In September 2008, I visited the subject of how to attend classical music concerts. During recent internet research surfing, I ran across a fun essay at Theatlantic.com by Erik Tarloff entitled A Few words about Coughing. Tarloff describes a concert of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony he attended at Lincoln Center and the uncanny focus of audience coughing during the quiet passages of music. I’ve noticed this phenomenon, also. Of course, louder passages would drown out the coughing.
What is the reason for the coughing? Here in Minnesota, the usual reason is the common cold or flu. Tarloff, however, posits a theory concerning audience engagement with the music that also makes sense to me. The amount of coughing correlates to the level of lack of interest in the audience member.
Do you cough regularly at classical concerts? If so, and you’re not sick, check your level of engagement in the music, how closely you’re listening to the music and watching the musicians. I find it interesting that Tarloff noted people don’t usually cough during movies (no, they talk or text message on cell phones). I attend plays at the Guthrie Theater on a regular basis and don’t ever recall hearing disruptive coughing during a performance. Not like the hacking that Tarloff describes and I’ve heard during concerts at Orchestra Hall. (I’ve also heard loud snoring in Orchestra Hall, but that’s another issue….)
With flu season almost upon us, and certainly novel H1N1 flu has been upon us since last March, I hereby review how to muffle a coughing fit until you can exit the concert hall. Please, please, cover your mouth! Please use a real cloth handkerchief (if possible) because the cloth absorbs the sound better than tissue. Or, if no handkerchief is handy, do what public health nurses and other officials have been encouraging: cough into your elbow. Easy. And please, if you’re sick with the flu, whether seasonal, H1N1 or the notorious “flu-like illness,” please stay home, rest, drink lots of fluids and protect the rest of us from the illness you have.
Thank you for your consideration!
1 response so far ↓
Elizabeth T // November 3, 2009 at 4:06 am |
The worst problem I ever encountered with coughing was my own. I’ve only seen the first half of ‘Carousel’. Why? Lord knows what did it, but about 2/3 of the way through the first half, I started coughing. A lot. Hard candy only worked for a few minutes. (See earlier post here.) I also started feeling horrid. I left the building during intermission, coughed my lungs out, felt better, and returned.
About 5 minutes into the 2nd half, it started again. I decided getting up and climbing over a few people was preferable to making them miserable for an hour. I left. I also went home and got sick. It was the wheezy, phlegmy, allergy-response type of coughing I experience. Scared me, actually, not knowing what was causing it.
Those who are physically afflicted by something might also be embarrassed to further call attention to themselves by leaving. Me? Next time, I’ll abandon ship a lot sooner.
I wish I could have seen the end of the show, though I’m sure those seated around me are happy I didn’t.