Music Preference 1 - Brent Hugh's personal and business web pages

Music Preference 49
concert was held were required to attend the concert. It appears that all four of the "Don't talk,
just play!" responses came from this group of audience members (age group 15-20 or 21-30,
with seven or more years study of piano; three of the four indicated two or more years of music
study at a college/university). This suggests--though with such a small sample, certainly does not
prove conclusively--that the response of this kind of audience member may be quite different
from the response of other parts of the audience. The expectations and likes/dislikes of serious
young musicians towards informational presentations during music concerts may be quite
different from those of the audience at large.
Remarkable was the fact that so few audience members expressed dislike for the performer
discussion. The performer had expected a much larger proportion of the audience to disapprove
of this departure from the standard recital format; it may simply be that very few of the audience
members who disapproved stated their dissatisfaction on the survey form.
Several audience members made specific suggestions for improving the performer
introductions. By far the most common complaint was that the introductions were too long or too
detailed. The results from Question 2 showed that tailoring presentations to the interests of
audience members is important. Since many audience members disapprove of lengthy
introductions, in recital and concert situations brief informational introductions may be more
appropriate than lengthy introductions.
Too-long introductions could be one reason that music preferences of some audience
members decrease with introductions. If audience members consider introductions long, boring,
and irrelevant, the negative emotion produced during the introduction may spill over and affect
audience members' perception of the music.