How to Clap - The Art and Mystery of Applause
A look at Clapping in Composition,and the role of Applause in praise
Apr 15, 2009
It's a mostly accepted conviction that when an audience appreciates something performance based – dancing, sport, music – they show their appreciation in a round of applause; the cacophony of clapping, largely rhythm-less, signaling both the beginning of praise and the end of a performance.
Applause is culturally ingrained; if you like a performance, clap. Every performer recognises it, and almost every audience member enacts it. But why the clap, in particular? Why is it that the round of applause is not defined by the stamping of feet, or shouting 'that was brilliant, absolutely brilliant!', in the same free rhythm?
More than Meets the Hand – Problems with Applause
Further, applause is only one type of clapping, and we find audiences clapping in rhythm all the time. As a perfect case in point, watch annoying reality entertainment shows, and see the crowd gleefully clapping along, in unison, to the beat. Is it just the lack of rhythm in applause that distinguishes it from this rhythmic clapping, and signals it as a symbol of praise?
Could the stamping of feet relieve this ambiguity? After clapping along in rhythm, it might make things easier to distinguish with the feet, just as, after tapping in time with their feet, an audience is all but ready for applause.
Sophisticated Percussion – The Use of Clapping in Music
What about music that itself includes clapping? There are whole pieces comprised of the enigma. Steve Reich's Clapping Music is a prime example. Made up of two musical groups, clapping throughout the piece in various cross-rhythms, it uses clapping as a legitimate percussion; it treats the idea of clapping with reverence, and clapping becomes an instrument in its own right, to be mastered and pondered.
In a similar vein, Philip Glass and his 1+1, which consists of one musician drumming their open palms on a table in similarly complex cross rhythms.
Such music is clapping for experts, and it's fair to say that very few people are likely to clap along with this in the beat-keeping sense; first, it would be incredibly difficult, and second, it would feel something like playing violin in the audience at the performance of a Shostakovich quartet.
People do have inclination to tap quietly along with their feet, though, and this, because it is not clapping, is acceptable. It is equally generally accepted that, like any other performance, the audience will indulge in applause at the close of something like Clapping Music, or 1+1.
Something about that fact is strange. If clapping along to these pieces is like taking a violin along to a quartet, is applause at the close of these pieces not unlike several audience members playing out of time, out of tune pianos at the end of a performance of Clare de Lune?
How to Clap Forever - A Difference Between Composition and Applause?
Clapping, then, seems to be far more complicated than meets the eye. Clapping in praise at pieces such as these seems almost ironic, almost jibing. Would foot stamping be better? It's hard to tell. And is there a genuine difference, indeed, between the compositional clapping of 1+1 and Clapping Music, and the free rhythm of applause? Is applause simply a signal of praise, and of closure?
It would be interesting to see what would happen if a group of musicians were planted at a Bach concert and performed a piece like Clapping Music at the close. Would this constitute applause, and would the performance be, as a result, over? Or would the squall of general applause still be necessary as a close for proceedings? If the performers then responded with rhythmic clapping of their own, and the audience replied, would this process continue until one group broke into general applause?
Broken Conclusions - Clapping and Applause
Clapping and applause, then, are deceptively complex. Acting as both symbol, instrument and praise, it is one of the most versatile of musical devices. A round of applause, please?
