Did People Listen In The 18th Century Summary

Did people listen in the 18th century by William Weber is an article that analyses the 18th century musical listening habits and etiquettes from an objective point of view. Weber in his writing states that the historians and musicologists have unjustly and harshly criticized the 18th century musical audience for not properly listening to as well as not absorbing the music. However, he illustrates that their harsh views are because of the comparison they made between the 18th century listening habits to that of the completely different and idealized 19th century etiquettes. Therefore, Weber states that in order to be able to properly view the 18th century audience, one need to change the perspective from the current classical music listening

Weber also describes the 18th century life, especially for the upper-class, have been much more integrated than any other periods of time, both in the sense of music and society. Therefore, more people had the opportunity to socialize during performances, such as operas. For instance, in a passage from Sir Dudley Ryder’s journal, Weber talks about going to several plays and only staying for one act. Through this, Weber is trying to illustrate the fact that the social contexts during that era where attendance at an opera was considered to be a social act. Thus, to go to an opera was by definition a socializing environment where one gets to meet with other audience members as much as to see a production. As a matter of fact, Weber points out that the passage does not necessarily mention what operas Sir Dudley saw. This reveals that during the 18th century, the genre of opera and the etiquettes associated with it did not demand that he do so, which is completely in contrast to today where one is usually expected to mention about the opera that he or she saw when talking about it. Moreover, Weber mentions about the travel letters of many Florentine opera-goers, which illustrates that people actually listened, even completely at some points. For instance, observers reported that many people followed the libretto in little books sold at the door. Since opera-goers often heard a production many times, they do not necessary feel to be silent during the recitative. This in turn developed the notion that one did not need to listen to the operas when one did not really like the