Classical music audiences still typically display “serious” listening behaviours, although companies such as Play On are upending these conventions. In the 18th century, opera-goers were notoriously lively, more likely facing each other than the stage, but since the 19th century these audiences have become rather more reverent.
Music listening habits also change over time. We often use music to regulate our emotions and moods, to mark occasions such as weddings and birthdays, and to celebrate sporting victories from club to Olympic level, where the music acts not as decoration but as a kind of social glue. This is partly because our bodily rhythms (heart rate and breathing) can synchronise with externally heard rhythms - something psychologists call rhythmic entrainment. We might use music to keep pace during a gym workout or while jogging. People listen to music in different ways for different reasons. Review: David Byrne’s American Utopia is a film honouring the love of the live performance ‘It’s not necessarily to be listened to … but to be experienced.’ The film focuses primarily on an open-air concert in downtown Los Angeles, although it weaves in performance footage from other locations around the world including Berlin, the Sydney Opera House and Paris. His Sleep performance-events were conceived with his collaborator and partner Yulia Mahr, a BAFTA-winning filmmaker. Richter, a prodigious contemporary composer, has made music for solo albums, ballets, concert hall performances, theatre and film and television series (including The Crown, The Leftovers and Peaky Blinders). During performances of this work, audience members (probably not the right term in this case) spend almost the whole concert resting or asleep in hundreds of cots and camping beds lined up where you would normally find seats. The film focuses on a composition by Richter which spans more than 200 movements and lasts over eight hours. So he says in the film Max Richter’s Sleep, written and directed by Natalie Johns, which hits Australian screens today.
For German-born, English-raised composer Max Richter, music is a “vehicle for travelling through the world, for getting through life”. Review: Max Richter’s Sleep, directed by Natalie Johns.
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