My favorite experience was at an NSO concert last year. I am all for exposing children to Classical Music and teaching them proper concert behavior/etiquette...but there is a right time and place. This was not it. A woman 2 rows behind us brought her toddler along. He began the concert babbling. To "quiet" him, she pulled out her iphone so he could watch Dora (with the sound on). He still babbled. After we gave her a few dirty looks, during a pause between movements, she moved to another seat. Midway through the next movement, I looked over and noticed she was breast-feeding him in the middle of the Concert Hall...during a performance. Horrors.

"Are we getting ruder? Are too many people attending performances just because it's something they do, not something they deeply desire? Is there anything that can be done to change the behavior?"

The entire thing boils down to that single part of your comments. I'd suggest 'yes' to all three, though the last is most difficult. I recall a performance at the Hippodrome where someone directly behind me began talking incessantly during the overture. I tried as politely as possible to stare them into silence and, failing that, asked them to stop. The reaction was, as you suggest, oblivion and entitlement (apparently I was the rude one for my admonishment). The chatty person also informed me that "it's only the overture", as though that part of the music was both unimportant and somehow separate from the performance and that my desire to hear it was unreasonable. I later learned that this also applied to select songs she knew and sang along with or commented on.

So, peer pressure - which I would suggest is the most obvious attempt at a solution - may or may not work, depending on the level of boorishness, oblivion and entitlement at work. Surely, at the symphony, an usher could prevent re-entry at inopportune moments, but it really comes down to simple courtesy and understanding. You either have it or you don't. And if you don't, you will not only be noisy, rude and leave when you feel like it, but return and see no problem at all as you trample a row of patrons attempting to both see/hear the performance and pondering their decision to come in the first place - or ever to return. It's a struggle.

I have no answer to may of the questions, but I think I should point out that during the time that much of the music that we hear in concert, rowdy behaviour was the rule rather than the exception. Scary, no?

The worst is when it's a fairly well-known piece and people start humming along like it's "Edelweiss." I went to the preview concert for the BSO, and although it was less formal, I was taken aback at people humming loudly to Aaron Copland's "Simple Gifts" for multiple bars, struggling to keep up with the clarinet, etc. It's not an "older generation" vs. "younger generation" thing when it comes to rude. Across the board, people don't think about others. I'd like to find the moment in history where concerts went from orchestra pits to mosh pits and sing-alongs.

People don't stand for the Hallelujah Chorus anymore. People let their kids run around church and the bank, etc. Every performance gets a standing ovation at the end (which I believe should be reserved for truly amazing pieces.) I swear I'm not Victorian! But is a little decorum too much to ask?

I'm relieved to know a few chamber music series where audiences so far take the proceedings seriously and are the picture of courtesy and attention. Perhaps chamber music doesn't attract the kind of person who approaches the symphony as a social event, an event where one goes to be seen (and heard)? Or it's harder to get away with such disruptions in a smaller audience?

Perhaps concert halls need to install those soundproof plexiglass “family area” type rooms that you see sometimes in churches and synagogues. The ticketing agent could ask a couple questions with the order to determine if a patron needs to be seated in the “special area.” They’d get the sound piped in and they could unwrap their candies and walk in and out to their heart’s content without disturbing anyone else. Heck, vendors could sell popcorn and hot dogs to make some extra money for the symphony. :-)

I think you've got something there. TIM

I just caught up to your musings about audience behavior, and it brought to mind the Sept.15 BSO concert. A couple in the next section opened their cell phones and seemed to text throughout the Mahler. Beyond the light distraction, what made it doubly irritating is that the couple was sitting in the left side box often occupied by BSO officials, none of whom seemed to object.

Unfathomable.TIM

On the flip side, I have a memory of exemplary audience behavior for your consideration. When we first moved to Baltimore we subscribed to the Pro Musica Rara, when their home was in Lovely Lane. One Christmas concert featured a number in which the audience was instructed to stand and sing along--in German. My husband was scoffing (quietly) to himself when the audience rose as one and burst out in full voice--and pretty good German, too. We were in awe.

Yes, that's exactly what orchestras need: a lecture about manners before a concert! I don't think you're going to win any audience members over by admonishing their behavior. As a classical musician myself, one thing I do know is that many avoid concerts because they feel judged and uncomfortable with their unfamiliarity with the orchestra concert experience. Let's maybe cool it a bit with the harsh criticism. After all, audience "misbehavior" isn't new to classical music. Overtures, for example, used to serve the purpose of letting rowdy audiences know that the opera was starting. The idea of treating concerts with an almost religious piety is very off-putting to people, but maybe they could print concert etiquette in the front of the program?

I'm a professional actor and musician and have been forced to endure rude and negligent audience behavior on many occasions. I stopped going to most cinemas and concerts several years ago due to constant audience talking and cell phone use. Thank goodness for Netflix and CDs. There is no such thing as public manners anymore and the condition gets worse with each passing year. Concert and film venues need to educate and enforce etiquette rules for audiences. Until they do, I take my money elsewhere. I am not hopeful.