Between stalls, stage and score : an investigation of audience experience and enjoyment in classical music performance.

摘要

This thesis investigates the factors that affect the enjoyment of classical music concertudattendance and identifies audience members' underlying motivations for attendingudclassical performances. The experience of listening at live music events has been a topicudlargely neglected by both musicology and music psychology. This thesis thereforeudcontributes to an emerging field of empirical research on classical music audienceudexperience, with most key existing studies published within the last five years. Audcombined approach to data collection was employed to increase understanding ofudaudience experience and enjoyment at orchestral concerts. Unlike previous studies ofudorchestral audiences, a questionnaire distributed to a concert audience ('attenders') wasudcombined with in-depth interviews with a subset of respondents to gain deeperudexperiential accounts of classical concert attendance. In addition, a further study gainedudwider perspectives on the factors that affect the enjoyment of concert attendance byudinviting eight individuals new to classical concert-going ('non-attenders') to threeudorchestral concerts, eliciting their responses through focus group and individualudinterviews.udThe degree to which a concert provides accessible information with which toudcontextualise the music is critical in determining non-attenders' enjoyment, as isuddiscerning interaction or communication with the performers. For both attenders andudnon-attenders, familiarity with the repertoire performed did not necessarily equate toudgreater levels of enjoyment, with some attenders consciously balancing the presence ofudfamiliarity and novelty across the concert experience. Distinct elements of witnessing audlive performance acted as key underlying motivations for attending classicaludperformances, as did the types of individual and shared experiences facilitated byudlistening to classical music within the concert hall setting. The thesis demonstrates theudcomplexity of individual responses to live classical listening, while arguing thatudaudience enjoyment relies on a series of predominantly social interactions betweenudaudience members themselves, the performers, and the music performed.