[Crazy4Tbone86]

Yes, I think he did something with his hands that we could not see on the video.

[robcat2075]

He went from attentiom to at-ease.

It's a rare audience that can sit it out without a cough or throat clear.

I've seen conductors here in Dallas try to create that moment of concluding silence but I've never seen it succeed.

[JTeagarden]

The best concert I've ever experienced: Boston Symphony Hall, ~1972.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Georg Solti at the height of their Mahlerian powers.
Schubert "Unfinished" / Mahler Symphony #5.
End of Mahler: Entire audience sat in stunned silence - seemed to be at least 30-40 seconds.
Not a single "bravo" - no applause ... nothing.
Finally ... the audience erupted into a wild ovation.
I've never seen anything like it.
Feel free to coin a name for this phenomenon.

Applaudus interruptus

[Posaunus]

The best concert I've ever experienced: Boston Symphony Hall, ~1972.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Georg Solti at the height of their Mahlerian powers.
Schubert "Unfinished" / Mahler Symphony #5.
End of Mahler: Entire audience sat in stunned silence - seemed to be at least 30-40 seconds.
Not a single "bravo" - no applause ... nothing.
Finally ... the audience erupted into a wild ovation.
I've never seen anything like it.
Feel free to coin a name for this phenomenon.

Applaudus interruptus

Yes. And dilata gratificatio

[LeTromboniste]

Just had a very similar experience last weekend when playing Biber's Requiem in F minor (an incredibly beautiful and touching work, if you don't know it, go listen!) on Köln on Sunday, and after the piece's fairly gentle and almost wistful ending, the tension released so very slowly, around 30 seconds if not more of absolute silence and just catching our collective breath and letting the impact of the piece sink in. And that was without a conductor to give any signal, as the leader of that group is one of the singers, who leads rehearsals from within the ensemble.

There was actually a debate after the concert (around the traditional keg of Kölsch that's opened backstage immediately after the last curtain call at every event there!) about whether this was desirable or not. Someone was saying they found it very gimmicky and typical "stuffy" classical vibes to just be standing there motionless to artificially maintain the tension, when the audience clearly really loved it and probably wanted to burst into applause right away (once they did start we got a long standing ovation, which is not very common in Germany). I and others thought that it's a collective experience and the audience is a willing participant, that if the audience wanted to burst into applause, they would have, and if the piece ended with the Hosannah, that is fast and active and flamboyant, people would have been on their feet the second it ended, but the softer ending naturally makes people want to sit and take it in for a moment.

But that discussion did get me thinking. To me it felt in the moment like we were all waiting for the audience to clap before lowering instruments and be "at ease", the colleague thought the audience was waiting for us to release the tension before clapping, and at this point I don't know which one it is, or if maybe it's both and it's just like a big game of chicken, all waiting for the others to make a move...Or maybe it's just spontaneous and we should be happy with whatever happens.

[GabrielRice]

Yes, this is a special thing that can happen in performance, and as performers I believe we should always be ready for it. Don't be so quick to put your instrument down at the end of a piece...

and also...

Don't be so quick to stop the sound and put your instrument down at the end of a phrase! Any phrase!

Just the other day, coaching a student for her ensemble placement audition at the beginning of the semester, I told her to think of the phrase ending 2 or 3 beats after the last sound she made. It made a huge difference in the ends of her last notes; they had much more refined tapers rather than ending abruptly. And it made for a much more satisfying listening experience for me and the others on the audition panel.

So often I think we feel finished with a phrase before we even stop making sound.

[JTeagarden]

Just the other day, coaching a student for her ensemble placement audition at the beginning of the semester, I told her to think of the phrase ending 2 or 3 beats after the last sound she made. It made a huge difference in the ends of her last notes; they had much more refined tapers rather than ending abruptly. And it made for a much more satisfying listening experience for me and the others on the audition panel.

So often I think we feel finished with a phrase before we even stop making sound.

Wow, I like this!

[tbdana]

Don't be so quick to stop the sound and put your instrument down at the end of a phrase! Any phrase!

Just the other day, coaching a student for her ensemble placement audition at the beginning of the semester, I told her to think of the phrase ending 2 or 3 beats after the last sound she made. It made a huge difference in the ends of her last notes; they had much more refined tapers rather than ending abruptly. And it made for a much more satisfying listening experience for me and the others on the audition panel.

So often I think we feel finished with a phrase before we even stop making sound.

This was something I had to consciously learn to do. In fact, on listening back I discovered that I was actually cutting those last phrases short without even realizing it. So I spent some time and energy developing the habit, even in the practice room, of blowing to the very last instant and holding myself in playing position until the sound stopped reverberating. Since learning that about myself, I've heard it countless times in others. We think we're done before we really are.

[Kbiggs]

One orchestra I played in had a season ticket holder who could barely contain his excitement at the end of each piece. We often had barely one second of silence before we heard a lusty “Bravo!” erupt from the back of the hall. The conductor started wincing at the ends of pieces.

…or if maybe it's both and it's just like a big game of chicken, all waiting for the others to make a move…

What’s the sound of one chicken clapping?

[Cmillar]

I was fortunate to get to play in a band conducted by Bob Brookmeyer when he came up to Canada for the Edmonton Jazz Festival in the '80's.

If you know his music of that time, there was some pretty 'heavy' stuff...beautiful, powerful, reflective, devastating, happy, somber....

With Brookmeyer conducting the band, he had the audience 'in his fingertips' as well.

After one piece, the whole auditorium (and band) was silent for at least a minute. It was heavy. We'd all just had an experience that couldn't be described.

As a young professional musician then, that really made me love music even more and had me realize that I'd made the right choice for life, for better or worse....but it's all for the better thanks to a great composer and musician such as Bob Brookmeyer.

[robcat2075]

Former assistant Charlie Harmon tells of Bernstein getting silence when a piece ended...

22:44-23:19